Author: admin

What Is Active Voice?

~ admin

As writers, we hear the advice to use active voice early in our careers. For new writers, this can be a challenge. Even those of us who have been writing for a while can use a refresher.

What is active voice? In active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action. This is in opposition to passive voice, in which the subject receives the action. To decide if you have an active voice or passive voice sentence, find the subject first and then decide if the subject is the one doing the action or receiving the action.

Using active voice means avoiding “to be” verbs: is, was, were, are, be, being, and been. These verbs tell instead of show. The active voice also allows you to be specific about character or setting. Using active voice clarifies meaning for readers and provides succinct sentences. Passive voice, on the other hand, can be wordy and cloud the meaning of your sentences. For example, “I have a puppy,” provides little detail, but “I chose the runt of the litter, a small, feisty Yorkshire terrier,” gives you a glimpse of a tiny dog with a big attitude.

Occasionally, you may wish to use a “to be” verb. Using a “to be” verb is not a grammatical error and may be necessary in some instances. However, you will want to be aware not to overuse passive voice because this will weaken your writing.

Years ago, I asked one of my English professors to critique an essay I had written for his class. I had revised it several times and thought it was pretty good. He ripped it apart. His advice: change all passive voice sentences to active voice and watch my transitions (a blog topic for another day). As I revised the essay again, I was surprised to see the number of times I had used the passive voice without even realizing it. By the time I was done with my revisions, I had an A paper.

How do you ensure that you use active voice? Do you make a conscious effort to use active voice in your first draft, or do you go back and revise to eliminate passive voice sentences? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

The County Fair

~ admin

It’s county fair time, so this week’s writing prompt incorporates the fair into a scene. Use the following prompt for inspiration.

You and your friends decide to visit the county fair. You tour the fair grounds, eating fried candy bars and funnel cakes along the way. As you come around the corner of the fair barn, you hear loud squealing. You see someone wrestling with something to get it into a trailer. What is it, and what do you do?

 

What Is Allegory?

~ admin

Most of us are familiar with allegory through high school English classes. But if you’re like me, that may have been the last time you even thought about allegory as a storytelling device.

Throughout history, allegory has been used in all forms of art. So what is an allegory? It is a story or tale with two or more levels of meaning: a literal level and one or more symbolic levels. As an extended metaphor, allegory uses symbols to represent characters, places, or events. While allegory uses symbols, it is different from symbolism in that allegory tells a complete story. Allegories are used to share a moral, teach a lesson, or impart a principal.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which is part of his larger work, The Republic, is one of the most famous allegories. In this work, a group of people have been chained up inside a cave for their entire lives. They stare at a blank wall with shadows of the outside world dancing across it. One person escapes the cave and sees the items producing the shadows for the first time. When he goes back into the cave and tries to describe the outside world, the people inside do not believe him. This allegory symbolizes the difficulty a philosopher has expanding the worldview of common man.

The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan is one of the most important Christian allegories in literature. The names of the characters and places in this work represent character traits of each one. For example, the protagonist, Christian, meets Evangelist, Obstinate, and Pliable on his journey. Christian is from the City of Destruction (the world) and is seeking the Celestial City (heaven).

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is one of the most famous recent examples of allegory. In this work, the farm represents Russia, the practice of Animalism represents Communism, and the animals represent various sectors of Russian society. An example of Communism is found in the following line: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

What are your favorite stories that are allegories? What do these represent? Do you use allegory in your own work? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

The New Job

~ admin

Use the following information to inspire you to write a scene.

You recently started a new job in an office building that was converted from a church. Your coworkers have told you the building was built on an old graveyard, but you think they are just joking around. You have to stay late one night to finish a project, and you are all alone in the building when you hear voices and the sound of shattering glass. You walk toward the sounds. What do you find?

What Is Adynaton?

~ admin

Welcome to the new Prestige Prose blog! Now, in addition to a writing prompt each week, we will discuss various forms of literary devices and provide examples. This blog has been a work in progress as we continue to improve our website and add more information useful to authors. If there is a particular literary device or writing style convention that you would like to know about in more detail, let us know in the comments or contact us at prestigeprose@gmail.com.

Have you heard of adynaton? If you’re like me, you may not recognize this term, but you will surely recognize its usage. It is a figure of speech related to hyperbole that emphasizes impossibility or inexpressibility. Who hasn’t used exaggeration for effect, if not in writing then in conversation? The difference between adynaton and exaggeration is that adynaton takes exaggeration to a whole new level: what is proposed simply isn’t possible.

Adynaton often uses a comparison that is contradictory. Common examples of adynaton exist in the English language, and you may even have used some of these yourself. Examples such as “It’s raining cats and dogs” and “She will kill me when she finds out” are popular expressions using adynaton.

Adynaton was widely used in classical literature by ancient Greek playwrights and Roman poets. However, its usage had fallen out of favor by the Middle Ages before experiencing a resurgence among romantic poets. Examples can be found in satirical pieces of literature such as Jonathon Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, in which the gigantic size of the people represent the worst characteristics of humanity. Another example is found in Macbeth as the king recognizes his guilt in Duncan’s murder: “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/Clean from my hand?” One of the most widely known uses of adynaton is found in the words of Jesus in the bible: “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Matt. 19:24).

What are some of your favorite (or least favorite) examples of adynaton? Do you use this literary device in your writing or in your speech? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!