Bad Analogies

Do you like to write and commit your thoughts for others to read? If you want to write well, avoid these analogies that were actually written by high school students:

• "Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze."

• "He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree."

• "McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty Bag filled with vegetable soup."

• "The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't."

• "John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met."

• "Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at 35 mph."