3. A redheaded woman was there with Trout. Kate could see her
rummaging throughout the cabin dumping drawers and
knocking things from the shelves of cabinets
-Louis Sachar,
Holes
1. What picture do you get in your mind when you
read the second sentence?
2. How would the meaning of the sentence change if
we changed some of the words? For example:
Kate could see her searching through the cabin,
emptying drawers and taking things off the shelves
of cabinets.
3. Now write a sentence similar to the one above
using strong verbs and descriptive details.
4. M.C. heard him scramble and strain his way up the
slope of Sarah’s mountain.
-Virginia Hamilton, M.C. Higgins, the
Great
1. What does it mean to scramble and strain
up a mountain? Close your eyes and try to
get a picture of someone scrambling and
straining up a mountain.
2. How would it change your mental picture if
we rewrote the sentence like this?
M.C. heard him walk up the slope of
Sarah’s mountain.
3. Write your own sentence modeled on
Hamilton’s that describes an action and
creates a scene for your reader.
5. For nearly a year, I sopped around the house, the
Store, the school, and the church, like an old biscuit,
dirty and inedible. Then I met, or rather got to know,
the lady who threw me my first lifeline.
~Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
1. What is the dictionary definition of the verb sop? This word
is not usually used to describe a person’s actions. What
effect does this have on the reader?
2. What is a lifeline? How is Angelou’s use of the word
different from its usual use? How does this diction affect
your understanding of the sentence?
3. Find an appropriate but unusual verb to describe how you
might move around the school on a particularly difficult or
very exciting day, and use it in a similar sentence that offers
the reader an explanation of why.
6. He spent hours in front of the mirror trying to herd his teeth
into place with his thumb. He asked his mother if he could
have braces, like Frankie Molina, her godson, but he asked at
the wrong time.
-Gary Soto, “Broken Chain,” Baseball in April and Other Stories
1. What is Gary Soto implying about the narrator’s teeth
when he uses the verb herd in the first sentence?
2. How would the meaning change if the sentence were
written like this?
He spent hours in front of the mirror trying to push his
teeth into place with his thumb.
3. Fill in the blank below with a strong verb that creates
a clear picture in the reader's mind like Soto's does.
Avoid such obvious verbs as brush, comb, or fix. Be
creative!
She spent hours in front of the mirror trying
to__________________ her hair in place for the
party.
7. They scuttled for days and days and days till they came to a great forest,
‘sclsively full of trees and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-batchy shadows,
and there they hid: and after another long time what with standing half out
of it, and what with the slippery-slidy shadows of the trees falling on them,
the Giraffe grew blotchy, and the Zebra grew stripy, and Eland the Koodoo
grew darker…
-Rudyard Kipling, “How the Leopard Got His Spots,” Just So
Sto1ri.es What is the dictionary definition of scuttled? How would your
mental picture change if the passage said, They trudged for days
and days…?
2. Consider the hyphenated adjectives Kipling uses in this passage:
patchy-batchy and slippery-slidy. How do these adjectives help the
reader understand the scene?
3. Write two sentences about going on a long car trip. Your first
sentence should contain a strong verb that creates a vivid picture
for the reader. Your second sentence should use a hyphenated
adjective that either rhymes (like patchy-blatchy) or has
alliteration (like slippery-slidy). It's OK to make up part of the
hyphenated adjective (like blatchy), but it must be
understandable to the reader. Remember that the purpose of
this kind of diction is to make an experience come alive for the
reader.
9. I used to like going to have my hair cut. I liked the mirrors in
the room and all the smells of lotions and shampoos. I liked to
sit there-young and fresh and pretty- and see what the women
were having done, to make themselves look younger and
prettier. I liked the way my mother’s hairdresser teased me
about boyfriends and dances. Not anymore, though. Somebody
held the door open so my mother could wheel me in, and a few
people who had met me came around to say how sorry they
were.
1. Which details support the attitude that the narrator used to
-Cynthia Voigt, Izzy, Willy Nilly
like having her hair cut? Write those details and explain about
their effectiveness.
2. Which detail changes the direction of the passage? Note that
the narrator’s reason for not liking haircuts anymore is not
explained. Nevertheless, you know what has happened. What
effect does that have on you, the reader?
