5 mistakes learners make with language techniques, each one named and explained.
Name the device by what it actually does to the words, then say what it makes the reader feel.
A trembling character bellowed her doubt.
Any dramatic verb feels like an upgrade on said, even when it points the wrong way.
Question. I am not sure, blank Priya, her hands trembling: whispered or bellowed?
A common answer. Bellowed
The answer. Whispered
Why. Trembling hands show nerves, and nervous people go quiet. Bellowed is loud and confident, which fights the picture the sentence paints.
Match the speech verb to the character's feeling, not to how dramatic it sounds.
Short punchy sentences are chosen to slow a story down.
Every option on the list is a real technique, so each one feels defensible on its own.
Question. Which choice slows the pace and builds tension?
A common answer. Lots of short punchy sentences
The answer. Detailed description of the setting and the character's thoughts
Why. Short sentences speed reading up. Lingering description holds the reader in the moment, which is what slowing the pace means.
Name the effect you want first, then pick the technique that produces it.
Sibilance is called alliteration, or assonance is called onomatopoeia.
They are all about the sound of the words rather than their meaning, and they are usually taught together in one lesson.
Question. She sells sea shells on the sunny shore.
A common answer. onomatopoeia
The answer. sibilance
Why. The repeated sound is s, and a run of s sounds has its own name.
Say it aloud and listen for which sound repeats, then name that sound.
'The storm was a furious beast' is called a simile.
Both compare one thing to another, and simile is the term that gets taught first and hardest.
Question. The storm was a furious beast.
A common answer. simile
The answer. metaphor
Why. It says the storm was a beast, not that it was like one.
Look for like or as. Without them it is a metaphor.
She crept through the forest is offered as first person.
The sentence is vivid and personal in feel, and feel gets mistaken for grammatical person.
Question. Which sentence is written in the first person?
A common answer. She crept through the forest
The answer. I pressed my back against the cold wall
Why. First person means the narrator says I or we. She and he are third person, however close the camera feels.
Look for the actual pronoun, not the feeling of closeness.
WAJD spots these patterns in your child's answers and names the one behind their wrong answers, instead of just marking them wrong.