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Metaphor Used Naturally

Use dead metaphor without mixing families — the failure mode of an ambitious Band 7.

3 micro-lessons6 concepts

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Before You Start

This is the highest-risk chapter in the project. Check you are ready to be told that your best sentences are the dangerous ones.

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You should be able to say yes to these

The Mistake That Only Good Candidates Make

Mixed metaphor is invisible to the writer and unmissable to the reader. Here is why, and here is the check.

One sentence

The cornerstone of the government's housing policy has been steadily eroded by a groundswell of local opposition.

Read it once and it sounds good. Read it once more and picture it.

A cornerstone is a block of stone at the base of a building. It is being eroded — worn away by water. By a groundswell, which is a wave rising out at sea.

So: a building is being washed away by the sea, in a sentence about planning permission. Nobody meant that, and every native reader half-sees it.

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Chapter Diagnostic

Five questions, one per sprint. Picture each sentence literally before you answer.

Every option below is made of ordinary academic words used correctly. What is being tested is whether the pictures agree, and what the imagery commits you to.

Read each one, then picture it literally. Two of the five are correctly answered with the plain, image-free version.

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Which of these sentences mixes metaphor families?

concepts · 6

← previousSaying One Idea Several Ways next →Structures And Foundations

Metaphor Used Naturally

Before You Start

The Mistake That Only Good Candidates Make

One sentence

Chapter Diagnostic

Structures And Foundations

Water And Flow

Growth And Decay

Conflict And Ground

Light And Vision

Review: Name The Picture

Before You Start

The Mistake That Only Good Candidates Make

One sentence

Chapter Diagnostic