I M A G E RY, D I C T I O N , A N D F I G U R E S O F S P E E C H

Use imagery, diction, figures of speech

and specific experiences to evoke
meaningful responses from readers
(HUMSS_CW/MP11/12-ia-b-4)
LESSON 1
IMAGERY, DICTION, AND FIGURES OF SPEECH
You are expected here to produce short paragraphs or vignettes using
imagery, diction, figures of speech, and variations of language.
Specifically, this module will help you to:
1. use imagery, diction, figures of speech, and specific experiences to evoke
meaningful responses from readers (HUMSS_CW/MP11/12-Ia-b-4)
2. analyze the imagery, diction, figures of speech, and specific experiences of
the specific literary pieces.
3. write short paragraphs or vignettes using imagery, diction, figures of speech,
and specific experiences.
CREATIVE
SEARCH
FOR WORDS
Look for the
words in the
puzzle that can
be associated
to creative
writing.
Imagery as a general term covers the use of language to represent
objects, actions, feelings, thoughts, ideas, states of mind and any sensory
experience. Imagery creates mental pictures in the reader as they read
the text.

1. Visual Imagery
2. Gustatory Imagery
3. Auditory Imagery
4. Olfactory Imagery
5. Tactile Imagery
VISUAL IMAGERY engages the sense of sight. Descriptions can
be associated to Visual Imagery. Physical attributes including color,
size, shape, lightness and darkness, shadows, and shade are all
part of visual imagery.
• She accepted the bouquet. It was filled with her favorite
flowers - white roses, purple irises, and soft sprays of
baby’s breath. The flowers swayed in the breeze, almost as
if they were dancing in her delight.
• Together, they sat at the shoreline. The shimmering sun
was sinking into the sea and, as it disappeared, she told
him they’d never meet again.
GUSTATORY IMAGERY engages the sense of taste. Flavors are
the considerations in gustatory imagery which includes the five
basic taste such as sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami—as
well as the textures and sensations tied to the act of eating.

•Sue thought she was biting into an orange slice

and was shocked as her mouth exploded with
the bitter taste of a lemon.
•The toothpaste at the dentist's office had a
sharp, strong, minty flavor.
AUDITORY IMAGERY engages the sense of hearing. Sound
devices such as onomatopoeia and alliteration can help create
sounds in writing.

• Erick sat alone at the bench nearest the main door so

he wouldn't miss Via. The room was noisy. The clang of
heavy dishes glided from the kitchen. Ice tinkled as it
settled in his water glass. His watch read 9:30. She
wasn't coming.
• She awoke to the chirping of birds and the soft whisper
of a breeze as it passed through the tree outside her
window.
OLFACTORY IMAGERY engages the sense of smell. Simile is
common in using olfactory imagery, because it lets writers to
compare a particular scent to common smells like dirt, grass,
manure, or roses. The use of scents and stinks are common ways
to use olfactory imagery.

The scent of “latik” when my mother cooks rice cake

is really nostalgic to me.
The street going to their house stinks of manure and
the courtyard of urine, the stairwells stank of
moldering wood and rat droppings.
TACTILE IMAGERY engages the sense of touch. The feel,
textures and many sensations a human being experiences when
touching something are associated in tactile imagery. Differences in
temperature is also a part of tactile imagery.

• When we quickly plunge into the cool water, it took our

breath away and raised goose bumps to our arms. We
had had been swimming in this pond since we were kids.
• The little puppy accosted me as he slobbered my
face with his wet and eager tongue.
An excerpt from Peter Redgrove’s Lazarus and the Sea
contains imagery:

The tide of my death came whispering like this

Soiling my body with its tireless voice.
I scented the antique moistures when they sharpened
The air of my room, made the rough wood of my bed,
(most dear),
Standing out like roots in my tall grave.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER:
Among the sensory imagery, which is
easy to use in writing? Which one is
hard for you to use? What could be the
barrier in using sensory imageries well
in writing?
Diction refers to the selection of words in a literary work. A
work’s diction forms one of its centrally important literary
elements as writers use words to convey action, reveal
character, imply attitudes, identify themes, and suggest values. It
includes the formality of the language, the emotional content,
the imagery, the specificity, and the sounds of the words.

1. Formal Diction
2. Informal Diction
3. Colloquial / Slang Diction
LEVELS EXAMPLES CHARACTERISTICS
Formal Money Academic / Scholarly Language
Informal Cash Conversational Language
Colloquial / Slang Bucks Captures Regional Dialect
Example:
“I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that East doth hold.”
- Anne Bradstreet,“To My Dear and Loving Husband”

• The use of antiquated words such as “thy” instead of “your” and “doth”
instead of “do” gives the poem a formal diction.
• These antiquated words are considered grand, elevated, and
sophisticated language.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER:
In what references or reading materials
do you see Formal Diction? What about
the informal, colloquial and slang? What
do you think is the proper diction in
creative writing? Will there be an impact
to writing?
FIGURES OF SPEECH

Figures of speech are words or phrases used in a

non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid effect.

