These activities are a way for students to think about words they use and sentences in a new way.
Working with words and sentences
Words:
- Go through your piece and underline all the verbs.
- Then work on each one; is there a word that more completely expresses that action? For example: perhaps you underline “walked” –did the person actually stroll, jog, stride, or saunter? What image do you want in the readers mind? While you don’t want to change every verb, it is very likely you will want to try to change some/many.
- Then go through your piece and underline all the nouns. Complete the same process: are there more specific words that portray the image more closely?
- Search for any unnecessary words. Are there any places you have used 3 words when 2 will do? Cross them out and see what you think.
Word-level work:
Underline each adjective and adverb in your poem (or essay). Can you use a stronger one instead?
Search for any unnecessary words. Cross them out and see what you think.
Sentences:
Choose one section of your piece. Write the sentences from this section in list form. Do many/most of your sentences follow the same pattern? If so, try-
- combining some
- varying short and long sentence for effect
- using words that connect sentences and show relationships between idea: then, now, however, after, and, so, but, yet, for—
- varying punctuation: experiment with semicolons, colons, dashes, and parentheses. All of these, if use sparingly, can have great effects.