3. Write a paragraph using details to capture the reasons why you
like a particular sport or activity. Don't explain why you like
the sport. Instead, use details to show the reader what you like
about the sport. If you want to experiment, try shifting the
focus of your paragraph as Voigt does in her paragraph.
10. He was an old man. His black, heavily wrinkled face was
surrounded by a halo of crinkly white hair and whiskers that
seemed to separate his head from the layers of dirty coats
piled on his smallish frame. His pants were bagged to the
knee. Where they were met with rags that went down to the
old shoes. The rags were held on with strings, and there was a
rope around his middle.
-Walter Dean Myers, “The Treasure of Lemon Brown,” Face to Face: A
collection of Stories by Celebrated Soviet and American Writers
1. List all the vivid details in the passage. How do details
help you understand the focus on the passage?
2. There are several contrasting details in the passage,
details that give two completely different pictures of
the man. For example, the passage says the man is
wearing layers of dirty coats, which makes him sound
padded and heavy; but he is also described as having
a smaller frame, which makes him seem frail. Identify
other contrasting details in the passage, and discuss
what these contrasts add to the overall effect of the
description.
3. Using Walter Dean Myers' paragraph as a model, write
a similar paragraph about an old cat. Use lots of vivid
detail.
11. When he ran, he even loved the pain, the hurt of the running, the
burning in his lungs and the spasms that sometimes gripped his
calves. He loved it because he knew he could endure the pain and
even go beyond it. He had never pushed himself to the limit but he
felt all this reserve strength inside of him: more than strength
actually- determination. And it sang in him as he ran, he heart
pumped blood joyfully through his body.
-Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War
1. What is the main idea (topic sentence) or focus of this
paragraph? State it as simply as you can. How do the
details in this paragraph support the main idea?
2. The details in the first sentence describe the physical
sensation of pain. The next three sentences, however,
focus on another characteristic of pain. What is this other
characteristic of pain? How do the details of the last three
sentences help the reader understand the other
characteristic of pain?
3. Write a simple topic sentence about something you love
to do. Then list all of the details you can think of that
would help someone else understand why you love what
you do. Share your sentence and list with a partner. After
your partner has read your sentence and list, have
him/her explain to you why you love what you do. If your
list is full of vivid details, your partner should be able to
do this easily.
12. Meanwhile, Confucius pursued his studies. Whenever he
had a chance, he visited the state capital, Qufu, a lively
town thronged with people talking, laughing, and
shouting; buying, selling and gambling; eating at food
stalls in every street; and watching acrobats, jugglers,
and magicians at the marketplace, where vendors hawked
such delicacies as bears’ paws, the fins of sharks, the
livers of peacocks and the bees fried in their own honey.
1. What is the focus of the detail in this description of
the state capital, Qufu?
-Russell Freedman, Confucius: The Golden Rule
2. How would the feeling and impact of this passage
change if Freedman had ended the second sentence
right after people.
3. Describe a town you have visited. First decide on a
focus: the people, the historic sites, the stores and
restaurants, or the scenery. Now write a sentence
similar to the one describing Qufu. Use lots of details
to make your description come alive for the reader.
13. I loved the smell of fruits and vegetables and would savor
everything, sniff at it, before I ate. We had a pear tree in the garden,
and my mother would make a thick pear nectar from its fruit, in
which the smell of pears seemed heightened. But the scent of pears,
I had read, could be made artificially, too (as was done with “pear
drops”), without using any pears. One had only to start with one of
the alcohols-ethyl, methyl, amyl, whatever- and distill it with acetic
acid to form the corresponding ester.
-Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical
Boyhood
1.The first sentence of the passage is a broad
statement, stating the speaker’s love of the way fruits
and vegetables smell in general. How does the rest of
the passage enrich and strengthen the first sentence?
2.What is the speaker’s attitude toward science? What
specific details reveal this attitude?
3.Write a paragraph which expresses a positive attitude
toward playing a particular game. Start with a general
sentence about games, and then use detail to capture
the aspects of the game you like. Don't explain why
you like the game. Instead, bring the reader into the
experience of the game through carefully chosen
detail.
15. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi,
a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and
oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom
and justice.
-Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have A
Dream”
1. Identify two examples of figurative
language in the passage. Are the figures of
speech metaphors or simile? How do you
know the language is figurative?
2. What does the figurative language add to
the passage?
3. Rewrite the passage from Dr. King's speech
without any figurative language. Contrast
your sentence with the original. Talk about
the differences with a partner.
16. Now only the night moved in the souls of the two men
bent by their lonely fire in the wilderness; darkness
pumped quietly in their veins and ticked silently in their
temples and their wrists.
-Ray Bradbury, “The Dragon,” The Golden Apples of the Sun and
Other Stories
1. Is the word night literal or figurative? If it is literal, what
does it literally mean? If it is figurative, explain why.
2. When Bradbury says, darkness pumped quietly in their
veins and ticked silently in their temples and their wrist,
what does he literally mean? This entire clause is a
metaphor, which means there has to be a comparison
between essentially unlike things. What is the
comparison? What are the literal and figurative terms of
the metaphor?
3. Write a sentence similar to Bradbury's about a group of
very happy people. Use a metaphor to describe the
people. The first thing you need to do is decide what you
want to compare their happiness to. Then you can write
your sentence. Remember that a metaphor is implied,
not stated. Use Bradbury's sentence as a model.
17. I was seven, I lay in the car
watching palm trees swirl a sickening pattern past the
glass.
My stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin.
-Naomi Shihab Nye, “Making a Fist,” Words Under the Words:
Selected Poems
1. What is the metaphor in this poem? What is
the literal term? What is the figurative
term? What does the metaphor mean?
2. How would the meaning and impact of
these lines change if Nye said simply, My
stomach really hurt?
3. Write a sentence like the one above
describing a wonderful feeling. Use a
metaphor to help create the feeling you are
experiencing.
18. He gossips like my grandmother, this man
with my face, and I could stand
amused all afternoon
in the Hon Kee Grocery,
amid hanging meats he
chops…
~Li-Young Lee, “The Cleaving,” The City in Which I Love You
1. Look at the first line. Is “like my
grandmother” a simile? Explain.
2. Is “this man/with my face”
figurative? If so, is it a metaphor or
a simile? Explain.
3. Write a short poem using similes
and metaphors. You can base your
poem on the one above.
19. Frantic, Cole struggled to fly, but he couldn’t escape the nest. All he could do
was open his beak wide and raise it upward toward the sky, the action a
simple admission that he was powerless. There were no conditions, no vices,
no lies, no deceit, no manipulation. Only submission and a simple desire to
live. He wanted to live, but for that he needed help; otherwise his life would
end in the nest.
-Ben Mikaelsen, Touching Spirit Bear
1. This paragraph from Touching Spirit Bear contains an extended
metaphor, a metaphor that continues over several sentences and is
developed in several ways. The literal term of this metaphor is Cole, the
name of the boy who struggles to survive. What is the figurative term?
How do you know? In other words, what evidence can you find in the
paragraph that supports your understanding of the figurative term of
the metaphor?
2. The figurative term of this metaphor is never directly stated. How
would the impact of this paragraph change if Mikaelsen had written it
like this?
Frantic, Cole was like a little bird struggling to fly, but he couldn’t do it.
Like a baby bird, he was powerless. There were no conditions, no vices,
no lies, no deceit, no manipulation. Only submission and a simple desire
to live. He wanted to live, but for that he needed help; otherwise life
would end.
3. Write a paragraph using an implied metaphor describing walking
through the halls of BHS for the first time.
21. He could shoot a bumblebee in the eye at sixty paces,
and he was a man who was not afraid to shake hands
with lightening.
-Harold W. Felton, Pecos Bill and the Mustang
1. This is an example of a hyperbole, an exaggeration
that is based on truth but carries the trust to such an
extreme that it is no longer literally true. Of course,
Pecos Bill couldn’t literally do these things. What,
then, is the purpose of saying that he could?
2. Compare Felton’s sentence with this one:
He could shoot very well, and he was not afraid of
anything.
Which sentence better helps the reader understand
what Pecos Bill is like? Why?
