Figures of Thought for College Writers

Based on the idea that metaphor is basic to our cognitive processes and is a reliable way of structuring and understanding concepts, this book aims, first, to encourage greater language awareness, and second, to encourage students to consider some of our culture’s dominant metaphors and the ways in which they both reflect and shape the concepts they describe. After an extensive introduction to metaphor (Chapter 1), thematic chapters explore several common conceptual metaphors. Each of the conceptual metaphor chapters includes at least one student essay.