Writing to Imagine, Explore and Entertain

IMAGINE, EXPLORE AND ENTERTAIN What does the author need to do? Be creative and avoid clichés. Use strong adjectives, nouns and verbs. Captivate audience by creating tension and atmosphere. Use imagery. Similes, personification, metaphors. Use a range of sentence types. Simple, compound and complex. Use sensory description. Create powerful descriptions of setting, character and action.

IMAGES - verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs. - the five senses. EXAMPLE: I felt prickly goose bumps cover my pale skin when a strange, shadowy figure quietly appeared at my bedroom window. Authors use images to add originality and powerful description to their work. To create images, authors use:

THE FIVE SENSES One of the key tasks that a passage of descriptive writing has to perform is to appeal to all five of the senses. The "picture" that you paint in a reader's mind should be so much more than a visual one – it should also be about how things sound, smell, taste, and feel to touch. Only THEN will your writing truly come to life.

DON`T JUST SEE SOMETHING!!! These descriptions of a beach all appeal to the sense of sight... The white sand. The green palm trees. The way the sea is the same blue as the sky, making it hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. The rocks still wet from high tide.

BROADEN YOUR SENSES But these apply to all of the other senses... The smell of caught fish from the fishing boat (smell). The faint taste of salt on the breeze (taste). The screeching herring gulls (sound). The slippery rocks (touch). Evoking all of the senses in a passage of descriptive writing is a simple way of making the description multi-dimensional. And you know what? It really doesn't take a lot of extra work.

CAN YOU PICK IT? Here are some groupings of words we can use to describe the senses. What are the five senses again? Can you pick which senses these words relate to????

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IMAGERY Authors also use imagery to add originality and powerful description to their work. But what it is? Imagery means to use figurative language to represent objects, actions and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses. Usually it is thought that imagery makes use of particular words that create visual representation of ideas in our minds. The word imagery is associated with mental pictures. However, this idea is but partially correct. Imagery, to be realistic, turns out to be more complex than just a picture.

Read the following examples of imagery carefully: It was dark and dim in the forest. – The words “dark” and “dim” are visual images. The children were screaming and shouting in the fields. – “Screaming” and “shouting” appeal to our sense of hearing or auditory sense. He whiffed the aroma of brewed coffee. – “whiff” and “aroma” evoke our sense of smell or olfactory sense. The girl ran her hands on a soft satin fabric. – The idea of “soft” in this example appeals to our sense of touch or tactile sense. The fresh and juicy orange is very cold and sweet. – “ juicy” and “sweet” when associated with oranges have an effect on our sense of taste or gustatory sense. Imagery needs the aid of figures of speech like simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia etc. in order to appeal to the BODILY senses.

Change the underlined words in the sentences below to create more sophisticated and imaginative sentences. 1.Amanda ate the hamburger. 2.I had a nice time at the park. 3.The weather was bad during the summer holidays. 4.I was tired after I ran three miles. 5.She said she was hurt. Extension: Write a sentence with imagery using imaginative words.

1.Use personification with the following words:  alarm  stereo  clock 2. Change the following Dull sentences into Fabulous sentences by using imagery:  I saw a cloud in the sky.  I was thirsty after I ran.  I saw a pretty beach. Keep building using all your tools!!!

COMMAS 1.When do you use commas?

GOOD EXAMPLE As I was walking down the dark, deserted alleyway, I saw a shadowy figure up ahead. I called out to it, but the shadows seemed to hold it back, as if to stop it revealing its identity.

TASK: WRITE TO MAKE SOMEONE FALL ASLEEP Write a very dull and boring description of the following scenarios: o walking in a forest o going on a first date o getting arrested and going to the police station DO NOT include any of the following: - strong and varied vocabulary - imagery (metaphors, similes, five senses, etc.) - complex sentences (varied connectives, subordinate clauses, etc.) - tension, action or atmosphere

TASK 2 Rewrite your paragraph by inserting the following:  strong adjectives and verbs  5 senses  similes

TASK 3 Change the following boring, dull paragraph into an engaging and entertaining text. I walked through the forest during the early evening on Sunday. I was all alone as I walked through the rows of trees. I saw a house in the distance. I got scared. It was getting dark. I heard a sound and looked behind me. I saw a man.

TASK 4 Improve the following sentences that are clichés. Remember to be creative, accurate and involving. Therefore, write a very descriptive sentence. 1.She was over the moon with delight. 2.He treats me like gold. 3.He was scared out of his skin. 4.She felt like her heart would break.