Beefing up your writing

1. Beefing up your writing

2. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE • The following are examples of figurative language and literary devices:

3. Imagery • Language that appeals to the senses. Descriptions of people or objects stated in terms of our senses. • • Sight • • Hearing • • Touch • • Taste • • Smell

4. Simile • A figure of speech which involves a direct comparison between two unlike things, usually with the words like or as. Example: The muscles on his brawny arms are as strong as iron bands.

5. Metaphor • A figure of speech which involves an implied comparison between two relatively unlike things using a form of be. The comparison is not announced by like or as. Example: The road was a ribbon wrapping through the desolate desert.

6. Personification • A figure of speech which gives the qualities of a person to an animal, an object, or an idea. Example: “The wind screamed its fury as it pushed us down the road with the strength of a bull.” The wind cannot yell. Only a living thing can yell.

7. Personification Examples: • The sleeping water reflected the evening sky. • Humidity breathed in the girl's face and ran its greasy fingers through her hair. • The tree arrested the oncoming car. Joyet 2004

8. Onomatopoeia • The use of words that mimic sounds. Example: The firecracker made a loud ka-boom!

9. Alliteration • Repeated consonant sounds occurring at the beginning of words or within words. Example: She was wide-eyed and wondering while she waited for Walter to waken.

10. Hyperbole • An exaggerated statement used to heighten effect. It is not used to mislead the reader, but to emphasize a point. Example: She’s said so on several million occasions.

11. Why is it important to learn about figurative language? • Sports • “When you get on that field I want you to be a tank- roll through everything on the field to get that touchdown, no matter who’s in your way.” • “His team is the underdog in this game.” • “The coach encouraged his players to make mincemeat of the other team.” • “The batter knocked the stuffing out of the ball.”

12. Why is it important to learn about figurative language? • Business • “That project was a total bomb.” • “I want you to go out there and hit a homerun with this presentation.” • “Putting him in charge is like having the blind lead the blind.” • “Your plan is as easy to follow as a map.” • “The instructions you wrote me were as clear as mud.” • I found an article for business people about using metaphors to motivate your team: comparing selling a product to baking a cake, playing a sport, or running a marathon.

13. Why is it important to learn about figurative language? • In the movies • Forrest Gump: “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.” • Mean girls: “I have this theory, that if you cut off all her hair she'd look like a British man.” • Toy Story: “That wasn't flying; that was falling with style.” • Many movies are even built around a metaphor or personification, like Finding Nemo, where fish are like people. • And comedy • “My sister wore so much makeup she had to use a chisel to get it off every night.” • There’s an article for comedians about making jokes, and two of the tips were about using similes and metaphors.

14. Why is it important to learn about figurative language? • And music • Nelly- “I’m like Sprint and Motorola… no service, out of your range.” • ‘N Sync- “Your love is like a river, peaceful and deep. Your soul is like a secret that I could never keep” • Outkast- “Shake it like a Polaroid picture” • Switchfoot- “Yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead. Yesterday is a promise that you've broken.”

15. Why is it important to learn about figurative language? • Music • Nelly- “I’m like Sprint and Motorola… no service, out of your range.” • ‘N Sync- Your love is like a river, peaceful and deep. Your soul is like a secret that I could never keep” • Outkast- “Shake it like a Polaroid picture” • Switchfoot- “Yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead. Yesterday is a promise that you've broken.”

16. Lets Review • What techniques did we learn first in writing descriptive paragraphs? • Using our Senses • Sight • Sound • Smell • Taste • Touch/ Feeling • Using Onomatopoeia • Oooh! • Tick Tock • Kaboom!

17. Painting a word picture • The dog is carrying a stick. • The German Shepherd is carrying a big stick. • As he carries the small tree he has just uprooted, the lop-eared German Shepherd tilts his head and walks unsteadily, dragging his heavy burden back to his master and looking like a proud athlete who has just won a trophy.

18. Using Figurative Language • Similes and Metaphors • Making comparisons between two very different objects, feelings, or situations • Hyperbole • Using exaggeration • Show-Don’t-Tell • Using descriptive writing to show what happens rather than telling the reader

19. Similies and Metaphors • Simile • Using the words like or as to compare one object or person to another object or person (The 2 things must be very different) • Examples: • DJ was as fast as a cheetah. • The news hit Estevan like a ton of bricks. • Metaphor • Applying a word or phrase to somebody or something that is not meant literally but to compare. • Examples: • Joe was an animal on the football field.

20. Similies and Metaphors • It was a cold day. • Chris was so cold that he felt like his nose was frozen and his fingers were going to fall off. • Vincent’s mom said, “There’s no way you’re going out there, It’s as cold as ice!” • Cindy’s Dad told her she’d be walking into an icebox when she walked outside.

21. Hyperbole • Using exaggeration to describe a scene • Examples: • Ms. Crane was so sad she could have cried a river. • Irvin was so hungry he could have eaten a horse. • Adelene had a million things to do that day.

22. Hyperbole • The person was happy to get a letter. • When Chris got his birthday money in the mail he thought he would burst with joy. • Amber was so happy she was walking on air after she read the letter from her best friend. • Anessa was so happy she felt like she was on the top of the world.

23. Show-Don't-Tell • Using descriptive language to paint a picture of the scene rather than telling the reader what is happening. • Examples • Instead of “Benito was angry…” • “Benito stomped up the steps to his room, slammed the door, and sat fuming at his desk.” • Instead of “It was a hot day…” • “You couldn’t go down the slide unless you wanted to get a third degree burn on your backside. Everyone in Mr. Derose’s class ended up sitting under the trees in the shade.”

24. Show-Don't-Tell • The Boy was frustrated. • Santos crumpled up his third attempt at a descriptive paragraph and threw his pencil down in disgust. • Alonso had been writing for the past hour and a half and all he had to show for it was a bad headache and two sentences. “I give up!” he cried.

25. Practice Makes Perfect... Please rewrite the sentences on your worksheet so that they show, rather than tell, the main point. I would like everyone to share their best one with the class.