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Writing Skills: Literary Devices 694 Views
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Description:
Welcome to the wonderful world of literary devices. There are roughly a zillion of them, but we're only covering a couple in this video. See ya later, allegory.
Transcript
- 00:03
literary devices....[mumbling]
- 00:18
okay these days it's all about what type of devices you have if you're like me a [Smartphone discussing devices]
- 00:25
popular handheld device you have no problem getting into the hands of nearly
- 00:31
everyone how would we even communicate without devices we can take everywhere [People communicating with smartphones]
- 00:36
with us in the world of literature there's another kind of devices the
Full Transcript
- 00:41
literary device they might not sound as snazzy as the latest iPhone with a
- 00:46
million apps a 50 megapixel camera but it costs well nothing and literary [Woman walking with a smartphone]
- 00:51
devices are seriously awesome literary devices are different strategies and
- 00:56
tools that writers can use to tell a story yeah construction workers and [Tool box opens]
- 01:01
electricians aren't the only ones with a bunch of tools at their disposal instead
- 01:05
of wrenches and screwdrivers writers use tools like simile and metaphor hyperbole
- 01:11
and dialogue and those are just a few of literally hundreds of literary devices [literary device examples appear in a list]
- 01:16
writers can use but what's the point can someone just be left alone to write
- 01:21
something without having to worry about tools and stuff sure they can but it's
- 01:26
not nearly as much fun pretend this was the opening to a book [Paragraph of book appears]
- 01:29
there was a loud noise on the street last night
- 01:32
well, there's nothing wrong with this sentence we can certainly juice it up a
- 01:37
bit like this right after the grandfather clock chimed midnight an
- 01:42
ear-splitting whale crashed through the window... see the second topic is way more
- 01:49
fun to read it keeps the same meaning as the first passage but it's filled with
- 01:53
color and flavor all we did to liven things up was to add some specific
- 01:57
details and an onomatopoeia or sound word and that first sentence suddenly
- 02:02
makes you want to read the whole book without putting it down [Girl frantically reading book]
- 02:05
not only do literary devices make writing more fun
- 02:09
they give the writer that creative freedom to express their
- 02:12
ideas in new and unusual ways which also means the reader will be able to analyze [Person picks up a book]
- 02:16
and understand the writing in ways they never would have dreamed of say a writer
- 02:21
is tasked with discussing a really boring topic like watering your house [Person watering house plants]
- 02:25
plants snore town, yawn in order to make this otherwise lame subject a little
- 02:32
more fun the writer decides to use a little thing
- 02:34
called personification or giving non-human things human-like
- 02:38
characteristics we end up with something like it had been many hours since the
- 02:43
last watering and the long skinny arms of my fern implored me to water it I'm a
- 02:48
fern it called to me I need water for life sure this might sound dramatic but [Fern watered]
- 02:54
the author was able to take a dry relatively uninteresting topics and spin
- 02:59
it in a way that conveys the message that more people will want to read it
- 03:02
since as I mentioned there are hundreds of different types of literary devices
- 03:06
we can't get them all into one little video let's spend some time getting to [baseball player holding a bat]
- 03:10
know two of the big guns imagery and allegory first up to bat imagery the
- 03:17
definition is in the word imagery is created when authors use language that
- 03:21
creates images in your mind with the example we saw above there was a loud
- 03:26
noise on the street last night we changed it up by strategically placing
- 03:30
imagery into the passage which made it way more interesting right after the
- 03:34
grandfather clock chimed midnight an ear-splitting whale crashed through the
- 03:38
window here's still another way we could rewrite the first passage using imagery
- 03:43
crash the sound of shattering glass and metal startled me out of a dead sleep in [passage re-written example]
- 03:49
the middle of Saturday night all three of the passages mean the same thing but
- 03:53
the second two make clear pictures in your head when you read them imagery
- 03:57
doesn't only have to do with visual images either the images above also
- 04:02
included sounds that create images in our minds when we read them great
- 04:05
imagery plays with all five of the senses here's another example [Person holding shampoo bottle]
- 04:09
I knew Sheila had finished her shower as the overpowering aroma of rose water and
- 04:15
coconut shampoo invaded my nostrils this is so much better than if we simply said
- 04:20
I knew Sheila had finished her shower because I smelled bath products renowned
- 04:24
author F. Scott Fitzgerald was a master at writing vivid
- 04:28
and memorable imagery into his stories this is a snippet of the Great Gatsby [Great Gatsby book appears]
- 04:31
when he is describing one of Jay Gatsby's parties the lights grow
- 04:35
brighter as the earth lurches away from the Sun and now the orchestra is playing
- 04:39
yellow cocktail music and the opera voices pitch is a key higher awesome
- 04:45
you can see here and almost feel the energy Fitzgerald's describing here this
- 04:50
is exactly what great imagery should do symmetry isn't just a tool for [F. Scott writing a novel]
- 04:54
established professionals either every writer can work imagery into their own
- 04:58
writing start by having a basic understanding of how imagery works and
