What is Imagery

Imagery is used to describe something vividly. It is a literary text that is used by poets and authors to create or depict a visual representation of ideas and thoughts in a reader’s mind. By using imagery, a poet or an author tries to rejuvenate the five senses of readers and compel them imagine the piece of writing with the help of different sense of body. Imagery is used to give a realistic feeling to the readers and involves them for a long time. Usually, dominating forms of imagery captures all the senses of human and describe ideas and concepts through metaphors. In other words, imagery is a tool that creates a picture in a reader’s mind and allows him to touch, taste, smell, hear and see what a poet is explaining in his poetry. With the help of imagery, an author or a poet portrays different images or pictures and involve readers in their world.

Kinds of Imagery

The imagery is categorized into seven types that are as follows:

1. Visual Imagery: This type of imagery is commonly used to create a visual image or scene in the poetry. In order to draw an image in readers’ mind, a poet uses visual imagery.

2. Auditory Imagery: This type of imagery is used to create any kind of sounds; it can be a sound of lighting, rain or thunder. By using auditory imagery, a poet allows a reader to imagine a noise or a sound of a particular thing, which is described in the poetry.

3. Olfactory Imagery: Olfactory imagery is used to stimulate the sense of smell of a reader. It relates to some kind of scents or odours.

4. Gustatory Imagery: This kind of imagery is used to create a sense of taste. If a poet is explaining about some kind of food, sweet or snack, then gustatory imagery is used.

5. Tactile Imagery: This type of imagery is used to create a feeling of touch in a reader’s mind. A touch can be cold, hot, soft or hard.   

6. Kinesthetic Imagery: It is used to give a feel of some kind of movement. By using this type imagery, a poet creates a sense of movement or tension in a reader’s mind.

7. Organic Imagery: This type of imagery is used to recreate a sense of fear, hunger, pain, thirst and fatigue.

What Is an Adverb

The word that modifies or describes a verb, an adjective or another adverb in a sentence is known as an adverb. Generally, an adverb helps in determining how, when, where and to what extent and in what manner an action is performed in a sentence. Let us see some examples where the verb is modified by an adverb.

•    She walks slowly.
•    Robin runs fast.
•    Nancy sang melodiously.
•    She dances gracefully.
•    He talks loudly.

In the aforesaid examples, the adverbs are in bold and the verbs are underlined. Here, you can see how an adverb modifies or describes a verb. Now, lets us see how adverbs modify adjectives in the sentence. Look at the examples mentioned below:

•    Sherry is very pretty.
•    She is quite clever. 
•    He is the most adorable child.
•    Tina is an extremely charming girl.
•    She is really beautiful.

In the above mentioned examples, the adverbs are in bold letters and adjectives are underlined.

Types of Adverbs

Adverbs are divided into following parts.

1.    Adverbs of Manner: These adverbs explain how the action is performed or in which manner it is performed.

For example:

•    He quietly asked me to leave the room.
•    She briefly explained the answers.

2.    Adverbs of Place: These adverbs will describe about the action, which occurs or will occur or occurred.

For example:

•    The dog is hiding underneath the bed.
•    She lives somewhere in Boston.

3.    Adverbs of Time: These adverbs explain the time of action in the sentence like yesterday, tomorrow, tonight, weekly, soon, now, etc.

For example:

•    I shifted to my new home yesterday.
•    I will complete the work tomorrow.

4.    Adverbs of Frequency: These adverbs describe how many times the action occurs or will occur or occurred.

For example:

•    Justin goes to church daily.
•    He always drinks and smokes.

5.    Adverbs of Degree: Theses adverbs explain to what extent an action is performed.

For example:

•    She completely trusts me.
•    These flowers are absolutely wonderful.

