How do you identify a figure of speech or literary device and, more importantly, explain the effect it creates in a TNReady passage?
Figurative language and literary devices: identifying simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, imagery, symbolism, and tone, and explaining the effect each creates and how it contributes to meaning, on a TNReady English I or II literary or poetic passage.
How to analyze figurative language and literary devices on a TNReady English I or II passage: identifying simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, imagery, symbolism, and tone, and (the higher-order skill) explaining the effect each creates and how it shapes meaning.
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What this skill is asking
Figurative language uses words to mean more than their literal sense, and literary devices are the techniques writers use to create effects. TNReady English I and II items ask you to identify a device (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, imagery, symbolism) and, more importantly, to explain the effect it creates and how it contributes to meaning. The questions appear as multiple choice ("which device is used, and what is its effect"), hot text ("click the example of personification"), and two-part items where Part A names a symbolic meaning and Part B asks for the evidence. The transferable skill is not memorizing labels but reading for how a writer's word choices shape feeling and meaning, then saying so in plain terms.
The core devices and what they do
Knowing the definitions is the floor; the EOC tests the effect.
To tell a simile from a metaphor, look for "like" or "as" (simile) versus a direct equation (metaphor). To spot personification, find a non-human thing performing a human action. The most common error is stopping at the label; an answer that names the device but not its effect leaves marks on the table on every item that asks "and what is its effect".
Explaining effect and reading symbolism
Tone deserves special attention because it shapes how every other device lands. Tone is the writer's attitude, conveyed through word choice: the same scene can be described with warm words (nostalgic) or cold ones (bleak). When a question asks for tone, gather the loaded words and name the attitude they add up to, then check that your answer fits the whole passage, not one line.
Reading figurative language on a passage
Try this
Q1. What is the difference between a simile and a metaphor? [Recall]
- Cue. A simile compares using "like" or "as" ("quiet as a library"); a metaphor compares directly, calling one thing another ("the library was a tomb").
Q2. A passage repeatedly describes a character's old, fraying coat. By the end, the coat is given away. What might the coat symbolise, and how would you support it? [Short explanation]
- Cue. The fraying coat may symbolise a worn-out past or an old self the character is ready to let go; giving it away marks the change. Support it with the lines that link the coat to the character's history and the moment of release, the kind of evidence a Part B item asks for.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of TDOE exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
TNReady English I (literary, style)1 marksA poem describes a city at dawn: 'the streets yawned and stretched as the first buses groaned awake.' Which device is used, and what is its effect? (1) Simile, comparing streets to people. (2) Personification, giving the city human actions to make it feel alive and slow to wake. (3) Hyperbole, exaggerating the noise. (4) Alliteration, repeating sounds.Show worked answer →
Answer: (2). "Yawned", "stretched", and "groaned awake" give the streets and buses human actions, which is personification. The effect is to make the waking city feel sluggish and alive, as if it too is reluctant to start the day.
Why not the others: (1) a simile would use "like" or "as"; (3) the lines are not exaggerating a quantity for effect; (4) there is some sound play, but the dominant device and the one that carries the meaning is personification.
TNReady English II (two-part style)2 marksTwo-part item. Part A: The recurring image of a locked gate in the passage most likely symbolizes what? Part B: Select the detail that best supports your answer. (Each part is worth 1 point.)Show worked answer →
In Part A, a recurring locked gate most likely symbolizes a barrier the character faces: lost opportunity, exclusion, or a closed-off past, depending on the passage. A symbol is a concrete object standing for a larger idea, and the EOC asks you to read the idea behind the image.
In Part B you click the detail that ties the gate to that idea, for example a line where the character looks at the gate and thinks of a chance she missed. The two parts must agree: the evidence must support the symbolic meaning you chose. Picking a meaning the passage does not develop loses both points.
Related dot points
- Analyzing theme and central idea in literary texts: stating a theme as a complete sentence about life or human nature (not a topic word), distinguishing theme from subject and from moral, and tracing how a writer develops a theme through plot, character, and detail across a TNReady English I or II literary passage.
How to analyze theme on a TNReady English I or II literary passage: stating theme as a full sentence about life rather than a one-word topic, telling theme apart from subject and moral, and tracing how plot, character, and detail develop it. Theme appears in multiple-choice, hot-text, and two-part evidence items.
- Plot, conflict, and structure in fiction and drama: identifying the stages of plot (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution), the type of conflict (internal versus external, and its specific kind), and how structural choices such as flashback, foreshadowing, and pacing shape meaning on a TNReady English I or II literary passage.
How to analyze plot, conflict, and structure on a TNReady English I or II literary passage: the stages of plot, internal versus external conflict, and structural devices (flashback, foreshadowing, pacing) and how they shape meaning. Structure questions ask why a writer ordered events as they did.
- Character and point of view: inferring character traits and motivation from words, actions, and others' reactions (indirect characterization), tracking how a character changes, and identifying narrative point of view (first person, third limited, third omniscient) and how it controls what the reader knows, on a TNReady English I or II literary passage.
How to analyze character and point of view on a TNReady English I or II literary passage: inferring traits and motivation from indirect characterization, tracking character change, and identifying narrative point of view (first person, third limited, third omniscient) and its effect on what the reader knows.
- Reading poetry on the EOC: reading a poem for meaning by attending to the speaker, structure (lines, stanzas, line breaks), sound devices (rhyme, rhythm, repetition, alliteration), figurative language, and tone, and tracing how these choices build the poem's central idea, on a TNReady English I or II poetic passage.
How to read a poem on the TNReady English I or II EOC: attending to the speaker, structure (lines, stanzas, line breaks), sound devices, figurative language, and tone, and tracing how these choices build the poem's central idea. Poetry questions reward meaning, not jargon.
- Denotation, connotation, and figurative meaning: distinguishing a word's literal definition (denotation) from the feeling it carries (connotation), explaining how connotation shapes tone and an author's purpose, and recognizing and interpreting figurative (non-literal) word use, on a TNReady English I or II passage.
How to analyze connotation and figurative meaning on a TNReady English I or II passage: telling denotation from connotation, explaining how connotation shapes tone and purpose, and recognizing figurative versus literal word use. Connotation is a key clue to an author's attitude.
Sources & how we know this
- TCAP English Language Arts — TDOE (2025)
- Tennessee Academic Standards for English Language Arts — TDOE (2025)