How Language Choices Affect the Reader
Evaluate how authors use language including figurative language, considering the impact of word choices, imagery, and literary devices on the reader
What a learner can do afterwards
- Explain how a specific metaphor or simile affects the reader's understanding or emotions
- Evaluate an author's choice of descriptive language and its impact on atmosphere
- Compare how different authors use figurative language to achieve similar effects
The lesson
You already know that similes and metaphors compare two things. Writers pick those comparisons on purpose, to make you feel something. When you read figurative language, ask yourself what picture it puts in your mind and what mood it creates.
In "the sun was a burning eye," the metaphor does more than describe the sun. It makes the sun feel alive and watching, even threatening. A reader might feel a little uneasy, like something is staring down.
Word choice also builds atmosphere, the overall feeling of a scene. A forest described as "shadowy and silent" creates a tense, spooky mood. The same forest described as "dappled with golden light" feels calm instead.
Two authors both want to show a scary storm. One writes "the wind screamed through the trees." Another writes "the wind moaned like a lost animal." Both use figurative language, but "screamed" feels sharp and violent, while "moaned" feels sad and lonely.
When you read a strong image, pause and ask: what picture does this word choice make me see, and what does it make me feel? That is how you judge whether the language is working.
Good readers notice the exact words an author picked and ask what picture and feeling those words create.
Watch it
Where it sits
Where this leads
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.