Similes: blacktip shark
The Grammar Bit!
Read the three sentences opposite. They each contain a simile. A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unrelated things by using the words as or like.
An effective simile should help paint a vivid image in the reader’s mind. It should be useful, concise and memorable.
Discuss with your talk partner how effective these similes are by giving each one a score rating from one to five.
1 = poor 5 = excellent
Scintillating Sentences
1) The blacktip’s beady eyes were like the nibs of two pencils, poking through a sheet of shiny, grey paper.
2) Like a farmer’s sheepdog herding sheep into a pen, the ravenous shark circled the ball of fish.
3) The blacktip shark, whose gun-grey body was as slender as a torpedo, was built for sudden bursts of speed.
“Here’s a sharktastic fact: there isn’t a single bone in my body. We sharks have skeletons made from cartilage and connective tissue.”