3. Write a sentence about a great athlete, using
hyperbole. Model your sentence after Felton's
sentence.
22. “… The grass you are standing on, my dear little ones, is made of
a new kind of soft minty sugar that I’ve just invented! I call it
swudge! Try a blade! Please do! It’s delectable!”…
“Isn’t it wonderful!” whispered Charlie. “Hasn’t it got a wonderful
taste, Grandpa?”
“I could eat the whole field!” said Grandpa Joe, grinning with
delight. “I could go around on all fours like a cow and eat every blade
of grass in the field!” -Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
1. Write down the example of a hyperbole in this
passage. Remember that hyperbole is figurative, not
literal. What is the literal meaning of the hyperbole?
2. The character, Grandpa Joe, first states the he could
eat a whole field. Then he extends or continues this
hyperbole by saying he could go around on all fours
like a cow and eat every blade of grass in the field.
How does this extended hyperbole help you
understand Grandpa Joe’s experience of the swudge ?
3. Now you try it:
Write a sentence with dialogue that includes
hyperboles. Your character should be a teenager.
Give your character a name, and have your character
say something about being very tired. Use hyperbole
to capture just how tired your character is. Dahl's
passage can serve as your model.
23. There was enough artillery in Beekman’s toy department
to wipe out Red China and the Mau-Mau tribe of Africa,
and I personally think some of the toy manufactures
could use a good course in prevention psychiatry.
-Paul Zindel, The Pigman
1. Write down the hyperboles in this
sentence.
2. What is the speaker’s attitude towards toy
guns? How does the hyperbole in this
sentence reveal this attitude?
3. Now you try it: Write a sentence using a
hyperbole to express a negative attitude
toward the super-sized portions in a fast-food
restaurant. Use Zindel's sentence as a
model.
24. Flowers and other things have been laid against
the wall. There are little flags, an old teddy bear,
and letters, weighted with stones so they wont
blow away. Someone has left a rose with a
droopy head.
-Eve Bunting, The Wall
1. This passage is from a book about the Vietnam War
Memorial in Washington, D.C. There are several symbols
in the passage. Identify the symbols and explain what
they mean.
2. Look at the last sentence about the rose. Remember
that it is a rose, but it’s also a symbol of something else.
What does the rose actually symbolize? Why does it
have to have a droopy head here? What does the
droopy head add to our understanding of the symbol
and the feeling of the passage?
3. To the very end of the passage, add another symbolic
item: “Someone has left a rose with a droopy head, and
[your addition here]. Below this, explain the symbolism.
25. The one tree in Francine’s yard was neither a pine nor a hemlock. It had
pointed leaves which grew along green switches which radiated from
the bough and made a tree which looked like a lot of opened green
umbrellas. Some people called it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where
its seed fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky. It grew in
boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps and it was the only
tree that grew out of cement. It grew lushly, but only in the tenement.
-Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
1. Remember that a symbol is itself and something else. This
paragraph is about a tree, but it’s also about something else. What
is that something else? When you identify that something else, you
have understood the symbol.
2. How would this passage be different if Smith had used a simile
instead of symbolism, like this?
Francie’s spirit was like a tree with pointed leaves which grew
along green switches which radiated from the bough and made a
tree which looked like a lot of opened green umbrellas. She always
tried to rise above her troubles like a Tree of Heaven which
struggles to reach the sky, no matter where its seed falls
3. Think of a plant that symbolizes your spirit. Write a paragraph
which develops that plant as a symbol. Don't compare the plant to
anything (Don't say, for example, “I am like a willow, flexible,
graceful, and strong.”). Instead, talk about the plant in such a way
that the reader understands you are also talking about your spirit.
(Of course, it's hard!) Use Smith's paragraph as a model.
27. The silence was delicate. Aunty Ifeoma was scraping a
burnt pot in the kitchen, and the kroo-kroo-kroo of the
metal spoon on the pot seemed intrusive. Amaka and
Papa-Nnukwu spoke sometimes, their voices low, twining
together. They understood each other, using the sparest
words. Watching them, I felt a longing for something I
knew I would never have. I wanted to get up and leave,
but my legs did not belong to me, did not do what I
wanted them to.
-Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple Hibiscus
1. Imagery is the re-creation of sensory experiences through
language. Which of the five senses (sight, sound, taste,
touch, smell) is most important here? Underline the
particular words that create this sense experience for the
reader?
2. The “kroo-kroo-kroo of the metal spoon on the pot” is
described as intrusive. What does this mean? What image is
contrasting with the sound of the metal spoon on the pot?
What effect does this have on the passage?
3. Now you try it: Describe your school hallway between
classes. Focus on the sounds that are important in the
scene. Use two contrasting images and a made-up word
which imitates a sound, as Adichie does in her passage
28. Backing out the driveway
the car lights cast an eerie glow
in the morning fog centering
on movement in the rain slick street
-Nikki Giovanni, “Possum Crossing,” Quilting the Black-Eyed
Pea
1. Circle the images. What kind of imagery is used in these
lines? What kind of feeling is created with these images?
2. Contrast the feeling created by Giovanni’s lines with these
lines:
Backing out the driveway
the car lights cast a warm glow
in the morning sunshine centering
on movement in the rain slick street
How do the images create a different feeling?
3. Now you try it: Write four lines of poetry about trying to
comfort a friend who is heartbroken. Create the feeling of
sadness through sight imagery. Use Giovanni's poem as a
model.
29. Well, after a long time I heard the clock away off in the
town go boom-boom-boom-twelve licks; and all still
again- stiller than ever. Pretty soon I heard a twig snap
down in the dark amongst the trees- something was a-stirring.
I sat still and listened.
-Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1. What kind of imagery is used in this passage? How do these
images affect the reader?
2. Twain uses imagery to set up a contrast between sounds
and quiet. How does the use of “quiet” and “sound” images
shape your understanding of the scene?
3. Now you try it: Write a paragraph describing the sounds you
hear in your classroom right now. Use imagery that captures
both the quiet of the room and the sounds of the room. Use
Twain's paragraph as a model.
30. He had bathed regularly in the lake, but not with soap
and he thought how wonderful it would be to wash his
hair. Thick with grime and smoke dirt, frizzed with wind
and sun, matted with fish and foolbird grease, his hair
had grown and stuck and tangled and grown until it was a
clumped mess on his head.
-Gary Paulsen, Hatchet
1.Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between figurative
language (like metaphors and similes) and imagery. That’s
because a lot of figurative language contains imagery. For
example, we could describe someone’s hair as limp and
stringy, like overcooked spaghetti. This is a visual image- it
makes you “see” the hair. But it is also figurative (hair is
compared to overcooked spaghetti). Read Paulsen’s paragraph
again. Is the imagery figurative or not? Explain your answer.
2. What does the imagery in this passage reveal about the
character’s attitude toward his dirty hair?
3. Now you try it: Write a paragraph describing a really messy
room. Use lots of imagery in your paragraph, but don’t use any
figurative language.
31. Something warm was running across the backs of her
hands. She saw with mounting horror that it was mixed
slime and blood running from the dog’s mouth.
-Stephen King, Cujo
1. What kind of imagery is used in this passage? Is the imagery also
figurative?
2. How does the imagery in this passage help create the horror of the
situation?
3. Now you try it: Pretend that your best friend just threw up. You are
helping your friend and you accidentally touch the vomit. Think
about what it feels like. Using King's sentences as a model, write at
least two sentences describing the experience.
33. He was a year older than I, skinny, brown as a chocolate
bar, his hair orange, his hazel eyes full of mischief and
laughter.
-Esmeralda Santiago, When I was Puerto Rican
1. Look carefully at the way this sentence is written. All of the
words that follow the Word I are used to describe the he of
the sentence. They are adjectives and adjective phrases.
This is not the way words are usually ordered in English. (In
English, adjectives are usually right before the nouns they
modify, or at least right next to them.) What effect does this
word have on the meaning of the sentence?
2. Placing all of the adjectives and adjective phrases one after
the other is called layering. What effect does this layering
have on the impact of the sentence?
3. Now you try it: Create a sentence similar to Santiago's
sentence.
