Literary Elements

1. An Introduction to… Literary Elements

2. What are literary elements? • Literary elements are the individual parts that combine to make up a work of literature. • Think of it like a puzzle: literary elements are the pieces that you put together to make the whole picture of a work of literature. • Since speeches are works of literature, there should be literary elements in your speeches.

3. Poetic Literary elements. • Today, we will specifically deal with poetic literary elements. • Although these elements are mainly thought of as belonging in poetry, they can be found in fiction, informative texts (nonfiction), and even in speeches. • How many poetic literary elements can you think of?

4. Poetic Literary Elements • Simile – Compares two different things using the words “like” or “as.” • Alliteration – Repeating consonant sounds, typically at the beginning of a word. • Personification – Giving human abilities to non-humans. • Metaphor – Comparing two different things without using the words “like” or “as.” • Pun – Wordplay that makes use of a word that has a double meaning or sounds similar to another word. Knock Knock jokes are completely based on puns.

5. Additional (2B) • Double Entendre – Wordplay that uses puns to imply “indelicate” or “socially awkward” meaning. • Metaphor (2B) – A type of analogy where the implication is made that one thing is the same as another thing, an assertion that is typically then expounded upon. • Allusion – A brief reference, explicit or implicit, to another literary work. • Metaphysical allusion – An allusion that references characters or events from the Bible, the Torah, the Qur’an, or other religious texts, typically in reference to something not seen as traditionally “holy.”

6. Show, Don’t Tell • There is a large circle on the board. One at a time, in order of desks, come up to the board and write an emotion or theme that your speech has as we continue the lecture. Do not repeat words. Use different colors. • “Show, Don’t Tell” is the #1 rule of creative writing. It means that you shouldn’t simply tell us what emotions you’re trying to convey, but you should show us. • Don’t tell us “teen girls feel self-conscious.” Show us, using literary elements, a self-conscious teen girl.

7. Circle Words Let’s take some of the words from our circle and see if we can express them using literary elements.

8. Song Lyrics • Remember the song lyrics you wrote down earlier? Take the lyrics hunt work sheet and see if you can find at least one example of each literary element.