Use a spice rack as an analogy to explain how a few small words can change a sentence.Angle: a pinch, too much, the one jar you reach for every time.
Explain what a tradition is to a child by comparing it to a song everyone already knows the words to.Angle: who taught it to whom, and what happens when someone changes a line.
Explain what a team is to a child who has only ever played alone, using the fingers of one hand.Angle: what can five do together that no one finger can?
A fence is to a yard as what is to what? Write an answer to the analogy that surprises you.Shared: one marks the edge of the other. Start: A fence is to a yard as a frame is to...
A glove is to a hand as... Finish it, then write a second analogy that uses the same relation.Shared: one is made to fit the other. Start: A glove is to a hand as a sock is to...
A key is to a lock as... Finish the analogy twice, once with objects and once with people.Shared: one opens the other. Start: A key is to a lock as a joke is to...
A lid is to a jar as what is to what? Write three answers to the analogy and choose the best.Shared: one closes the other. Start: A lid is to a jar as a cork is to...
An umbrella is to rain as what is to what? Write the analogy and one way it does not quite fit.Shared: one keeps the other off. Start: An umbrella is to rain as a hat is to...
Finish it: a seed is to a garden as... Then write what the two pairs of the analogy share in one sentence.Shared: a small start and what it becomes. Start: A seed is to a garden as a note is to...
Finish the analogy and defend it in a paragraph: a page is to a book as...Shared: a part and its whole. Start: A page is to a book as a step is to...
Finish the analogy and explain it: a rehearsal is to a play as...Shared: the practice and the real thing. Start: A rehearsal is to a play as a sketch is to...
Finish the analogy three ways: a door is to a room as...Shared: the way in. Start: A door is to a room as a first line is to...
Finish the analogy: a footprint is to a walker as... Then write the story the second pair suggests.Shared: what is left behind. Start: A footprint is to a walker as a crumb is to...
Make up your own analogy in the form A is to B as C is to D, using two things on your desk.Shared: name the relation first, then find a second pair that has it.
Write an A is to B as C is to D analogy about a pencil and an eraser.Shared: one undoes what the other does. Start: A pencil is to an eraser as...
Write an A is to B as C is to D analogy that begins with a map and a traveler.Shared: one shows the other the way. Start: A map is to a traveler as a recipe is to...
Write an analogy in the form A is to B as C is to D about a coach and a team.Shared: one guides the many. Start: A coach is to a team as a conductor is to...
Write an analogy in which the first pair is a bell and a school day.Shared: one marks the start and the end of the other. Start: A bell is to a school day as...
Explain it with a kitchen 15
Compare saving money for something to filling a jar one spoonful at a time, and write the explanation.Angle: the days it looks no fuller, the spoonful someone takes out, the day the lid goes on.
Explain a crowded morning at your home by an analogy with a kitchen that has one sink.Angle: who needs it first, who takes too long, what a second sink would change.
Explain a messy backpack to its owner by comparing it to a refrigerator nobody has cleaned out.Angle: what is at the back, what has been in there since fall, where to start.
Explain an argument between two friends as a pot left on the heat.Angle: when it began to simmer, who could have lifted the lid, what was left in the bottom.
Explain how a good team works by an analogy with a busy kitchen at dinner time.Angle: who chops, who stirs, who calls the orders, and what happens when one is missing.
Explain how a group project goes wrong by describing five cooks making one cake with no recipe.Angle: who adds salt twice, who waits to be told, who wrote nothing down.
Explain how a library is organized to someone who knows only their own kitchen cupboards.Angle: what goes with what, why labels matter, what one thing put back wrong does.
Explain how a rumor spreads by comparing it to the smell of burned toast moving through a house.Angle: where it starts, which doors were open, how long it hangs about.
Explain how to draft a story by comparing it to making soup from what is in the house.Angle: what goes in first, what you taste for, when you stop adding things.
Explain what a first rehearsal is like, using the first pancake of a batch as your analogy.Angle: the pan not hot enough yet, the odd shape, why nobody minds.
Explain what it is like to learn a new skill, using a recipe you get wrong the first three times.Angle: the burned batch, the one that was nearly right, what you stopped measuring.
Say what leftovers are to a kitchen, then use them as an analogy for an idea you saved for later.Angle: what keeps, what is better the next day, what should have been thrown out.
Use a spice rack as an analogy to explain how a few small words can change a sentence.Angle: a pinch, too much, the one jar you reach for every time.
Use a whisk and a wooden spoon as an analogy for why the right tool matters in a job that is not cooking.Angle: pick the job first: a math problem, a painting, a letter of apology.
Use bread dough rising as an analogy to explain why some things cannot be hurried.Angle: choose the thing first: a friendship, a drawing, a garden.
A bad analogy fixed 15
A book is like a door, people say. Make the analogy earn its place: a door to where, opened how, and what if it sticks?Angle: push the picture until it either holds or breaks, and report which.
A family is like a team. Write two ways the analogy fits and one way it fails, then mend it.Angle: nobody is cut from a family, and there is no other side to beat.
A friend is like a shoe: the more you have, the better. Fix this analogy so that it says something true about friends.Angle: keep the shoe if you can. What is true of one pair worn for years?
