Q #249: Why are analogies so powerful?

Here’s a story shared by Brian Clark.

Brian Clark

An elderly man stormed into his doctor’s office steaming mad.

“Doc, my new 22-year-old wife is expecting a baby. You performed my vasectomy 30 years ago, and I’m very upset right now.”

“Let me tell you a story,” the doctor calmly replied.

“A hunter once accidentally left the house with an umbrella instead of his rifle. Out of nowhere, a bear surprised him in the woods… so the hunter grabbed the umbrella, fired, and killed the bear.”

“Impossible, ” the old man said. “Someone else must have shot that bear.”

“You got it,” the doctor replied.

This is an excellent example of an analogy. It is also an excellent example of how to connect dots. To increase the impact of your prose, you need to master analogies, metaphors, and similes. They help to clarify key ideas with vivid images that illuminate, and often dramatize causal relationships as well as comparisons and contrasts.

Clark is an Internet marketing strategist, content developer, entrepreneur, and recovering attorney. In addition to building three successful offline businesses using online marketing techniques, he has sold scores of products and services online via joint venture and affiliate arrangements. He founded Copyblogger in January of 2006, and continues to develop successful web properties with a variety of partners.You can sign up for free email updates by visiting http://www.copyblogger.com/.

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