1. Smiley-Face Tricks What exactly are Smiley Face tricks? Well, they are tricks that will help you to become more advanced writers. They work, they really do!!!! You will need to use these tricks throughout the year in all of your writing so listen up!!!

2. The MAGIC THREE

3. Three parallel groups of words Separated by commas Used to create a poetic rhythm or add support for a point (Elaborate & Explain)

4. Example 1 “In those woods, I would spend hours 1 listening to the wind rustle the leaves, 2 climbing the trees, and 3 giving the occasional wild growl to scare away any pink-flowered girls who might be riding their bikes too close to my secret entrance.”

5. Example 2 I was so excited that I jumped up & down, cried huge tears of joy, and plastered a huge smile on my face.

6. Example 3 My palms became sticky and shaky, my neck tingled with anticipation, and my heart puttered with emotion.

7. What to do? Every time you use a Smiley Face Trick, remember to put a smiley face on the periphery (edge) of your paper, next to it.

8. Let’s Practice the Magic 3 Choose one thing that you did over the weekend that was fun or interesting. Using the magic 3, go ahead and write a paragraph describing this time. Be prepared to share.

9. Smiley Face Tricks Figurative Language

10. Non-literal comparisons Used to add “spice” to your writing Helps paint a vivid picture for the reader

11. Different Types of Figurative Language Simile Metaphor Hyperbole Personification

12. Simile Comparing two things, using “like” or “as” or “than”. Example: (copy at least 1) – She is pretty like a summer day. – He is as fast as a jaguar. – He is faster than a jaguar.

13. Metaphor Directly comparing two things, usually using “is” Example: – She is a summer day when she smiles. – He is a jaguar when he races down the street.

14. Hyperbole An exaggeration, to express a strong point. Example: – The books weigh a ton. – I am doing a million things right now.

15. Personification Placing human-like characteristics on an item Example: – The sun smiled on me today. – The wind kissed my cheek gently.

16. Again, include examples of similes, metaphors, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, personification, symbolism, irony, alliteration, assonance, etc. – “When we first moved into the house on First Street, I didn’t like it. My room was hot, cramped, and stuffy as a train in the middle of the Sahara. “ (Teri, grade 7)

17. Your Turn Come up with 1 examples for each type of figurative language. Then, draw a picture to support your statement. BE PREPARED TO SHARE Simile Metaphor Hyperbole Personification

18. Smiley Face Tricks Specific Details For Effect

19. SPECIFIC DETAILS FOR EFFECT Add specific details with vivid and specific information to your writing to clarify and create word pictures. Use sensory details to help the reader visualize the person, place, thing, or idea that you are describing.

20. Specific Details for Effect Use your five senses to create a specific explanation of what your writing is trying to express. Help the person visualize and imagine, through your words.

21. Example of Specific Details “The leaves danced as we started up the tinted blue walkway, on that cool October morning. Mays Landing was usually warmer on the twentieth, but today was different, I had been born. Today was the day I had come into this world, and it was a big world for such a little person. I was a peculiar toddler, in a good way though. I was steadily tottering around the house at only eight months, and speaking in full sentences by two. I adored life and everyone in it, like when the sun gently sets in the summer evenings and glazes the mammoth pine trees that surrounded our house, I knew this was the beginning of something special.” (Alyssa Grade 6)

22. 5 Senses Hear See Smell Touch Taste

23. Specific Details For Effect Example 1: “ I started shivering. I could taste blood in my mouth and smell it in my nose. It had a cold, metallic taste that made my stomach twist inside out. I tore away from Pieter’s grip and ran back to the rail, emptying my stomach over the side.” P. 54 Letters from Rifka

24. Specific Details for Effect Example 2: “Before I could finish, water, a wall of water, rose up over me. Pieter grabbed me around the waist and hurled me away from the side. The water came crashing down over our heads, slamming us onto the deck. Pieter held onto me as the water sucked at my body, trying to pull me overboard.” P. 54 Letters from Rifka

25. Your Task 1.Pick any item in your possession 2.Write 5 sentences describing EVERY aspect of the item. 3.Remember to consider all 5 of your senses. BE PREARED TO SHARE.

