D:a peace of land projecting into water
I would say, Simile because this compares the feeling of seeing the machine to being stabbed by a dozen awls. Similes use like or as to compare two different objects, so that is what leads me to believe this. It cannot be a symbol, because that does not represent anything. It cannot be personification because it does not take a nonliving object and give it human features. I would say that's it a metaphor, but it uses as, so I firmly believe that it is a simile..
In both a powerful discourse and an influential paper you are trying to convince your gathering of people to agree with your disagreement. One difference would clearly be that in one your are writing and in the other you are talking which implies you may have an alternate gathering of people between the two. Another disagreement would be that when writing a paper you can incorporate more weakness and describe while the conversation includes more visual models.
Hope you understand
Allen went to the store on Wednesday. Singular
Allen's kids stayed at home with mom. Plural