Smiley Face Tricks are used to make your

Smiley Face Tricks are used to make your writing better. We will learn 8 different Tricks to make our writing more interesting.

Smiley Face Trick #1 Specific Details For Effect

Specific Details for Effect • Use your five senses to create a specific explanation of what your writing is trying to express. • Help the person visualize, imagine, and mentally experience what you are writing about.

5 Senses… • Sound • Sight • Smell • Touch • Taste

Specific Details For Effect Example: • “ I started shivering. I could taste blood in my mouth and smell it in my nose. It had a cold, metallic taste that made my stomach twist inside out. I tore away from Pieter’s grip and ran back to the rail, emptying my stomach over the side. ” P. 54 Letters from Rifka

Specific Details for Effect Write a “DULL” sentence about either a messy or a tidy locker. Now write a short paragraph with specific details that include all 5 senses, describing that same locker. BE PREPARED TO SHARE…

Smiley Face Trick #2 Magic Three • Three parallel groups of words • Separated by commas • Used to create a poetic rhythm or add support or detail (Elaborate & Explain)

Magic 3 - Example 1 I was so excited about my test grade that I jumped wildly, cried huge tears of joy, and hugged the poor kid standing next to me!

Magic 3 - Example 2 As I prepared to ask her to the dance, my palms became sticky and shaky, my neck tingled with anticipation, and my heart puttered with emotion.

Magic 3 - Example 3 • I love to relax by reading a favorite book, playing with my pet dragon, or eating ice cream with my friends.

Let’s Practice Magic 3’s… Write a sentence with a Magic 3 about that locker. Ideas: - verb phrases - noun phrases - adjective phrases Be prepared to share.

Smiley Face Trick #3 Figurative Language She was just “poking at fun”.

Figurative Language • Non-literal comparison (you don’t REALLY mean what you wrote) • Adds “spice” to your writing • Helps paint a vivid picture • Says a LOT with FEW words!

Different Types of Figurative Language • Simile • Metaphor • Hyperbole • Personification • Onomatopoeia

Simile Comparing two things, using “like” or “as” or “than”. Examples: • He runs like a jaguar. • He runs as fast as a jaguar. • He runs faster than a jaguar.

Metaphor Directly comparing two things, often using “is” Examples: • She is a beautiful summer day when she smiles. • He is a jaguar racing down the field towards the end zone.

Hyperbole A massive exaggeration Examples: • This book weighs a ton! • No, I can’t get you a glass of water; I am doing a million things right now.

Personification Placing human-like attributes on an item or idea Examples: • The sun smiled on me today. • The wind attacked her umbrella violently, trying its best to rip it out of her hands.

Onomatopoeia A word that imitates the same sound that it makes. Examples: • The robot clanked down the hall. • Samuel happily jingle-jangled the coins in his pocket. • My cat yowled angrily when she fell head-first into the toilet.

Your Turn with Figurative Language… • Simile • Metaphor • Hyperbole • Personification • Write one example for each type of figurative language. • The topic may be that locker or whatever comes to mind quickly. • You may write 4 separate sentences or combine multiple examples into a short paragraph. Fun Option: Draw simple pictures to support each statement.

Smiley Face Trick #4 Repetition For Effect

Repetition For Effect • Repeating specifically chosen words or phrases to make a point • Emphasizes particular ideas

Repetition For Effect Example 1: “He wrote that at Ellis Island you are neither in nor out of America. Ellis Island is a line separating my future from my past. Until I cross that line, I am still homeless, still an immigrant. Once I leave Ellis Island, though, I will truly be in America. ” P. 57 Letters from Rifka

Repetition For Effect Example 2: “While I was shopping with the lady from the HIAS that first week, I saw a hat that I wanted, a hat that would cover my baldness. I thought if I only owned such a hat, it would not matter so much that I was bald… but I did not have the money. ” P. 45 Letters from Rifka

Repetition for Effect practice… • Write a sentence or short paragraph about a dreaded assignment (a speech, paper, project, test, etc…) that includes an example of Repetition for Effect • It can be about a real experience or a completely made up situation.

Smiley Face Trick #5 Hyphenated Modifiers

Hyphenated Modifiers (Adjectives) • A new way of saying something can create a sit-up-and-take-notice effect on your writing. • Hyphenated adjectives can allow you to say much with few words.

Hyphenated Modifier Examples The teacher looked at me with her I-amgoing-to-give-you-a-detention glare. When I was getting dressed for school, my mom had this you’d-better-wear-thatred-sweater-your-grandma-knitted-youor-else look. Ty gave me a let’s-be-friends handshake. Bella shot me the I-cannot-believe-youjust-said-that-to-me stare just before she spun on her heels and stormed away.

Your Turn Remember that locker? Write one sentence using at least one hyphenated modifier. Remember to use a string of at least three words for it. Try to use more though…

Smiley Face Trick #6 Humor

Humor • Good writers know when to add a bit of humor, something funny, to their paper. This can make a boring paper into an interesting and entertaining paper, lifting someone’s spirits. • It can also make informational or argumentative writing MUCH more interesting! • Why use it? We remember things that create an emotion for us…humor creates emotion.

Example: “There I was on the first day of school, the picture -perfect girl. My new outfit looked like something from my big sister’s magazine, my hair (for once) was having a good day, and I was strutting in my new shoes. Little did I know that I was trailing a three-yard piece of Charmin behind me. So much for using the bathroom right before class. ” (Ledbetter p. 106)

Your turn to be funny! Humor Practice… 1. Write about something that has happened to you that you think/thought was funny. Try to write it down and capture it in words. 2. Then, read it out loud. Does it still sound funny? If not, figure out what you can add/change to make sure your words capture the humor. * Figurative Language often lends itself very well to humor. (See examples on Writer’s Notebook handout. )

Smiley Face Trick #7 E x p a n d e d Moment

Expanded Moments Instead of “speeding” past a moment, writers sometimes spend some time explaining a certain part of the story …in great detail.

Expanded Moment Example: “The treatments are not so bad as I feared. I walk to the convent once a day. The nun in charge of my case is Sister Katrina. She washes my scalp with a green soap that makes my eyes water. Then she puts me under a violet light. The light warms my head. ” p. 37 Letters from Rifka Book Example: If You Give a Moose a Muffin (The whole book is one big expanded moment of a thought. )

Smiley Face Trick #8 Full-Circle Ending

Full-Circle Ending • This is a special type of ending that effectively “wraps up” the piece. • One way to do this is to repeat a phrase or concept, perhaps with slightly different words, from the beginning of the paragraph, section, story, or paper.

Example: Beginning: I sit quietly on the old wooden deck, watching the birds soar through the humid air. The ocean’s waves are like wrinkles gathered up in place. …and then a whole story takes place… Ending: The clouds are so delicate, so fragile, yet a single plane could not break their perfect form. I sit quietly on the old wooden deck, watching the birds, the waves, the clouds. Book Examples: If You Give a Moose a Muffin Harry Potter (the train)

Expanded Moment and Full Circle Ending practice… Think about all of the expanded moments in a typical day at school: by lockers, in classrooms, on a bus, at lunchtime… Beginning: Write a paragraph about a particular moment in time that could be the start of a short story about something that has happened in 7 th grade. …and then imagine a whole story taking place… Ending: Write a paragraph to end the short story, revisiting a key idea in your first paragraph. See if it might sound better if you reword how you initially wrote it. • It can be about a real or a made up situation. • Be sure to explain every single detail, so the reader feels as though they are there in that moment.