Painting Pictures With Your Words

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Painting PicturesWith Your Words
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The Describer's Tools

• Figurative Language
• Similes
• Metaphors
• Personification
• Adjectives
• Adverbs
• Visual Verbs
• Absolute Phrases

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Figurative Language

• Personification-Giving human qualities to
  something non-human
• The wind stood up and gave a shout.He whistled
  on his fingers andKicked the withered leaves
  aboutAnd thumped the branches with his handAnd
  said he'd kill and kill and kill,And so he will
  and so he will.(James Stephens, "The Wind")

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Figurative Language

• Simile-comparison between two unlike things,
  using a word of similiarity (like as)
• "She dealt with moral problems as a cleaver deals
  with meat."(James Joyce, "The Boarding House")
• "Matt Leinart slid into the draft like a bald
  tire on black ice."(Rob Oller, Columbus
  Dispatch, Feb. 25, 2007)

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• Metaphor-comparisons of two unlike things that
  don't use "like" or "as
• a sea of troubles
•  All the world's a stage (Shakespeare)

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Adjectives

• Modify nouns and pronouns
• Sometimes the ice is black and glossy, blasted
  smooth by the endless wind with only a few swaths
  of snow lying on itSometimes it is rigid and
  buckled from the enormous strains of the wind,
  the currents, and the line of advancing bergs.
• (Richard Brown, Voyage of the Ice Berg)

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Adverbs

• Modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs
• "You're not the sharpest knife in the drawer,"
  she said cuttingly. 
• "I love pillows," he said softly. 
• "I invented the light bulb!" Edison said
  brightly.
• She had to hurry, but she had to hurry slowly,
  in order not to make a sound." -- The Higher
  Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

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Visual Verbs

• Example The man ran quickly.
• Corrected Example The man sprinted.
• Example
• "Doris walked silently through the pitch black of
  the deserted, empty house, fingers pushing
  lightly on each closed door. 
• Corrected "Doris crept through the blackness of
  the deserted house, fingertips pressing on each
  closed door.
• Example Matt, one of the biggest men you could
  imagine, walked heavily through the antique
  store, while Jessie's eyes looked quickly at each
  item left quivering in his wake.
• Corrected Matt's behemoth form lumbered through
  the antique store, while Jessie's eyes darted to
  each item left quivering in his wake.

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Absolutes!

• Phrases that Zoom!

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AbsolutesThe Phrases that Zoom!

• Absolute (Defined)
• a group of words consisting of a noun or pronoun a
  nd a participle as well as any related modifiers.
  
• modify the entire sentence
• adding information
• Set off from rest of sentence by a comma
• No conjunction

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AbsolutesThe Phrases that Zoom!

• Lance Armstrong raced his bike across the bridge,
  his hands gripping the handlebars tightly. (Big
  picture, Armstrong racing his bike Zoom, his
  hands)
• His fists snapping gracefully, Ali danced around
  Sonny Liston. (Big picture, Ali dancing around
  Liston Zoom, his arms snapping punches)
• The mountain lion hid crouched its in the grass,
  its tail twitching from side to side. (Big
  picture, lion crouching in grass Zoom, tail
  twitching)

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AbsolutesThe Phrases that Zoom!

• Big Picture
• Fran Tarkenton celebrated the win.

Zoom his arms raised in victory
New Sentence Fran Tarkenton celebrated the win,
his arms raised in victory.
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AbsolutesThe Phrases that Zoom!
Big Picture The skyscraper reached into the
heavens.
Zoom Its windows reflecting the blue sky and
white clouds.
New Sentence The skyscraper reached into the
heavens, its windows reflecting the blue sky and
white clouds.
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AbsolutesThe Phrases that Zoom!
Big Picture Lance Armstrong raced through the
streets of Italy.
Zoom
New Sentence Face grimacing, hands gripping,
feet pedaling, Lance Armstrong raced through the
streets of Italy.
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AbsolutesThe Phrases that Zoom!

• Notice
• Absolutes are set off from the rest of a sentence
  by a comma
• Fran Tarkenton celebrated the win, his arms
  raised in victory.
• The skyscraper reached into the heavens, its
  windows reflecting the blue sky and white clouds.
• Absolutes can be moved within the sentence
• Fran Tarkenton celebrated the win, his arms
  raised in victory.
• His arms raised in victory, Fran Tarkenton
  celebrated the win,

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AbsolutesThe Phrases that Zoom!
Big Picture Zoom New Sentence
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