Figurative Language and Precise Word Choice

Figurative language paints pictures with words. A simile compares using like or as: as brave as a lion, waves as tall as towers. A metaphor says one thing is another: the sea was a hungry beast. Personification gives life to something without it: the wind clawed at the windows. An idiom has a meaning beyond its words: raining cats and dogs. Each device asks the reader to see one thing through another, and each is chosen for its effect, the feeling it creates.

Strong writers replace dull, vague words with precise, vivid ones. A very big dog becomes an enormous dog; a nice day becomes a golden day. We banish the weak fillers, very, really, nice and good, because they tell the reader nothing to see. Precise words show rather than tell: ferocious, towering, raging, immense. One exact word beats three vague ones, and in the 11+, the exact word is the mark-earning word.

The trap is piling on figurative language until the picture blurs: one strong simile beats three tangled ones. The second trap is the tired image: as brave as a lion has been said so often it no longer paints anything; reach for a fresher comparison. The third trap is mistaking long for precise: a gargantuan canine is not better than an enormous dog, only harder to read. Precise means the exact word for the exact picture, chosen for its effect.