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[bell ringing over children chattering]
In today’s lesson, we're going to explore a literary device that you can use
to bring your writing to life.
It’s called alliteration and it’s all about playing with sounds,
consonant sounds in particular.
Here have a listen to this:
The colourful kite carved carelessly through the clouds.
Notice how the /k/ sound is repeated at the beginning of several words in this sentence.
Well, that’s alliteration; the repetition of the
same consonant sound in close succession,
usually at the beginning of words.
Now, you might be thinking that our kite sentence was a bit of a tongue twister!
Well, that’s because most tongue twisters are examples of alliteration.
For example, the famous tongue twister
‘Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.’
uses the /p/ sound at the beginning of nearly every word in the sentence.
Alliteration!
So, why should I use alliteration in my writing?
Well, using alliteration is all about deliberately creating something
special or interesting for your audience;
to make them feel something, think something or even do something.
For the sake of comparison, let’s rewrite our kite sentence without alliteration
and see if it as engaging;
The vibrant kite darted recklessly through the sky.
This new sentence describes the same scene as our previous example
but it doesn’t have the same sense of flow or rhythm as our original.
And flow and rhythm is exactly what we want in this sentence
because we’re trying to help our audience imagine the swift, carefree movements of a kite.
The use of alliteration helps the audience sense this movement.
Let’s look at another example of alliteration;
Slipping seamlessly across the sand, the brown snake stalked its prey.
In this example, alliteration has been used to create
an onomatopoeic connection for the audience.
This is because the /s/ sound used throughout the sentence
sounds a lot like the hiss of a snake.
Again, alliteration helps the audience conjure up this image as they’re reading.
So, is creative writing the only place I can use alliteration?
Certainly not!
And now that you know about it, I’m guessing you start spotting it everywhere!
So, here’s four places that you’re likely to find alliteration being used:
Number 1 – Poetry
Poets love playing with sounds and many use alliteration to convey a mood or a feeling
or to add a sense of playfulness to their writing.
Number 2 – Songwriting
Similarly, songwriters frequently use alliteration in their lyrics to create aurally pleasing phrases
with a sense of percussion and rhythm.
This is particularly the case in genres such as rap and hip hop.
Number 3 – Characters
Next time you watch a movie or read a novel, take note of the number of character names
that use alliteration.
Mickey Mouse, Peter Pan, Bruce Banner, Lois Lane and The Wicked Witch of the West
use alliteration as a way of making their names memorable for the audience.
And Number 4 - Brands and advertising
Speaking of memorable, businesses and advertisers want you to remember their product
and will often use alliteration to ensure their brand rolls off your tongue nicely.
Examples of this include Coca Cola, Chupa Chups, Dunkin Donuts and Tic Tac.
Advertising slogans and taglines are another place you will commonly find alliteration.
Now, a word of warning.
As with all literary devices, it’s important to use alliteration in moderation.
Use it too often and it will lose that sense of being special or interesting for the audience,
a bit like adding spice to a meal.
So, your task today is to practice writing some sentences featuring alliteration.
I’m going to give you a list of suggested consonants to try
but feel free to experiment with others if you’re feeling adventurous.
We hope you enjoy refreshing your rich writing repertoire with alliteration.
Thanks for watching. We’ll see you soon.
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