Image Grammar by Harry Noden Using Grammatical Structures

Image Grammar by Harry Noden Using Grammatical Structures to Teach Writing

How is the writer like an artist? Writers paint images of life using techniques similar to artist brush strokes on a canvas.

What are the brush strokes that writers use? Brush strokes are fundamental artistic elements of grammar that bring depth, flow, tone, and rhythm to a piece of writing. They allow a reader to experience.

“Paint pictures with words. ” Compare: 1 - “It was winter. Everything was frozen and white with snow. Snow had fallen from the sky for days. The weather was horrible. ”

“Paint pictures with words. ” 2 – “Mossflower lay deep in the grip of midwinter beneath a sky of leaden gray that showed tinges of scarlet and orange on the horizon. A cold mantle of snow draped the landscape, covering the flatlands to the west. Snow was everywhere, filling the ditches, drifting high against the hedgerows, making paths invisible, smoothing the contours of earth in its white embrace. ” Author: Brian Jacques

What are the five basic brush strokes? -Participles -Absolutes -Appositives -Action Verbs -Adjectives Shifted out of order

Painting with Participles • One form of the PARTICIPLE is a ing verb tagged on the beginning or end of a sentence.

A writer/artist might describe the scene: • Original sentence: “The diamond-scaled snakes attacked their prey. ” OR • Revised sentence with a few participles: “Hissing, slithering, and coiling, the diamond-scaled snakes attacked their prey. ”

Participial Phrase • Another revised sentence with participles phrases: “Hissing their forked red tongues and coiling their cold bodies, the diamondscaled snakes attacked their prey. ”

PARTICIPLES evoke action! - Usingle participles creates rapid movement. “Hissing, slithering, and coiling…” - Using expanded phrases add detail at a slower but equally intense pace. “Hissing their forked red tongues and coiling their cold bodies…”

Participles can also end with ed. Examples: Preoccupied, distracted and unfocused, Jane swerved as she drove along the slippery road. Trapped in the pouring rain and distracted by its intensity, Jane swerved as she drove along the slippery road.

Participles Painted by Hemingway Shifting the weight of the line to his left shoulder and kneeling carefully, he washed his hand in the ocean and held it there, submerged, for more than a minute, watching the blood trail away and the steady movement of the water against his hand as the boat moved. --- Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

PARTICIPLES are not VERBS • A participle is a form of a verb that can act as an adjective. • They are verb that have been changed by adding an –ed or –ing ending BUT they are used to describe the subject of the sentence.

Participles and participial phrases are “extra” descriptions – The sentence without them must be complete – They must be offset by commas – Verbs that end in –ing or –ed (called participles) only work if they are “extra” descriptions for the subject, not when they are normal verbs – They are not adverbs, which are verbs often ending in ly

Student Example: • Base Sentence/Independent Clause: “The Olympic long jumper thrust the weight of is whole body forward. ” • “Flying through the air on the wings of a dream, [the Olympic long jumper thrust the weight of his whole body forward. ”] --- Cathleen Conry

Student Example: • Base Sentence/Independent Clause: “The rhino looked for freedom. ” , • “The rhino trapped in the tangled rope looked for freedom. ” --- Erika Schreckengost ,

Remember: Single participles = rapid movement Participial phrases = slower, but equally intense pace

Your Turn: Add participles or participial phrases to the following base sentences: 1 – The cats pounced on the ball of yarn. 2 – The dancer flew across the stage. 3 – The enraged dog attacked the intruder.

Check out these two common mistakes and see if you can find the error and fix them: • “My lab assistant Skippy twittered with craziness. • The sink is leaking like a baby’s diaper. ” • “Susan, energetically like a dog who is happy to see its master, couldn’t contain her excitement. ”