1. Blue Winds Dancing
Writing Workshop

2. The Personal Essay “BWD” is a personal essay
essay: a brief work of nonfiction that expresses a person’s opinions or views about a particular subject
Possible purposes:
Analyze
Inform
Persuade
Entertain

3. Function of the Personal Essay
For the author: allows the author to re-create a personal experience
For the reader: allows the reader to “live” the author’s experience through the author’s eyes
Why might this be helpful to you as a reader? What does this allow you to do?

4. Why do we Need to Learn This?
“The reader’s interest in a personal essay often has at least as much to do with the author as it does with the subject of the essay.”
Listen to Marlin’s mollusk joke. The story isn’t that bad, but the way he tries to tell it is terrible…
The way you tell the story makes it come alive and makes your reader interested!

5. In other words…
If you want people to pay attention to what you have written, you need to write in a way that appeals to others.
When would this be important in the “real world”?

6. Style, Use of Language, Comparison
We will focus on three areas of how to write a story so that your readers are interested:
Author’s Style
Sentence structure
Imagery
Use of Figurative Language
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Use of Comparison

7. Author’s Style: Sentence Structure
Sentence Structure: the pattern the writer uses to connect words in a sentence
Good authors mix up their sentence patterns by using a variety of simple, compound, and complex sentences.
Good authors vary the length of their sentences.

8. Author’s Style: Sentence Structure and Imagery
Parallelism: (sentence structure) the use of repeated forms, phrases, or clauses that are similar (parallel) in structure to add to the “flow” of the paragraph and to make connections between ideas in a paragraph.
Alliteration: (sentence structure) repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of words
Imagery: the use of words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the senses

9. Use of Figurative Language
contributes to an author’s style
Refers to words or phrases used in unusual ways to
create strong, vivid images,
to focus attention on certain ideas,
or to compare things that a basically dissimilar
Simile, metaphor, personification

10. Use of Figurative Language: Simile and Metaphor
Simile: A direct comparison that uses like, as, or than; or a verb such as appears or seems
Ex: “giant cacti that look like petrified hitchhikers along the highways”
Metaphor: An implied comparison that doesn’t use words such as like or as
Ex: “The giant cacti were petrified hitchhikers along the highways”

11. Use of Figurative Language: Personification
when an animal, object, or idea is given human characteristics
Ex: “heavy mountains holding up the night sky”

12. Use of Comparison Comparison AND contrast
Comparison: focus on similarities
Contrast: focus on differences
Demonstrate dramatic differences between two topics
Through comparison, the reader understands both ideas being compared even better because they are being set side-by-side

13. Use of Comparison
If you’ve only ever had one, it’s hard to notice the subtle things you like about it until you have had the other!