The most common figures of speech are simile,

metaphor, onomatopoeia, personification,
apostrophe, hyperbole, synecdoche,
metonymy, oxymoron, and paradox.
1. Simile – a stated comparison (formed with “like” or “as”
between two fundamentally dissimilar things that have certain
qualities in common.
Example:

•John is as slow as a snail.

•“Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”

– Langston Hughes,“Harlem”
2. Metaphor – an implied comparison between two
unlike things that have something in common.
Example:
• John is a snail.

• “Hope is the thing with feathers –

That perches in the soul –”
- Emily Dickinson, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers”
3. Onomatopoeia – uses words that imitate sounds
associated with objects or actions.
Example:
• The large dog said, “Bow-wow!”

• “The crooked skirt swinging, whack by whack by whack.”

- James Joyce, “Ulysses”
4. Personification – endows human qualities or abilities to
inanimate objects or abstraction.
Example:
• The trees scream in the raging wind.

• “Ah, William, we’re wary of the weather,” said the sunflowers

shining with dew.
– William Blake, “Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow
Room”
5. Apostrophe – is addressing an absent person or thing
that is an abstract, inanimate, or inexistent character.
Example:
• "Oh, rain! Rain! Where are you? Rain, we really need you
right now. Our town needs you badly.”

• “Death be not proud, though some have called thee.”

- John Donne, “Death Be Not Proud”
6. Hyperbole – a figure of speech which contains an
exaggeration for emphasis.
Example:
•She’s going to die of embarrassment.

•“To make enough noise to wake the dead.”

– R. Davies, “What’s Bred in the Bone”
7. Synecdoche – a figure of speech in which the part stands
for the whole, and thus something else is understood within
the thing mentioned.
Example:
• Those wheels are awesome!

• “Give us this day our daily bread”

*Bread stands for the meals taken each day.
8. Metonymy – a figure of speech in which the name of
an attribute or a thing is substituted for the thing itself.
Example:
• Joe’s new ride was expensive.

• “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”

– William Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar”
*Lend me your ears = to pay attention; to listen
9. Oxymoron – a figure of speech which combines
incongruous and apparently contradictory words and
meanings for a special effect.
Example:
• My sister and I had a friendly fight over the lipstick.
• “Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O anything! of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!”
- William Shakespeare,“Romeo and Juliet”
10. Paradox – a statement which seems on its face to
be logically contradictory or absurd yet turns out to be
interpretable in a way that makes sense.
Example:
• I only message those who do not message.

• “One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.”
- John Donne,“Death Be Not Proud”
QUESTIONS TO PONDER:
Which of the following figures of
speech are familiar to you? Which
from them is mostly used in
literary pieces? Can you give
some examples?
REMEMBER
❖Imagery is used to signify all the objects and qualities of sense
perception referred to in works of literature.
❖Diction refers to the kinds of words, phrases, and sentence
structures, and sometimes also figurative language that constitute
any work of literature.
❖Figure of speech is an expression that departs from the accepted
literal sense or from the normal order of words, or in which an
emphasis is produced by patterns of sound.
FIGURE ME OUT!
Identify the figurative language used in each statement.
1. I will die if he asks me to dance.
2. Quack, quack went the ducks as we threw them our stale bread.
3. This is a genuine imitation Rolex watch.
4. I am titanium.
5. Dear love, please don't shoot me with your Cupid's bow.
6. She is as kind as an angel.
7. I'm looking forward to breaking bread with you.
8. The light danced in the surface of the water.
9. If I know one thing, it's that I know nothing.
10. My brother was just released from the big house.
FIGURE ME OUT!
Identify the figurative language used in each statement.
1. I will die if he asks me to dance. HYPERBOLE ONOMATOPOEIA
2. Quack, quack went the ducks as we threw them our stale bread.
3. This is a genuine imitation Rolex watch. OXYMORON
4. I am titanium. METAPHOR
APOSTROPHE
5. Dear love, please don't shoot me with your Cupid's bow.
6. She is as kind as an angel. SIMILE
7. I'm looking forward to breaking bread with you. SYNECDOCHE
8. The light danced in the surface of the water. PERSONIFICATION
9. If I know one thing, it's that I know nothing. PARADOX
10. My brother was just released from the big house. METONYMY
SENSE IT!
Read the excerpts with understanding. Identify what sensory
imagery is used in each statement. Identify too those words
used as descriptive in each excerpt.
CELEBR8! (Assignment)
Create a paragraph about Fiesta in the
Philippines. Choose only one type of diction
in writing, use different type of imagery and
figures of speech.
Rubrics:
Use of Diction = 10
Use of Variety of Imageries = 10
Use of Different Figurative Language = 10
Conventions = 10
THANK YOU! ☺
MR. JHUN AR AR R. RAMOS
S u b j e c t Te a c h e r