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A literary device is a technique a writer uses to convey ideas and messages to their readers. That means that as readers, we need to understand and use literary devices to fully understand a work’s major themes!

Today, we’re going to take a closer look at how to use imagery to analyze a text. We’ll start by giving you the imagery definition before talking about why it’s an important tool for analyzing a text. Then we’ll walk you through some imagery examples in poetry and fiction and show you exactly how to analyze the imagery in each.

By the end of this article, you’ll be able to talk about imagery in literature like a pro, so let’s get started.

Analyzing literature can be pretty confusing, especially if you’re reading something that’s pretty complicated. That’s why it’s important to understand literary devices, which are tools designed to help you unlock the meaning of a text.

Think of literary devices like tools in a toolbox. Each device has a different use, so it’s important that you have a bunch of different options to choose from...especially when you’re crunched for time, like during an AP Literature exam.

That’s why we’re going to teach you everything you need to know about assonance, which is a literary device that helps a writer create both rhythm and tone. To do this, we’ll:  

• Define assonance and talk about why it’s helpful in analyzing literature,
• Walk you through assonance examples in poetry and prose, and
• Give you four expert tips to help you find an analyze assonance in any text.

Ready? Let’s dive in!

The term iambic pentameter sounds like it’s more at home in a science textbook than it is in your English class. But believe it or not, iambic pentameter is a type of poetic meter!

In other words, iambic pentameter is a term that refers to a very specific type of rhythm that you find in poetry.

Knowing what poetic meter is and how to find it is an important skill for the AP Literature exam, and it can be really impressive if you discuss it properly in the AP exam’s essay portion. We know poetic meter might sound scary—heck, anything that has to do with poetry can be scary!—but we’re here to help. In this article, you’ll learn what iambic pentameter is, discover how to find it in a poem, and analyze iambic pentameter examples in poetry.

Let’s dive right in!

The word photosynthesis comes from two Greek words: photo, meaning “light”, and synthesis, meaning “put together.” Looking at that those two roots, we have a good idea of what happens during the chemical process of photosynthesis: plants put together water and carbon dioxide with light to create glucose and oxygen.

In this article, we’ll break down what photosynthesis is, why photosynthesis is important, and discuss the chemical equation for photosynthesis: what it is and what each part of it means.

Whether you're planning to take the SAT soon or just want to brush up on your basic math skills, knowing your times tables and multiples is a vital part of understanding math. Here, we give you free printable multiplication table PDFs and go over the nine rules you should know about multiplication.

Having your GED can open many doors for you, including getting a better job or being able to attend college, so you want to give yourself the best shot at getting a passing score. For most people, this means they’ll need to spend some serious time studying for the GED, and one of the best ways to prepare is to take GED practice tests.

This guide contains all the best practice GED tests available, including official, free, and paid practice tests. We explain where to find them, how much they cost, what each test’s pros and cons are, and we also give general advice on what to look for in a GED practice test.

Ever wondered how many seconds there are in a day? How about a week? A year? Thanks to Rent, we might know the number of minutes in a year (525,600), but how many seconds is that?

Whether you’re trying to get even more granular about how you measure a year or you’re just trying to figure out how many seconds are left until summer vacation, this guide will teach you how many seconds are in a day, a week, a year, and beyond. Not only will we teach you how to calculate these problems, but we’ll also give you a handy chart to keep track of them.

Read on to find out how to swap one unit of time for another!

One of the best ways to learn about your future career is to read about it. That’s true for becoming a doctor, too! As a pre-med student, books about medicine can help you prepare for medical school, but they can also introduce you to what it really means to care for your patients.

That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the seven books every pre-med student must read before they go to medical school. This list includes everything from MCAT prep books to grisly--but educational!--books about the darker side of medical history. We’ve also included works that introduce you to some of the social and ethical complexities of medicine, too.

Not only will these books widen your perspective on the field of medicine, they’ll also help you become a better doctor.   

Cells are the building blocks of life. All living things have cells - from small, single-celled organisms like bacteria to large, multicellular organisms like humans.

Cells have specific functions that help keep these varied creatures alive and kicking. In order to make these functions happen, chemical reactions occur within cells. Oftentimes, these chemical reactions are sped up by a special kind of protein called an enzyme.

In this article, we’re going to answer a few questions: what are enzymes, what are enzymes made of, and what types of enzymes exist.

One of the hardest parts of learning a romance language—especially one like Spanish—is verb conjugation.

In Spanish, the way a verb is conjugated depends on a number of factors, including the subject, the verb tense, and the purpose of the sentence itself. That means that there are actually many versions of each verb, all of which mean something slightly different. And because so much of understanding Spanish revolves around verbs, it’s an important (though pretty confusing) part of learning Spanish as a second language.

If you’re taking the AP Spanish exam, ser is one of the most critical verbs that you need to know—and know how to conjugate. Unfortunately, the conjugations for ser can be pretty tricky. But we’re here to help. In this article, we’ll give you every possible verb conjugation for the Spanish verb ser, which means “to be.” We’ll even give you a quick rundown on what ser means and when to use it!

So… ¡si estan listos, vamos!

What do those little sideways carat symbols mean? They're inequalities! Inequalities can be difficult to get a handle on, especially because the greater than and less than signs look so similar. But these symbols are very useful, because they help us show the relationship between numbers or equations in a way that doesn't just say that they're equal.

Rhetoric is the art of effective communication; if you communicate with others at all, rhetorical devices are your friends!

Rhetorical devices help you make points more effectively, and help people understand you better. In this article, I'll be covering some important rhetorical devices so you can improve your own writing! 

In writing, an author’s tone is his or her general attitude or feelings about the work’s subject matter and audience. Tone words are used to help express that attitude.

In this article, we’ll talk about what tone words are, analyze their use in several examples, and give a list of tone words with definitions that you can use in your writing.

We all have a friend who’s a huge fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Honestly, calling them a “huge fan” might be an understatement, since you know your friend would go back into a burning house to save their Gatsby book collection! (We might be “that friend,” honestly.)

So what could be better than surprising the Gatsby fan in your life with some special Great Gatsby swag? Nothing, of course! After all, as Fitzgerald writes in the book, “Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead.” And listen: we totally advocate treating yourself to a little something while you’re at it, too.

So without further ado, here are the best gifts you can buy for any Gatsby superfan!

Learning to read and understand poetry is tricky business. Between the tough terminology—what is synecdoche, anyway?!—and complicated structure, it can sometimes feel impossible to understand what a poet is trying to say. Unfortunately, if you’re going to take the AP Literature exam, you’re going to have to figure out how to quickly read and understand poetry.

One of the best ways to get a handle on poetry is to read a poem along with a detailed explanation of both what the poem means and how the poet conveys that meaning.

To do this, we’re going to take a look at Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle into that good night,” one of the most famous poems of the 20th century. Not only will you have a handle on the poem’s overall message, but you’ll also understand the most important techniques Dylan Thomas uses to convey that meaning to the reader.

We promise: by the end of this article, poetry will seem a lot less scary. So let’s get started!