Hyperbole

Hyperbole means exaggeration. In a hyperbole things are described as being bigger or smaller than they really are.

We have been waiting for ages.
She wept oceans of tears.
All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. (Shakespeare)
When she smiled all the world was gay.
I thought ten thousand swords must have leapt from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult.

Metonymy

The word metonymy means ‘substitution of name’. An object may have several attributes. Metonymy involves the substitution of one of these attributes for the name of the object itself. For instance, we make use of metonymy when we use ‘crown’ for monarch or monarchy. Other examples are given below:

Antithesis

Here one idea or word is set against another for the sake of emphasis.

God made the country, and man made the town.
United we stand; divided we fall.
Prosperity gains friends; adversity tries them.
Be thou familiar; but by no means vulgar.

Epigram

Allegory

An allegory is a long story with a moral. In an allegory characters are moral qualities or abstract ideas personified and the incidents have a spiritual meaning.

Notable examples of allegory are: Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and Spenser’s Fairy Queen

Personification

A figure of speech is a unique way of saying something. It is a form of expression that intentionally deviates from the conventional mode of speech for the sake of being more powerful, pleasing or distinct. It is wrong to think that only stylists employ figures of speech to enrich their writing. They are, in fact a part of everyday speech. When we say ‘the story is as old as the hills’ or ‘as tall as a tree’, we use figures of speech. There are several figures of speech and for the sake of convenience they are broadly classified into six.

Avoid run-on sentences

Run-on sentences are actually two separate sentences that have been joined with a comma instead of a colon, a full stop or a joining word.

Consider the sentence given below:

The camel is an ungainly animal, it has a hump on its back.

Omit words which have already been clearly implied

One or more words can be omitted when they are already clearly implied.

John had finished his studies and gone to play football with his friends. (Better than ‘John had finished his studies and had gone to play football with his friends.)
Alice has written the letter and posted it. (Better than ‘Alice has written the letter and has posted it’.)

Emphasizing a word

You can put special emphasis on a word in a number of ways. For instance, try placing it first.

Though he is poor, he is happy.
Poor though he is, he is happy. (Here the emphasis is on the word ‘poor’.)