"EXCITING" WRITING!

Hello, again!



What's more interesting to read than a story so full of descriptive words you can see, feel, and smell the setting? Does your mouth water when you read about, say, a rich, chocolaty dessert?



The students aren't going to be writing travel brochures or cooking show scripts, but nearly everyone is working on using synonyms and finding brighter, more vivid adjectives to describe what they are writing. In other words, they are going to kick their writing up a notch or two!



Not everyone has an easy time thinking of bright, beautiful adjectives. ALL STUDENTS SHOULD HAVE A THESAURUS at home. Roget's Thesaurus is probably the best well-known, but Webster and Oxford are good, also. I have found the inexpensive dictionary-thesaurus combination to often be disappointing. A thesaurus has an alphabetical listing of words, but gives a list of SYNONYMS (words with similar or same meanings).



Let's try something!

Tell me what you feel when you read "I walked on the beach." Anything??



So what? What kind of day was it? What do you see? Where is this beach? Are you alone? Do you smell anything? Use your thesaurus to find words that mean the same as (for example) blue, hot, or summer. Rewrite the sentence, replacing the old, familiar words with the new ones you just learned!

"I strolled along the warm, pink sand towards the amusement pier, as the clear turquoise waves rolled in. The smells of sunscreen and salt filled my head."



Are you starting to get a picture in your head? Are you there?



Yes, it takes longer, but if the reader wants to keep reading, you did a good job! Don't forget to write NEATLY, or type it, if you can. Mom, if you type the stories, feel free to correct spelling, or run spell-check! However, please do not change the word order of the sentences, so I can see if your child is learning good sentence structure. Thanks!



Please contact me with any questions you have regarding this, or any assignments!