It's Better to Use No Figurative Language Than to Use It Badly

Just because you care about your students and yearn to see them succeed doesn't mean you don't sometimes chuckle at some of the mistakes they make in their writing. Below are some unintentionally amusing passages from student essays. Each passage is guilty of a forced simile. As any good English tutor (or editor) knows, it's better to use no figurative language than to use it badly.

1. "Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center."
   
   
2. "He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree."
   
   
3. "The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease."
   
   
4. "John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met."
   
   
5. "The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play."

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