Assonance in science
Alliteration and assonance.. Boring non-sense?
Turns out they are some of the most powerful techniques used not only by poets and song writers, but also by ad designers, politicians and influencers at large. In other words, anyone whose job is to use words to impress.
Assonance: series words containing similar sounds.
Alliteration: a type of assonance given by words starting with the same letter.
It may seem like a trivial trick, a pointless exercise in style. Others before me have hit a wall trying to bring more varied grammar into academic language, and I am not arguing your next project proposal should be in prose.
But it won’t cost you anything to give it a try, just a little grammar hack to give more emphasis to your message. These rhetorical figures bring an attractive rhythm to sentences, and signal the reader that something there is worth of attention.
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Here are just a few examples I came across today in my commute.
And others from the science world:
Can you spot them? Which ones are assonance and which alliteration?
I use these regularly myself, as you may notice from some of my titles — and even from the name of the blog. It’s fun and, honestly, quite addictive!
Just be mindful of not taking it to far.. as in this Science Letter from 1993.
In conclusion, do you want to get you science message to stand out? Are you looking for a catchy title for your article, able to suck in any distracted reader scrolling through dozens of headlines? Do you need an incisive name for your new project?
Thesaurus can be your best friend in finding suitably sounding synonyms! (Ha!)
Grow your addiction for alliteration, and get obsessed with assonance, and take your punch line to the next level!
Post your own examples below and let me know if you find it useful!
