Painting With Brush Strokes Overview of the Five
Painting With Brush Strokes Overview of the Five Brush Strokes
#1: Absolutes The absolute phrase has a noun followed by a participle. How do I figure out what a participle is? Start with a Verb—to sing, to walk, to eat, to shatter Put has / have in front of the verb and conjugate: has sung; has walked; have eaten; have shattered. The underlined words are participles. OR put is / are in front of the verb and conjugate: is singing; are walking; is eating; are shattering. The underlined words are participles. Put a noun in front of participle = absolute phrase: We followed the dusty trail, an ancient trail walked on by thousand of feet. Children singing with happy voices, the interior of the church reverberated in joyful melody. Lightening bolts shattering the midnight sky, the monsoon season had arrived. The tiny sweet cakes eaten, the guests smiled contentedly.
#1: Absolutes Common in the action sequence of fiction Infuses action into a word painting Creates a more vivid description Examples: Feet trembling on the snow-covered rocks, the mountain climber edged along the cliff. Jaws cracking, tongue curling, the kitten yawned tiredly, awaking from her nap.
#2: Appositives • The appositive phrase is a noun that follows (and more fully describes) another noun. – Noun (cat) (bump) – Another noun (feline) (protuberance) • Our cat, an uncommon feline, likes to play catch with the dogs. • “What is this bump, this protuberance on my knee?
#2: Appositives • Expands sensory details • Amplifies still images • In non-fiction, adds clarity Examples: Maule, a Chilean region south of the capital Santiago, had the most confirmed deaths: 541. The raccoon, a midnight scavenger who roams lake shorelines in search of food, enjoys eating turtle eggs. White = appositive (the second noun) Green – the entire appositive phrase which includes adjectives and other modifiers.
#3: Adjectives out of order Adjectives are modifiers that define the noun— telling us how much, which kind, which color, whose, et al. – She put three big, fat, ugly, green bugs on her sister’s back. For this brushstroke, the writer simply reverses the syntax. – She put the bugs, three of them, fat, ugly, and green, on her sister’s back.
#3: Adjectives out of order Intensifies the details of an image, creating a more powerful image than placing adjectives before the noun Avoids elementary stringing of multiple adjectives • The large bull moose, red-eyed angry, charged the intruder. • My father looked up at the pine tree, green, strong, and majestic.
#4: Participles The participle phrase is a phrase that starts with a participle (See the first slide if you still don’t know what a participle is. ) These phrases describe the noun that either proceeds or precedes the phrase. Lining the orange crate, the white cloth keeps the mice from eating the fruit. Invigorated from her 2 -mile run, the young woman smiled as she drove back to her job.
#4: Participles Paints a more detailed picture, making writing more descriptive Single participles create rapid movement Expanded participial phrases add details at a slower but equally intense pace Hissing, slithering, and coiling, the diamond- scaled snakes attacked their prey.
#4: Action / Vivid Verbs The action verbs is different from the linking verb; action verbs ACT; linking verbs connect a subject to a describing word (either a noun or an adjective). Why use action verbs? They SHOW rather than tell. Linking verbs are often in wordy and vague constructions: There are / There is (Avoid) Passive voice—(Avoid) “The book was written. ” (yawn) Make Subjects the ACTORS of your sentence and the Verbs the ACTIONS. “John wrote the book”
#5: Action / Vivid Verbs are the PRECISE verbs that appeal to the senses. Use amble for walk if you mean to walk slowly. Use pace for walk if you mean to walk back and forth. The snake was under the porch. (boring) The snake waited under the porch. The snake slithered under the porch. There are three teens sitting at Starbucks. (yawn) Three teens slurped iced lattes at Starbucks. Three teens sipped iced lattes at Starbucks.
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