34. But once I spread my fingers in the dirt and couch over
the Get on Your Mark, the dream goes and I am solid
again and am telling myself, Squeaky you must win, you
must win, you are the fastest thing in the world, you can
even beat your father up Amsterdam if you really try. And
then I feel my weight coming back just behind my knees
then down to my feet then into the earth and the pistol
shot explodes in my blood and I am off and weightless
again, flying past the other runners, my arms pumping up
and down and the whole world is quiet except for the
crunch as I zoom over the gravel track.
-Toni Cade Bambara, Raymond’s 1. The first sentence is made up of maRnuyn s (hCorret actliavues eSsh ionr ta Srotowr,i es)
each clause separated by a comma. Read the sentence aloud
several times and think about it. A comma indicates a short
pause, a little breath. How does the sentence structure
emphasize the meaning of the sentence?
2. Both of these sentences start with conjunctions (but, and).
What is the purpose of a conjunction? Why do you think the
author has chosen to start these sentences with a
conjunction?
3. Write a sentence describing getting a phone call you are
really excited about. Try to capture your excitement through
your sentence structure, as Bambara does, using short
clauses connected by commas. Begin your sentence with a
conjunction (and, but, or).
35. When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without
hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little- a very,
very crevice in the lantern. So I opened it- your cannot
imagine how stealthily, stealthily-until, at length, a single
dim ray, like the thread of a spider, s how from out the
crevice and full upon the vulture eye.
-Edgar Allan Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” The Tell-Tale Heart and
Other Writings
1. Look carefully at the sentence. There are several groups of
words called phrases (very patiently, without hearing him
lie down, a very, very little) that interrupt the flow of the
sentence. Why do you think Poe wrote the sentence like
this?
2. Look at the second sentence. What is the purpose of the
dashes? How do these dashes, and the words they set off,
involve the reader in the action of the passage?
3. Now you try it: Write a sentence about doing your
homework. Try to imitate the way Poe uses phrases to slow
down the way you read the sentence. Use at least one dash.
36. Grayson said, “Pitcher.” This word, unlike the others, was
not worn at all, but fresh and robust. It startled Maniac. It
declared: I am not what you see. I am a line-laying,
pickup-driving, live-at-the-Y, bean-brained parkhand. I
am not rickety, whiskered worm chow. I am a pitcher.
-Jerry Spinelli, Maniac Magee
1. Notice that the passage alternates long, layered sentences
with short sentences. What is the purpose of the short
sentences? What is the purpose of the longer sentences?
2. Why is the last sentence in italics? What effect does this
sentence have on the impact of the passage?
3. Now you try it: Write a short sentence that follows and
emphasizes the long sentence below.
Although I’m not a great athlete, that day I was flying-running
as if I’d been training for weeks- and I felt capable,
for the very first time, of winning a race, of being a track
star, of helping my team.
37. He found that he was often angry, now: irrationally angry
at his groupmates, that they were satisfied with their
lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking
on.
-Lois Lowry, The Giver
1. What is the purpose of the colon in this sentence?
2. How would it change the effectiveness of the sentence if he
rewrote it like this?
He found that he was often irrationally angry at his
groupmates because they were satisfied with their lives
which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on.
3. Write a sentence which uses a colon to connect important
ideas. The words which follow the colon should explain and
emphasize the words that come before the colon. Use
Lowry's sentence as a model.
38. TTOONNEE
The expression of the author’s
attitude toward his/her
audience and subject matter.
39. The Baudelaire orphans went to the bedroom and glumly
packed their few belongings. Klaus looked distastefully at
each ugly shirt Mrs. Poe had bought for him as he folded
them and put them into a small suitcase. Violet looked
around the cramped, smelly room in which they had been
living. And Sunny crawled around solemnly biting each of
Edgar and Albert’s shoes, leaving small teeth marks in
each one so she would not be forgotten.
-Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad
Beginning
1. What is the tone of this passage? Brainstorm tone words
with your class and add new words to your Tone Words List.
2. How do you know the tone of this passage? Create
evidence of what you identify as the tone of this passage.
3. Write a paragraph about packing for a trip. In your
paragraph create an enthusiastic tone.
40. Rachel/Rachelle and some other twit about the movie
date before Mr. Stetman starts class. I wasn’t to puke.
