improving your writing
DESCRIPTION
Improving your writingTRANSCRIPT
Skills
• You will have to focus on your
sentence structure
• Varied punctuation to create
specific effects
• The structure of the narrative
• Varied vocabulary to create
specific effects.
Sentence Structure
Little variety in sentence structures
Skilful control in the construction of varied sentence forms
-ly, -ing, -ed • I walked through the dark alley and suddenly
a hand reached out and grabbed my shoulder.
• Suddenly a hand reached out and grabbed my shoulder as I walked down the dark alley.
• I was breathing deeply as I crept through the deep, dark wood.
• Breathing deeply, I crept through the deep, dark wood.
• I was trapped and could not see a way out.
• Trapped! I could see no way out.
Vary your sentence
starters
• He walked to the door. He opened it and looked inside. He saw a large…..
How could you make this passage more interesting by changing the sentence starters?? Once done- finish of the paragraph with two or three more sentences.
Sentence lengths • Simple, Compound, Complex
• Short and long
• A short sentence can be 1 word long!
Don’t even bother using!
• Walked/walk-
• Said-
• Nice/good-
• Bad-
• Never start sentences with so/and/then- in fact- try not to use them mid sentence if you can!
Try
• He was unhappy. • Carefully, he wiped away a glistening tear as he
watched her turn away and move purposely towards the door.
• He was nice • She was a kind person
• He was happy • The wind blew hard
• She sat in a tree waiting for her friend • He walked to school
• The dog barked • It was sunny • He was angry
Describe each of these images using powerful
adjectives and the techniques we have learnt
today
Techniques
SENSES Sight Sound Smell Touch Taste
CHOICE OF WORDS Adjectives
Onomatopoeia Alliteration Assonance sibilance
DEVICES Metaphor
Juxtaposition Simile
Pathetic fallacy Personification
Poetic Techniques • Simile- When you compare one thing to something else using
the words ‘as’ or ‘like’. • Alliteration- When the first letter of the words are the
same. • Personification- When make something which isn’t human
sound human. • Onomatopoeia- A word which sounds like the noise it makes. • Sibilance- Words characterized by, or producing a hissing
sound like that of (s) or (sh) • Assonance- Resemblance of sound, especially of the vowel
sounds in words • Metaphor- A comparison between essentially unlike things
without an explicitly comparative word such as like or as.
Come up with one simile, one metaphor and one personification for each image
Senses and tense • Describe - as appropriate to the scene -
what you saw, heard, tasted, smelt and felt - that is, use 'sensory description';
• notice 'saw', 'heard': be safe and stick to writing about a past time! – present tense writing can be exciting to read
but it's far too easy to forget the time frame of the present and flip back into the past - which is confusing for your reader and loses many marks.
– Unless you are a very sure writer - avoid writing about 'now' - choose to write about 'then'
Could you do it?
• 1) Pathetic fallacy is when you use the weather to reflect what is happening in the scene.
• 2) Juxtaposition is two random objects/ideas/perspectives moving in parallel, a technique intended to stimulate creativity
• 3) Satire is to hold up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn. Also can be to use wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice.
Pathetic fallacy • Pathetic Fallacy is very similar to
personification. However, it can also be used when the weather reflects what is going on in the scene. Eg.
• If the weather is hot, sunny and there are people everywhere- it usually represents a ‘happy’ story.
• If the weather is dark, cold and stormy- you can usually guess that something bad is going to happen.
Objective: Can I write in different styles? What are the effects of different writing
styles?
• Shattered! Can barely move myself anymore. The slow process of age, chasing me my whole life, is finally to have it’s day of victory.
• All around, ever silent, ever invisible, ever lasting. The source of all life yet never appreciated as the world moves by as always. Yet when I am present, they can see, they can feel and they cannot run.
• Yeah! This lot are well boring- seriously! Don’t care less bout this rubbish- I wanna run!
Example • The window smashed, sending glass flying in all
directions. Flames burst into the room. I ducked, keeping my body as low as I could, trying desperately to avoid the smoke that was advancing rapidly across the ceiling. I scanned the room for other exits and was relieved to see a small window on the far wall. The smoke was getting thicker and started slowly descending to the floor. My mind shouted, ‘Move!’. Taking a deep breath of clean air, possibly my last, I pushed away from the wall to safety. As I struggled to open the window, I felt my heart pounding. My lungs screamed for air. The smoke descended and I worked blind, my eyes stinging. I pulled franticly at the catches, felt them give and tumbled out onto the ground below. I felt the heat escaping from the open window above and started to crawl slowly away.