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Overview of Adding Details

Overview of Adding Details. Show, don’t Tell Use Sensory Description Move from general to specific Use Similes, Metaphors, and Personification. Showing vs. Telling. Telling: Telling language uses little to no descriptive details. It’s boring. Blah, blah!

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Overview of Adding Details

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  1. Overview of Adding Details • Show, don’t Tell • Use Sensory Description • Move from general to specific • Use Similes, Metaphors, and Personification

  2. Showing vs. Telling Telling: Telling language uses little to no descriptive details. It’s boring. Blah, blah! Showing: Like watching a scene. Showing language recreates the experience for the reader.

  3. Example: Showing vs. Telling Telling: “I milked cows as a kid.” Showing: “Flossy, our Holstein, with her taut muscles and sagging udder, tolerated my feeble attempts as a child to extract her milk.”

  4. Example: Showing vs. Telling Showing: “Mama, since pterodactyl starts with a p and not a t, I’m going to name my pterodactyl ptommy!” said my 4-year-old daughter, Mia, swishing her strawberry-blonde hair and flashing me her impish smile. Telling: My daughter is so smart!

  5. Sensory Description Sight Sound Taste Smell Touch

  6. General to Specific: Nouns Nouns are people, places, things, and ideas. Make them specific! Car  yellow 1976 Stingray Shoe  Jimmy Choo red patent pumps Building  Columbia Tower Fish  Rainbow Trout Newspaper New York Times Tree  Big Leaf Maple

  7. General to Specific: Verbs Verbs are actions. So make them active and specific! Run  Gallop, Lope, or Sprint Laugh  Chortle, Giggle, or Snort Jump  Flail, Hop, or Launch Drink  Chug, Sip, or Gulp Look  Glare, Glance, or Stare

  8. General to Specific: Adjectives Adjectives modify (tell us more about) nouns. Make them as descriptive as possible. Beautiful  elegant, sophisticated, graceful Red  crimson, burgundy, brick, scarlet Nice  attractive, kind, gentle Loud  cacophonous, piercing, roaring Slow  unhurried, sluggish, methodical

  9. General to Specific: Adverbs Adverbs modify verbs. They tell us how the action of the verb was executed. Adverbs usually end in –ly. Try adding them! • Melissa lectures enthusiastically. • Timidly, the cat crept around the corner. • Martha bitterly cleaned up her children’s mess. Adverbs can move around sentences!

  10. Similes • My father skittered around the kitchen like a mouse as my mother barked orders. • Like caramel, the setting sun dripped into the sea. • As a gnat, Suzie bombarded me with questions. Similes add description by using the words like or as:

  11. Metaphors • My brother is a barracuda in the courtroom. • The teacher was a hammer, relentless if making a point. • The trees were gnomes playing in the windy forest. Metaphors describe by claiming one thing is another, so one thing is associated with the qualities of the other:

  12. Personification Personification is making something that’s not a person seem to have human-like qualities: • With their eyes bright, the skyscrapers looked out over the darkened city. • The kind and inviting rock beckoned me to sit and rest.

  13. Balancing Details • Balance highly descriptive sentences by putting them near less descriptive ones. • Avoid bombarding with too much description. • Make all of your details contribute to a dominant impression.

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