Rachel/Rachelle is just “Andythis” and “Andythat.” Could
she be more obvious? I close my ears to her stupid
asthmatic laugh and work on the homework that was due
yesterday.
-Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak
1.What is the attitude of the narrator toward
Rachel/Rachelle? Circle and discuss the diction, details, and
imagery that reveal this attitude.
2.What is the tone of the passage? How do you know? Look at
your list of tone words and decide which words best
describe the tone of this passage. If you think of new
words, add them to the list.
3.Write a short paragraph about a particularly awful cafeteria
lunch. Your tone should be disrespectful and mocking. Don't
come right out and say that you disrespect and mock
cafeteria food. Instead, use diction, detail, imagery, and
syntax to create your disrespectful, mocking tone.
41. MIRANDA: O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
That has such people in’t!
-William Shakespeare, The Tempest
1. What is the tone of this passage? How do you know?
2. How would the tone of the passage change if we simply
changed the punctuation like this?
MIRANDA: O, wonder…
How many goodly creatures are there here?
How beauteous mankind is. O brave new world
That has such people in’t.
3. Write a similar passage in praise of your favorite singer
or athlete. Your tone should be admiring.Use your own,
natural language. Focus on the use of punctuation to
create the tone.
42. The haunted house was half in the shadows of the clump
of elms in which it stood. The elms were almost bare
now, and the ground around the house was yellow with
damp leaves. The late afternoon light had a greenish cast
which the blank windows reflected in a sinister way. An
unhinged shutter thumped. Something else creaked.
-Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time
1. What is the tone of the passage? How does L’Engle use
diction, detail, and imagery to create the tone?
2. Would the tone of the passage change if we deleted the
words haunted and sinister? Explain.
3. Rewrite L'Engle's paragraph with a different tone. Describe
a lovely, warm house in summer. Use diction, detail, and
imagery to create your tone.
43. The Navy guy and I told each other we were glad to’ve
met each other. Which always kills me. I’m always saying
“Glad to’ve met you” to somebody I’m not at all glad I
met. If you want to stay alive you have to say that stuff,
though.
-J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
1. What is the narrator’s attitude toward people in general? How
do you know? Explain how the element of voice help you to
identify that narrator’s attitude towards the diction, syntax
and hyperbole’s in this passage.
2. How would the tone of the passage change if Salinger had
written in like this?
John and I told each other we were glad to’ve met each
other. I’m not sure I really meant it. I’m always saying “Glad
to’ve met you” to somebody I’m not sure I’m glad I met.
3. Write a short paragraph about meeting someone famous.
Your paragraph should have an admiring and approving tone.
Express your tone through diction, syntax, and figurative
language.
44. It is my observation that dogs feel certain basic emotions
like affection, fear, confusion, and joy. I’m not sure
they’re capable of feeling sadness or jealousy or if they
can get their feelings hurt. But I believe a dog can get
embarrassed!
Take the Sunbeam clippers to a long-haired dog and see
if he doesn’t slink off behind the barn.
-Baxter Black, “Dog Emotions,” Cactus Tracks & Cowboy
Philosophy
1. Does the narrator like of dislike dogs? How do you know.
2. What is the tone of the passage? How do the detail and
diction of the last sentence affect the tone of the passage?
3. Write a paragraph or two that uses a lighthearted and
playful tone to characterize a friend you really like who has
some funny habits. Use a similar structure to Black's: a
simple explanation followed by a funny example.
45. At the gate he heard his mother’s voice raised in a storm
of anger. She had discovered the shotgun where he had
leaned it against the smoke-house wall. She had
discovered Flag. She had discovered, too, that the
yearling had made the most of the early hours and had
fed, not only across the sprouting corn, but across a wide
section of the cow-peas. He went helplessly to her to
meet her wrath. He stood with his head down while she
flailed him with her tongue.
-Marjorie Kinnan Ralings, The Yearling
1.In the passage, the he of the story is a boy who has raised a
fawn, Flag. What is the boy’s attitude toward the Flag? What
is his mother’s attitude toward the Flag?
2.How did you figure out the characters attitude?
3.Think of something you love that your parent or teacher
disapproves of (video games, TV programs, cell phones).
