📖 Spotting a Metaphor Is the Easy Part
📖 Spotting a Metaphor Is the Easy Part
Consider this opening from a food critic’s review: “The kitchen was an orchestra pit, each station playing its own frantic score.” The L2 student writes: “There is a metaphor comparing the kitchen to an orchestra pit. This makes the writing more interesting.” The examiner’s pen barely moves.
The real question is not what is compared — it is what the comparison implies. An orchestra pit is not just noisy. It is organised chaos, precision under pressure, a performance watched by others. Unpack those connotations and you have analysis. Spot the technique and you have Level 2.
English Language glossary
- What is the difference between spotting a metaphor and analysing one?
- <strong>Spotting:</strong> naming the technique and giving a generic effect. “The writer uses a metaphor. This creates a vivid image.” Level 2.<br><br><strong>Analysing:</strong> unpacking what the specific comparison implies. What connotations does the comparison word carry? What does that suggest about the subject? Level 4.<br><br><strong>The key question after naming any metaphor:</strong> <em>What does this specific comparison bring with it that a plain description would not?</em><br><br><em>Example: ‘His voice was gravel’ — gravel implies roughness, weight, resistance, something unrefined. Not just ‘a rough voice’.</em>
When you encounter a metaphor or image in a language paper extract, the examiner wants three things in sequence. AQA’s Q2 mark scheme describes Level 4 as “perceptive analysis of the effect of language” — that word perceptive means seeing what the comparison implies, not just naming what is comp
Now try it yourself
Quiz · Question 1 of 12
A student writes: 'The writer uses a metaphor comparing the city to a jungle. This creates a vivid image.' Which level does this response reach?
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