Purpose of Expository Essay

The main objective of writing an expository essay is to describe something in a clear and concise manner. In an expository essay, a writer explains an idea by investigating it properly. While writing an essay, a writer provides a balanced analysis with the help of essential facts and figures. An expository essay can be categorized into different forms. It can be in the form of demonstration, a step-by-step process of an element, an instruction manual for a reader or notes for lectures. The primary purpose of an expository essay is to explain or describe something informative, which is important for a reader. Let us understand the ways of writing an expository essay.

1.    Identify the Objective of Writing an Essay: When you are writing something you should know the purpose of writing. Keep in mind the reasons that motivate you to write an expository essay. If you are writing an essay for college exam or for an assignment, then make sure you write it in a simple and clear manner.

2.  Start an Essay with an Introductory Paragraph: An introductory paragraph is the first and foremost part of an essay. Explain the main idea in the introduction paragraph so as to give a better insight to your readers about the topic. Provide essential information about the topic in order to stimulate the interest of readers. If you are writing about some famous personality, then discuss about their life story, past and present, etc.

3.  Explain the Main Idea through Supporting Facts: In order to prove your points, you need to give specific facts and evidences that will justify your topic and convince the reader. Your evidence can be your personal experience, interview or a real story.

4. Conclusion: Summarize important facts and evidences that you had discussed in the above paragraphs. Make sure you do not discuss any new thing in the conclusion paragraph as it may confuse your readers.

By adhering to above mentioned points, you can write a good expository essay. While writing an essay, choose only those topics, which have sufficient facts and evidences.

List of Conjunction

A part of speech that acts as a joiner for phrases or clauses in a sentence is known as a conjunction. It connects the words or groups of words together so as to make the sentence meaningful for the readers. In English language, conjunction is categorized into three main parts including coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions and correlative conjunctions.

Types of Conjunctions

1.  Coordinate Conjunctions: Coordinate conjunctions joints words, phrases and clauses together. A coordinated conjunction usually comes in between the words or groups of words. There are only seven words under coordinated conjunctions that are listed below:

•    Are
•    Or
•    But
•    Nor
•    So
•    For
•    Yet

2.  Subordinate Conjunctions: Subordinate conjunctions join two clauses together. These types of conjunctions explain the relationship between the dependent clause and the independent clause in the sentence. There are many words come under subordinate conjunctions some words are mentioned below:

•    As
•    As if
•    As long as
•    As far as
•    Although
•    After
•    Because
•    Before
•    Even though
•    Once
•    When
•    Unless
•    So that
•    Since
•    Whenever
•    While
•    Until
•    Till

3.  Correlative Conjunctions: These types of conjunctions generally link equal sentences. The following words are there under correlative conjunctions.

•    Neither nor
•    Either or
•    Both and
•    Not only but also
•    So as
•    Whether or

In English language, there are many words that are used as transitions between sentences and these are known as conjunctive adverbs. Conjunctive adverbs are not conjunctions, but these words act as conjunctions in a sentence. However, For example, Therefore, Hence, Otherwise, Likewise, In addition, Furthermore, Still, Indeed, In fact, Meanwhile, After all, Instead, Consequently, Finally, As a result, On the other hand, etc. are some of the conjunctive adverbs.

What Is an Appositive

An appositive is a noun or pronoun or series of nouns that are placed next to another noun or pronoun or noun phrase so as to explain or identify or rename it precisely. The main objective of using an appositive is to provide some additional information about the noun in the sentence. This additional information can be erased from the sentence if required. Generally, an appositive phrase follows the word, it identifies or explains, but it is not necessary that it should always come after the word. It can also precede the word. The poets and writers use appositive phrases in order to make their poetry and stories more rich and interesting for readers.

Appositives are identified in the sentence with the help of commas. However, in some sentences, we do not use comma around the appositive. Generally, when a sentence is clear and concise and the information is essential and justify the sentence, then we do not use commas before or after the appositive. For instance, American astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon. Let us see the use of appositive in sentences.

Example sentence starting with appositive

•    Your brother, Tony is playing a football tournament at the stadium.

