Figurative language and literary devices in literary texts: identifying simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, imagery, symbolism, and irony, and (the part that earns the marks) explaining the effect each creates - the feeling, picture, or meaning - on a Grade 10 ELA MCAS literary passage.

What this skill is asking

Figurative language and literary devices are how writers create effects, and the Grade 10 ELA MCAS asks you to read those effects, not just recognize the labels. You need to identify the common devices (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, imagery, symbolism, irony) and, more importantly, explain what each one does in its passage: the feeling it creates, the picture it builds, or the meaning it carries. The single biggest scoring error is stopping at the label ("it is a metaphor") without the effect, because the Massachusetts standards reward analysis under Craft and Structure, not recall of terms. This page covers the core devices and a habit for explaining effect on every one. The transferable skill is reading a striking phrase and asking, "What does this make me feel, picture, or understand, and why did the writer choose it?"

The core devices

A short, reliable toolkit covers most of what the test asks.

Knowing the definitions is the floor; the test is built on the next step. For any device, the question is almost always what it does. A simile that calls a silence "as heavy as wet sand" is not just a comparison; it makes the silence feel oppressive and slow. A metaphor that names a rival "a storm" loads the rival with danger and unpredictability. The label identifies the move; the effect is the answer.

Reading symbolism and irony

A symbol is only a symbol if the passage develops it, so a single mention of a rose is probably just a rose, while a rose that returns at every emotional beat is doing symbolic work. Likewise, irony is not simply something surprising; it is a structured gap between two layers, and naming which layer the reader sees that a character does not is often the whole answer. Both reward the same discipline: anchor the reading to specific lines and explain what the device achieves there.

Explaining effect every time

Try this

Q1. Why does naming a device earn few marks on the MCAS, and what earns them? [Recall]

• Cue. The standards reward analysis, so the label alone is the floor; the marks come from explaining the device's effect, the feeling, picture, or meaning it creates.

Q2. A passage describes grief as "a tide that came in without warning and would not go out." Name the device and explain its effect. [Short explanation]

• Cue. It is a metaphor comparing grief to a tide; the effect is to make grief feel overwhelming, uncontrollable, and slow to ease, capturing how it arrives suddenly yet lingers.