Five

1
Image Grammar

• Five
• Brushstrokes

Based loosely on Harry Nodins Image Grammar,
taken from http//www.birnbaumslearners.com/
2
The Writer as Artist   The writer is an artist,
painting images of life with specific and
identifiable brushstrokes, images as realistic as
Wyeth and as abstract as Picasso. In the act of
creation, the writer, like the artist, relies on
fundamental elements. As water colorist Frank
Webb explains, Pictures are not made of flowers,
guitars, people, surf, or turf, but with
irreducible elements of art shapes, tones,
directions, sizes, lines, textures, and color.
Similarly, writing is not constructed merely from
experiences, information, characters, or plots,
but from fundamental artistic elements of
grammar. -Harry R. Noden, Image Grammar
3
Compare the following images, the first written
by a high school student

• It was winter. Everything was frozen and white.
  Snow had fallen from the sky for days. The
  weather was horrible.

4
The second by novelist Brian Jacques

• Mossflower lay deep in the grip of midwinter
  beneath a sky of leaden gray that showed tinges
  of scarlet and orange on the horizon. A cold
  mantle of snow draped the landscape, covering the
  flatlands to the west. Snow was everywhere,
  filling the ditches, drifting high against the
  hedgerows, making paths invisible, smoothing the
  contours of earth in its white embrace.

5
Brushstroke 1

• Participles and Participial Phrases
• A verbal (usually ending in ing or -ed) that
  acts as an adjective.
• Adds more action to a description.

6
The snake attacked its prey. Hissing, slithering,
and coiling, the snake attacked its prey.
7
Participles Painted by Ernest Hemingway
  Shifting the weight of the line to his left
shoulder and kneeling carefully, he washed his
hand in the ocean and held it there, submerged,
for more than a minute, watching the blood trail
away and the steady movement of the water against
his hand as the boat moved. --- Old Man and
the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
8
The dog ran to his owner.The dog ran to his
owner as fast as lightning, jumping into his
owners arms, tackling him, licking his face,
showing so much love.
Running to his owner, the dog felt the wind
against his fur while the pressure pushed his
tongue to the side of his face.
9
A young giraffe, dehydrated and lost, was
relieved when he finally found a pond full to the
brim with cold refreshing water.
The giraffe drank the water with its legs spread
as low as it can to the ground, and its long
tongue scooping the water like a spoon, getting
as much as it can in one gulp.
10
Brushstroke 2

• Appositive
• A noun or noun phrase that informs the reader
  about a preceding noun.
• It expands details in the imagination.

11
The raccoon enjoys eating turtle eggs.The
raccoon, a midnight scavenger, enjoys eating
turtle eggs.
12
Appositives used by professional writers   "The
Otis Elevator Company, the worlds oldest and
biggest elevator manufacturer, claims that its
products carry the equivalent of the worlds
population every five days."(Nick Paumgarten,
"Up and Then Down." The New Yorker, Apr. 21,
2008) "Though her cheeks were high-colored and
her teeth strong and yellow, she looked like a
mechanical woman, a machine with flashing, glassy
circles for eyes."(Kate Simon, Bronx Primitive,
1982) These are taken from http//grammar.about.c
om/od/ab/g/apposterm.htm There are more examples
there as well!
13
The zebras, one of the deadliest animals in the
jungle, turned to face the noise.The zebras
turned to face the booming gunshot.
14
(No Transcript)
15
Some more sentences to add appositives to
The landscape stretched before them. Susan's
mother stared absent-mindedly into the
hallway. The alligator ambled across the hot
Florida highway.
16
Brushstroke 3

• Independent Clauses
• Attach independent clauses to the main action
  through the use of coordinating conjunctions
• For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So

17
The cat climbed the tree.The flowers made it
sneeze.The cat made its way to the nest at the
top.The birds flew away.
18
Brushstroke 4

• Dependent Clauses
• Use subordinating conjunctions to attach
  dependent clauses to the main action
• Although, As, Because, Before, Unless, Until,
  When, Where, While

19
The cat climbs the tree, until the flowers make
it sneeze.The cat made its way to the nest at
the top before the birds could fly away.The
birds flew away before the cat made its way to
the nest at the top.
20
Note how these authors use dependent
clauses When I was young, I used to admire
intelligent people as I grow older, I admire
kind people. --Abraham Joshua Heschel "I am
always ready to learn although I do not always
like being taught. --Winston Churchill
21
Brushstroke 5

• Loose vs. Periodic Sentences
• Choose whether your main clause is going to begin
  or end your sentence.
• LOOSE SENTENCES begin with subject and verb, and
  then tack on modifiers afterwards.
• PERIODIC SENTENCES build towards a culminating
  main idea their subject and verb tend to come at
  the end.

22
The red-tailed hawk spread its wings.
Heres a main clause to work with try adding
some modifiers to make the sentence either loose
or periodic, whichever seems better
23
Was your hawk sentence loose or periodic? Switch
it up for the frog! Whatever you tried with the
hawk, do the opposite this time.
The frog struggled to stay on the stem.
24
Some loose and periodic sentences written by
professional authors Can you guess which is
which? "I knew I had found a friend in the
woman, who herself was a lonely soul, never
having known the love of man or child." (Emma
Goldman) "In the almost incredibly brief time
which it took the small but sturdy porter to roll
a milk-can across the platform and bump it, with
a clang, against other milk-cans similarly
treated a moment before, she fell in love."(P.G.
Wodehouse, Something Fresh, 1915) "The proper
place in the sentence for the word or group of
words that the writer desires to make most
prominent is usually the end."(William Strunk,
Jr., and E.B. White, The Elements of Style)