26. Smiley Face Tricks Repetition For Effect

27. Repeating specifically chosen words or phrases to make a point To stress certain ideas for the readers

28. REPETITION FOR EFFECT Example 1: “The veranda is your only shelter away from the sister in bed asleep, away from the brother that plays in the tree house in the field, away from your chores that await you.” (Leslie)

29. Repetition For Effect Example 2: “He wrote that at Ellis Island you are neither in nor out of America. Ellis Island is a line separating my future from my past. Until I cross that line, I am still homeless, still an immigrant. Once I leave Ellis Island, though, I will truly be in America.” P. 57 Letters from Rifka

30. Your Turn Write 3 paragraphs: 1.Your Weekend 2.The Worst Day 3.The Best Day Think about what happened, at certain parts of the day. Each paragraph should include at least 1 Repetition for Effect, giving you a total of AT LEAST 3 for this task. Make sure to put a smiley face next to each Repetition for Effect.

31. Smiley Face Tricks Expanded Moments

32. Expanded Moments Instead of “speeding” past a moment, writers sometimes spend some time explaining a certain part of the story in detail.

33. EXPANDED MOMENT Example 1: “But no, I had to go to school. And as I said before, I had to listen to my math teacher preach about numbers and letters and figures…I was tired of hearing her annoying voice lecture about ‘a=b divided by x.’ I glared at the small black hands on the clock, silently threatening them to go faster. But they didn’t listen, I caught myself wishing I were on white sand and looking down at almost transparent pale-blue water with my best friend at my side…I don’t belong in some dull math class. I belong on the beach, where I can soak my feet in caressing water and let the wind wander its way through my chestnut-colored hair and sip Dr. Pepper all day long. “(Sue)

34. Example 2: “Then Pieter bent over and kissed me! Right on my lips, Tovah. A warm kiss, with the soft blond hairs of his mustache tickling me.” p. 52 Letters from Rifka

35. Your Turn Write one paragraph, explaining one specific moment of your day. Make sure to explain every single detail. Let the reader feel as though they are you.

36. Smiley Face Tricks Humor

37. Good writers know when to add a bit of humor, something funny, to their paper. This can make a potential boring paper into an interesting and entertaining paper, lifting someone’s spirits.

38. HUMOR “There I was on the first day of school, in my brand new outfit that I had begged mom to buy for me. For once, I was having a great day, and I was strutting in my new shoes with a heart filled of glee. Little did I know that I was trailing a three yard train of toilet paper that was stuck to the bottom of my shoe! So much for strutting in my new shoes.” (Andrew 6th).

39. Your Turn 1.Write about something that has happened to you that you think/thought was funny. Try to write it down and capture it in words. 2.Then, read it out loud. Does it still sound funny? 3.If it does not, figure out what you can add/change to make sure your words capture the humor.

40. Smiley Face Tricks Hyphenated Modifiers

41. Hyphenated Modifiers Sometimes a new way of saying something can make all the difference. Hyphenated adjectives often cause the reader to “sit up and take notice” of what you have written.

42. Hyphenated Modifiers Example – “She’s got this blond hair, with dark highlights, parted in the middle, down past her shoulders, and straight as a ruler. She’s got big green eyes that all guys admire and all girls envy, and this I’m- so-beautiful-and-I-know-it smile, you know, like every other super model.” (Ilena)

43. More Examples The teacher looked at me with her I-am-going-to-give- you-a-detention look. When I was getting dressed for school, my mom had this you’d-better-wear-that-red-sweater-your-grandma- knitted-you-or-else look. He gave me a let’s-be-friends handshake. She gave me the I-don’t-like-your-shirt look.

44. Your Turn Write 10 different sentences using hyphenated words in each one. There must be at least 3 words or more in the hyphenated phrase.

45. Start with these: 1.I got an F in Science. 2.My friend was excited to see me after winter break. 3.It was a good day. 4.It was a bad day. 5.The dog was the cutest thing I had ever seen!

46. Smiley Face Tricks Full-Circle Ending

47. Full-Circle Ending This is a special type of ending that effectively “wraps up” the pieces. One way to do this is to repeat a phrase-perhaps with slightly different words-from the beginning of your writing.

48. Example: From beginning: I sit quietly on the old wooden deck, watching the birds soar through the humid air. The ocean’s waves are like wrinkles gathered up in place. From end: The clouds are so delicate, so fragile, yet a single plane could not break their perfect form. I sit quietly on the old wooden deck, watching the birds, the waves, the clouds.

49. Your Turn Beginning: Write 5 sentences to start off a short story about something that has happened to you in 7 th grade. End: Write 5 sentences to end the short story. BUT, this time reword what you initially wrote.

50. What to do? Every time you use a Smiley Face Trick, remember to put a smiley face on the periphery (edge) of your paper, next to it.