Write a paragraph that captures your attitude and contrasts it
with your parent or teacher's attitude. Don't explain the
conflict; instead, capture the conflict through tone. First
decide the two sides of the conflict. Then express the conflict
through detail, diction, imagery, and figurative language.
46. The Rum Tum Tugger is a terrible bore:
When you let him in, then he wants to be out;
He’s always on the wrong side of every door,
And as soon as he’s at home, then he’d like to get about.
He likes to lie in the bureau drawer,
But he makes such a fuss if he can’t get out.
Yes the Rum Tug Tugger is a curious cat-
And it isn’t any use for you to doubt it:
For he will do
As he will do
And there’s no doing anything about it!
- T.S. Eliot, “The Rum Tug Tugger,” Old possum’s Book of Practical
Cats
1. What is the author’s attitude toward cats? How do you know?
What is the tone of the passage? How it the tone related to
attitude?
2. How would the tone change if we changed the last four lines
like this?
That old cat is spoiled and useless-can you doubt it?
For he will do as he will do
And I might have to do something about it.
1. Think about a pet you or a friend has had. List as many of the
pet's irritating habits as you can think of. Now think of a way
to describe the irritating habits in a loving and accepting way.
Discuss this with a partner.
47. Variety
Now that you have learned all
the elements of voice we will
combine them.
48. "I have lived in this tree, in this same hollow," the owl
said, "for more years than anyone can remember. But
now, when the wind blows hard in winter and rocks the
forest, I sit here in the dark, and from deep down in the
bole, down near the roots, I hear a new sound. It is the
sound of strands of wood creaking in the cold and
snapping one by one. The limbs are falling; the tree is old,
and it is dying. Yet I cannot bring myself, after so many
years, to leave, to find a new home and move into it,
perhaps to fight for it. I, too, have grown old. One of
these days, one of these years, the tree will fall, and when
it does, if I am still alive. I will fall with it.“
Robert C. O'Brien, Mrs. 1. What is the owl's attitude towar dF rtihseb tyr eaen? dW thhaet isR haitss a ottfi tNudIeM tHoward
himself?
2. What is the tone of the passage? How does O'Brien use diction,
imagery, detail, and syntax to create the tone'? Remember that attitude
helps create tone but is not necessarily the same thing as tone.
3. Write a paragraph about a place that means a lot to you. Your
paragraph should express a sad tone. Be certain to use diction,
imagery, detail, and syntax to create the tone, as O'Brien does in the
passage above.
49. “Yes ma'am. That's right. Now, I have to tell you, I was a
little-miss-know-it-all. I was a miss-smarty-pants with my
library full of books. Oh, yes ma'am, I thought I knew the
answers to everything. Well, one hot Thursday. I was
sitting in my library with all the doors and windows open
and tiny nose stuck in a book, when a shadow crossed
the desk. And without looking up, yes ma'am, without
even looking up, I said, ‘Is there a book I can help you
find?’”
~Kate DiCamillo. Because of Winn-Dixie
1. What is the speaker's attitude toward herself? What is the
author's attitude toward the speaker? How do you know'?
2. What is the tone of the passage'? The speaker repeats the
phrase yes ma’am three times in this passage. How does this
help create the tone'?
3. Rewrite the first part of this passage (“Yes ma'am. That's
right. Now, I have to tell you, I was a little-miss-know-it-all. I
was a miss- smarty-pants with my library full of books. Oh, yes
ma'am, I thought I knew the answers to everything.”) to
create a critical, biting tone. In your paragraph use the third
person (she) instead of first person (I).
50. It is my belief that no writer can improve his work until
he discards the dulcet notion that the reader is
feebleminded, for writing is an act of faith, not a trick of
grammar...a writer who questions the capacity of the
person at thee other end of the line is not a writer at all,
merely a schemer.
E.B. White, "Calculating Machine," Poems and Sketches of E.B.
White
1. What is E.B. White's attitude toward the people who read his
writing How does his diction reveal and reinforce this attitude?
2. What is the tone of the passage? How do you know?
3. Now you try it: Write a few sentences that express your views
about the relationship between the writer and the reader.