•    Your friend, Christina won her first trophy in the dance competition.  

•    My neighbor, Justin bought a new sports car. 

•    A man with great strength, Tom was able to pull the heavy vehicle.

•    Dressed in a teal colored evening gown, Sasha was the center of attraction in the party.

Example sentences with appositive in between the sentence

•    An ostrich, a large and heavy flightless bird, scared the onlookers at the zoo.

•    The insect, a small and hairy creature, scared me.

•    Mrs. Rose, my neighbor, is a good human being. 

•    Jane and Henry, my friends, are planning to join a music club.

•    Tokyo, the capital of Japan, has sophisticated railways. 

Connotation Versus Denotation

A word can be described in various forms. It depends on a person’s frame of mind how he or she may interpret a word. In other words, how a person comprehends or observes a particular word or relates it to his or her thoughts and ideas can be a connotation. Through connotation and denotation, we can figure out the different meanings of a single word. Connotation indicates a feeling or an idea that develops by looking at a word. It explains either negative or positive emotional connections with a word. On the other hand, denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, which is usually found in the dictionary.

Many skilled writers or poets use different words as a tool to express their feelings, ideas and thoughts, either in a negative or positive way. Hence, the way of expressing the attitude or feelings through a word is known as connotation. For instance, ‘Slim’ – an attractive body shape (positive connotation), ‘Skinny’- a very thin person (negative connotation).

Many experienced educators and academicians use explicit words while writing a subject-based book or preparing a thesis. A word that carries a very close or literal meaning is known as denotation. These types of words are often used in textbooks or some research papers. For instance, ‘Tax’ – An involuntary fee levied on individuals or corporations, ‘Earth’- The planet on which humans live.

Connotation is different from denotation in several aspects. A word that symbolizes some kind of positive or negative feeling is known as connotation, whereas the word that has a literal or clear meaning is known as denotation. Let us see some example words that have different connotation and similar denotation.

1. Snake:-  unreliable person (connotation), long legless reptile (denotation)

2. Adult:-  a sensible person (connotation), a fully grown person (denotation)

3. Cheesy:- poor quality (connotation), a cheese like flavor (denotation)

Here are some of the topics related to connotation and denotation.

1. Denotation of a Word
2. Connotation of a Word
3. Sentence Using Connotation
4. Positive and Negative Connotations
5. Neutral Connotation

More details regarding the above topics visit the web page connotation and denotation .

What are Analogies

The comparison of an idea or a thing to another thing is known as an analogies. In other words, when one concept is compared to another concept in order to describe the true meaning is known as an analogy. The analogy is better explained with the help of metaphors and similes. However, the analogy is more extensive as compared to a metaphor or a simile. Let us understand first what is simile and metaphor.

Simile: A simile is a figure of speech that compares one thing with another thing of different kind with the help of different words, including like, so, as, than, etc.

For example:

•    She is cute as a doll.
•    Her voice is melodious like a nightingale’s

Metaphor: A metaphor is a figure of speech which describes a thing is something, which is literally is not.

For example:

•    An apple of my eye.
•    Broken heart.

Role of Analogy in Literature

Analogy plays a significant role in literature. A writer uses analogies to connect an unfamiliar or an unusual idea with familiar objects. When a writer compares a new idea with a familiar thing, then it involves the readers and compels them to relate the unfamiliar ideas to familiar things. Analogies are tools to stimulate the interest of readers.

Examples of Analogy

•    I feel like a fish out of water. (This means that your are not comfortable in your surroundings)

•    Ambition without knowledge is like a boat on a dry land. (This means that you desire to achieve something in life, but don’t know where to start or how to start)

•    Life is like a roller coaster ride. (This means life is sometimes exciting and sometimes scary)

•    He is like a rock. (This means he is strong like a rock)

•    Sword is to warrior as pen is to writer. (This means a sword is the weapon of a warrior and a pen is the weapon of a writer)