Saturday, September 22, 2012

Nardvark Discovers Really Random Literary Devices: Five Kinds of Imagery!

Everyone who's ever stayed awake during English class knows about imagery. It's where language is used really descriptively, so an image is created in the reader's imagination.

Yeah, cool. 

But did you know, did your teacher ever tell you, that imagery can be further subdivided into five kinds?  Five kinds of imagery, that correspond with the five senses: supercool! Well, Nardvark thinks so. He loves his five senses.

Here they are: the five kinds of imagery...
Visual Imagery - describe what you can see



Aural Imagery - describe what you can hear
Olfactory Imagery - describe what you can smell
Gustatory Imagery - describe what you can taste
Tactile Imagery - describe what you can feel

Now here is a fun exercise you can do to practise using the five kind of imagery: Get five things. Write a paragraph about each one, using one kind of imagery in each paragraph, and without mentioning what the thing is in the paragraph. Try to write the paragraph so descriptively the someone can guess what you're describing. Read the paragraphs to someone and see if they can figure out what you wrote about. If they can, congratulations! You may be the world's next Emily Bronte!

Which type of imagery is easiest to use? Why do you think this is? Which is hardest to use? Why? Which type of imagery would you use most if you were writing from the point of view of someone who is visually impaired? How about if you were writing from the point of view of a dog? 



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