Read aloud picture books and look for simile examples and metaphor examples to learn how writers use figurative language to make writing beautiful and convey meaning. Use these favorite mentor texts ...

From a series of tubes to the information superhighway. is an investigations editor and feature writer covering technology and the people who make, use, and are affected by it. Since joining The Verge ...

Metaphors fill our lives, and we often have no trouble recognizing their symbolic nature. We know that when captains shout, “All hands on deck,” they want more than their crews’ hands. Clear skies can ...

Metaphors influence the way we think. In a paper in PLoS ONE published today, Paul Thibodeau and Lera Boroditsky, psychologists at Stanford University in California, show that people approve of ...

"Narcissus" by Caravaggio (c. 1598). Source: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain What is an allegory? An allegory (Greek, "a speaking about something else") is a complete and cohesive narrative, for ...

The player kicked the ball. The patient kicked the habit. The villain kicked the bucket. The verbs are the same. The syntax is identical. The player kicked the ball. The patient kicked the habit. The ...