- 05:02
when to use it which is precisely what we're doing here once you've got a good
- 05:05
foundation just try it out write a sentence or two that describe something [Person writing a sentence on a piece of paper]
- 05:09
no really anything and read it back to yourself does what you wrote gives you a
- 05:14
mental picture can you see smell hear taste or touch the
- 05:19
thing with your mind not literally if so then you've likely written a good [Man eating chips]
- 05:24
bit of imagery a word of caution don't have abuse imagery like most things too
- 05:30
much of it can be bad example sure... say you want to spice up the sentence I saw
- 05:36
a brown dog sign that's the basic sentence that can easily be made more
- 05:40
intriguing with a splash of imagery this morning a shiny rotten smelling brown
- 05:44
dog nearly tripped me as I was standing in line for coffee that works now here
- 05:49
is an example of too much imagery at 9:22 this morning as I waited for my [Example of too much imagery appears]
- 05:55
triple half-caf no-whip non foam soy hazelnut latte a big mean Brown toothy
- 06:00
smelly horrible atrocious dog plowed into me and I almost died okay, wow
- 06:06
that's a lot of description and while as readers we know now your exact latte [Girl outside a coffee store]
- 06:10
preferences and how you feel about dogs this is simply too much creating good
- 06:15
imagery isn't about throwing 100 adjectives in front of every now and you
- 06:19
see it's about carefully selecting details to enhance and slightly changing
- 06:23
them to make your overall writing more colorful not every kind of writing [Girl writing on a PC]
- 06:27
benefit from imagery either so only use it in the right circumstances those
- 06:32
would be when you're doing creative writing projects like stories or poems
- 06:36
and descriptive essays in your humanities classes [Students sitting in classroom]
- 06:39
most often if you're writing for science or technology ya won't use imagery in
- 06:43
the same way and now you know as much fun as it is to talk about imagery let's
- 06:48
take a few and learn more about allegory allegories are stories or poems that [Allegory definition appears]
- 06:53
kind of sorta have hidden meanings to them they're written works that mean one
- 06:58
thing on the surface but when you dig into the meat of the story you see that
- 07:02
the author had a deeper agenda biblical and political allegories are two of [Bible and political document appear]
- 07:06
main types we come across the Lion, the witch and the wardrobe by CS Lewis is a
- 07:11
perfect example this is a story of some kids who figure out the Wardrobe or [Kids approach a wardrobe and girl appears inside]
- 07:15
clothing cabinet was actually a portal into another dimension of course they
- 07:20
travel over into the new world where they meet talking animals and a white witch who
- 07:24
enslaved one of the kids and turns him against his siblings by giving him candy [Witch hands candy to boy]
- 07:28
there's a fight between the witch in this great lion and a lot of creatures
- 07:32
died and the whole thing is just an extended metaphor for the life of Jesus
- 07:36
Christ wait what yeah on the surface Lewis wrote a really bizarre fantasy
- 07:41
story for children but after close examination we learned as a lion is
- 07:45
actually representative of Christ in that he sacrifices himself for the part [Lion attacks Witch]
- 07:50
of the children and is later resurrected just like Jesus the Bible is such a
- 07:55
widely read text that many authors use it as a source for creating allegory in [Person reading book in a hammock]
- 08:00
their own work politics is another topic that we see used in many allegorical
- 08:04
tales George Orwell's animal farm is another choice allegory in this story
- 08:09
we're presented with an entire farm filled with once again talking animals
- 08:13
the animals are trying to figure out what is the best way to do things where [Animals inspecting 7 commandments]
- 08:17
everyone is equal and no one has to do too much or too little this doesn't work
- 08:21
since the pigs assume leadership and begin fighting over how to govern the [Pigs fighting]
- 08:25
farm all in all the pigs kind of go mad with their power and the dream of
- 08:29
equality is forgotten Orwell's classic tale is an allegory for
- 08:33
the Russian Revolution that happened in 1917 and a subsequent rise of communism
- 08:38
the characters are stand-in for real people like Napoleon the meanest Pig is
- 08:43
Joseph Stalin the militant terrible leader of the former Soviet Union Stalin
- 08:48
is notorious for imprisoning millions of his own popular [Prisoners working in the field]
- 08:51
concentration camps and ruling by fear just like Napoleon the pig does in
- 08:56
Animal Farm why does an author choose to use
- 08:58
allegory well it's a specifically chosen literary strategy obvs... instead of just
- 09:03
saying hey my book has a secret meeting in the preface the author assumes that
- 09:08
the readers are intelligent and informed enough to figure it out that's pretty
- 09:11
nice on the author's part don't you think it's more interesting to write [Students writing in class]
- 09:15
allegories but not everyone feels comfortable doing it that's why we don't
- 09:18
see this device in action as often as other ones in the wide world and devices
- 09:23
literary devices are pretty useful they make writing more fun and help readers
- 09:27
to understand the layers of meaning cell phones and other personal handheld [Person picks up smartphone from trouser pocket]
- 09:32
devices might always be in pocket but literary devices have lasted for the
- 09:36
ages you can't say the same for all devices there's always a younger
- 09:40
better-looking version that comes around and replaces you
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