WriteTraits

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WriteTraits

• WORD CHOICE

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What is word choice?

• Word choice is choosing words that can make your
  writing a masterpiece.

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• An author needs to paint a picture in the mind of
  the reader. Word choice can add color to your
  masterpiece.

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Collector of Words

• A writer is a serious collector of words
• A word collection lets you select the words with
  the perfect shade of meaning to convey your idea

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How do I make good word choices?

• A serious collector will
• Use nouns that create a picture
• Change dull verbs into colorful ones

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What are nouns?

• Nouns are names of people, places and things

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Specific Nouns

• Nouns are used to show who, what, or where.
• When using nouns think, could I be more specific?

• When using nouns be specific
• Dog Dalmatian
• Building School

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What are verbs?

• Verbs are action words
• Examples running, walking, swimming, eating,
  thinking, talking, etc

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Colorful Verbs

• Choose verbs that create a picture in the mind of
  the reader.
• Stay away from is, are, was and were
• The day was hot.
• The July afternoon was scorching, it burned my
  feet on the sizzling sidewalk.

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Other Great Words!

• Colorful verbs and specific nouns are best as
  main ingredients in writing
• but you need to use adjectives and adverbs to add
  flavor to your writing

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What is an Adverb?

• Adverbs show where, when, or how.
• nearly, slowly, fast, badly
• Most end in ly

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What is an Adjective?

• Adjectives describe a noun.
• red, fat, strong, old, colorful

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Why Use Adverbs and Adjectives?

• Use adverbs and adjectives to add color and
  flavour to your writing!

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How Do We Find the Right Word?

• A thesaurus!

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Using a Thesaurus

• You are looking up words that have the same or
  nearly the same meaning as the word you want to
  change. These words are called synonyms

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Synonyms

• You need to choose the right synonym
• Large and vast are alike but not identical
• You can order a large coffee but not a vast
  coffee
• Choosing the right word depends on context and
  the writers intended meaning
• Do not choose words at random from a thesaurus

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Looking up Synonyms

• I always did well on essay tests. Just put
  everything you know on there, maybe youll hit
  it. And then you get the paper back from the
  teacher and shes written just one word across
  the top of the page, vague. I thought vague
  was kind of vague. Id write underneath it
  unclear, and send it back. Shed return it to
  me, ambiguous. Id send it back to her,
  cloudy. Were still corresponding to this day
  hazy muddy Jerry Seinfeld
  (SeinLanguageBantam Books 1993)

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We get out the Thesaurus

• Do we just look the word up?
• No, first we need to know how the word is used
  in the sentence
• Is it a a noun, a verb, an adjective or an
  adverb?
• Is the synonym similar in meaning to what the
  author meant?
• Why? If you choose the wrong word, the meaning
  of the sentence will change.

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Lets Practice

• Read the passage from Joan Bauers book, Hope Was
  Here. Hope, a self described word person, is
  using her thesaurus to help her work out her
  feelings.
• Can you think of 4 synonyms for the verb hope?

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• Can you think of 4 synonyms for the verb hope?

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Word Choices

• The word choices you make as a writer will affect
  how your readers respond to your ideas
• Complete on your handout sheets
• - Practice Lists of Choices
• - Shading the Picture
• - A Shade Too Dark

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Practice Lists of Choices

• Identify the part of speech for each word
• Use a thesaurus or dictionary to find synonyms

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Shading the Picture

• You must think carefully about slight differences
  in meaning of synonyms
• Choose words that will change the meaning as
  little as possible
• Try to keep them the same shade

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A Shade Too Dark

• If you choose the wrong synonym, you are a shade
  too dark

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Thesaurus Search

• Use a thesaurus to look up synonyms for
• Night noun
• Blizzard noun
• Pure adjective
• Bad adjective
• Solitary - adjective

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Thesaurus Search Gone Wrong

• The night before, Donald went to bed fervently
  wishing for a blizzard the next day. When he
  awoke he ran to the window and was met by pure
  sunshine. He searched sky and ground for
  evidence of bad weather, but could not find so
  much as a solitary hailstone.

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Excerpt from Loser Jerry Spinelli

• The night before, Donald went to bed fervently
  wishing for a blizzard the next day. When he
  awoke he ran to the window and was met by pure
  sunshine. He searched sky and ground for
  evidence of bad weather, but could not find so
  much as a solitary hailstone.

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Writing Weak in Word Choice

• For example, this piece could benefit from words
  that appeal to the senses -
• Not
• Todd quickly ate a good sandwich.
• But rather
• Todd wolfed down a spicy Italian sausage sandwich
  stuffed with Grazianos sausage and thick slices
  of mozzarella cheese.

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Make a Masterpiece!

• Make a masterpiece using words. Think of words
  as the paint and the paper as the canvas. By
  choosing the most colorful and exciting words
  your writing can be a work of art!

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Things to Do

• Insert a piece of loose leaf and make a title
  page WORD CHOICE in your writing notebook
• After this put the following sheets
• -Alpha-boxes
• -Synonyms for said
• -Breathtaking Adjectives
• -Boring Word List
• Glue in writing prompt due next day
• Complete Boring Word list for next day

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