Writing Enhancers Tricks of the writing trade to help you meet and exceed writing expectations. Ideas developed by Mary Ellen Ledbetter Powerpoint created by Gwen S. Thibadeau

Why use Writing Enhancers??? These writing techniques are common tools that ALL authors use. They are proven to add personality, voice, style, and reader interest.

A technique writers use to list items-the items must follow Magic 3 A technique writers use to list items-the items must follow the same pattern.  Technically referred to as Parallel Structure.

M3--Example After school each day I typically drive home with my children, complete homework, and talk about the day.

Hyphenated Modifier A technique writers use to creatively describe or rename someone or something rather than using plain one word adjectives. A boring, one-word adjective is replaced by a phrase or clause that might come to mind when the person is in that particular situation.

HM--Example Some of her students sat in their why-do-I-have-to-be-here postures while others exuded eagerness.

Repetition for Effect While repetition without careful consideration can be tedious and ineffective, a carefully selected word or phrase repeated can add incredible emphasis!

RE--Example That week, the teachers attended three faculty meetings.  They went to two department meetings.  They sat in on one collaborative teaching meeting, and they held training meetings.  They were ready to go back to class just to get away from all of the meetings.

Specific Details Also known as imagery, this technique appeals to the senses and includes enough detail to allow the reader to identify with the description.

SD--Example Her car reeked of stale cigarette smoke.  The back seat was speckled with charred black holes where the cigarette ashes had burned what used to be the pale gray plush fabric.

Figurative Language This technique finds new and creative ways to describe people, places, things, and ideas. Similes—metaphors—hyperbole—personification It incorporates fresh and creative similes and metaphors, not cliches.

FL- Example She had graduated. It wasn’t until then that she had realized what freedom really was. Finally, she was soaring through the air, wings spread wide.

Expanded Moment This technique involves the writer leaving the main story line to go into the character’s mind and explain a related experience or idea.

EM Example “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, and I caught myself wishing I were on white sand and looking down at almost transparent pale-blue water with Josh at my side… I don’t belong in some dumb 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. I want to grip a straw all day, not a mechanical pencil that will try unsuccessfully to write the answers to unsolvable questions.”

Full Circle Ending Writers will often begin a piece of writing with a key word or phrase, develop the piece, and will bring the reader back to the key word or phrase at the ending.

FCE--Example She was fat and happy.  The day she gave birth to her first child was amazing.  Everything was perfect.  The child had a beautiful head of hair, all ten fingers and toes, and slept rather than crying like most babies do.  Now, as an old woman sitting in her favorite chair visiting with three of her great grandchildren, again she was fat and happy.