A memory is like a photograph, people say. Test the analogy against a memory of your own, and write a better one.Angle: think of a story you tell often. Has it stayed exactly the same?
A teacher is like a faucet filling empty cups. Write where the analogy breaks, then replace the faucet.Angle: the cups do nothing. What picture gives the students a job?
An analogy says a good coach is like a mirror. Write what a mirror cannot do for a player, and fix it.Angle: a mirror shows what you did. What shows you what to try next?
Homework is like a mountain. Rewrite the analogy so that it fits a Tuesday night and not an expedition.Angle: smaller, more often, never quite finished. Dishes? A lawn?
Reading a book is like watching a film with the sound off. Say what is wrong with the analogy and write a fairer one.Angle: what does a reader supply that a watcher is handed?
Someone explains the internet as a library. Write what a library has that the analogy leaves out, and offer a better picture.Angle: who chose the books, who put them in order, whom can you ask?
Someone says a city is like an anthill. Write what the analogy gets right and what it leaves out, then try again.Angle: from far above the two may match. What does the analogy miss at street level?
Someone says learning is like a sponge soaking up water. Write where the analogy breaks, and offer a better one.Angle: a sponge does no work, and one squeeze empties it. What takes effort and keeps what it gets?
Someone says practice is like filling a bucket, with every hour adding the same amount. Fix the analogy.Angle: some days nothing seems to go in, and one day it all shows. What works that way?
Starting at a new school is like jumping into cold water. Write where that is true, where it is not, and a closer analogy.Angle: cold water is over in a second. What takes weeks to warm up?
Take an analogy you have heard too often and test it: write where it holds, where it cracks, and whether to keep it.Angle: life as a journey, a school as a second home, or one a teacher of yours uses.
Time is like a river is a tired analogy. Write three fresh ones for the way time passes on a school day.Angle: one for the first hour, one for the last, one for recess.
Teach it to a child 15
Explain a deadline to a young child with an analogy from their own day.Angle: the bus that will not wait, the bath before the water gets cold.
Explain an opinion and a fact to a child, using two flavors of ice cream and the weather outside.Angle: which of the two can you check by looking out the window?
Explain patience to a child who is waiting for something, using an analogy they can see from the window.Angle: a traffic light, a bud on a branch, a puddle drying.
Explain to a child what borrowing means, with an analogy between a library book and a favorite toy.Angle: what stays the same about the thing, and what is owed at the end.
Explain what a budget is to a small child, using a jar of cookies that has to last a week.Angle: what happens on day two if four are eaten on day one?
Explain what a team is to a child who has only ever played alone, using the fingers of one hand.Angle: what can five do together that no one finger can?
Explain what a tradition is to a child by comparing it to a song everyone already knows the words to.Angle: who taught it to whom, and what happens when someone changes a line.
Explain what a vote is to a child, using the choice of a game at recess.Angle: what happens to the ones who wanted the other game?
Pick a word a child asked you about, or might, and explain it with one analogy from a playground.Angle: say the analogy, then say the one place where it does not fit.
Teach a child what a map is for by comparing it to a drawing of their own bedroom seen from the ceiling.Angle: what gets left off, and how small the bed has to be drawn.
Teach a five-year-old what a compromise is by way of the last slice of pizza.Angle: two people, one slice, three ways to settle it. Which one is the compromise?
Teach a small child what a habit is by comparing it to a path worn across grass.Angle: the first crossing leaves no mark. What about the hundredth?
Teach a small child what a promise is with an analogy to something they can hold.Angle: a knot, a seed in the ground, a coin kept in a pocket for someone.
Use a seesaw as an analogy to explain to a young child what fair means.Angle: then find the place where the seesaw stops helping, and say so.
Use building blocks as an analogy to explain to a child what a first draft is.Angle: the tower you build to see if it stands, before the one you show people.
How it works
An analogy compares two things because of something they are taken to share, and its plainest form is A is to B as C is to D. These prompts ask for that form, then for explanations built on one comparison.
Read the full guide
Writing prompts using analogy to explain
In teaching, an analogy sets a new topic beside one the listener already knows. Two groups do exactly that. One explains with a kitchen: a rumor as the smell of burned toast, a story draft as soup made from what is in the house. The other explains to a small child: a budget as a jar of cookies that has to last a week.
When the analogy is the problem
Fifteen prompts hand over a comparison that almost works. A teacher is like a faucet filling empty cups, and the cups do nothing. The job is to say where it breaks and write one that holds.
Name what the two things share before you write a word of the comparison.
Push your analogy one step too far, find where it fails, and say so.
Questions and answers
What is an analogy writing prompt?
A prompt that asks you to explain or describe one thing by way of another. Explain what it is like to learn a new skill, using a recipe you get wrong the first three times.
How is an analogy different from a simile or a metaphor?
Wikipedia's article on analogy calls it a kind of thought and not a figure of speech: it is the comparison itself. Similes and metaphors are among the wordings it can take. The figurative language list has prompts for those two.
How do I write an A is to B as C is to D analogy?
Start with one pair and name what links them: a glove is made to fit a hand. Then find a second pair with the same link, such as a sock and a foot. If one sentence describes both pairs, the analogy holds.