Style Builders Descriptive Writing

I AM BAD SOAP PQRST???

iRONY The use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, “How nice!” when I said I had to work all weekend

The contrast between what someone says and what he or she means I = IRONY Definition: the contrast between what is expected and what actually exists or happens; a surprise ending Verbal Irony: Also called sarcasm The contrast between what someone says and what he or she means Dramatic Irony The contrast between what a character knows and what the reader or audience knows Situational Irony The contrast between what a character or the reader expects and what actually happens

a = alliteration Definition: The repetition of initial consonant sounds

m = metaphor Definition: A comparison between two objects with the intent of giving clearer meaning to one of them. Often forms of the “to be” verb are used, such as “is” or “was” to make the comparison

b = be verbs Definition: Use only ONE Be verbs (Linking Verb) per paragraph: am, are, is, was, were, be, being ,been

a = anecdote Definition: A short narrative detailing the particulars of an interesting episode or event.

d = dialogue Definition: A conversation of two or more people Dialogue

s = simile Definition: A comparison between two objects using a specific word or comparison such as “like”, “as” or “than”. Pop Culture

o = oxymoron Definition: A seeming contradiction in two words put together Biggest Little Oxymoron List

a= allusion Definition: Reference to a well know person, place, event, work, time, etc.

a= allusion Definition: Reference to a well know person, place, event, work, time, etc.

a= allusion Definition: Reference to a well know person, place, event, work, time, etc.

p = personification Definition: Giving animals, ideas or inanimate objects human traits

p = parallel structure Definition: is the repetition of a chosen grammatical form within a sentence. By making each compared item or idea in your sentence follow the same grammatical pattern, you create a parallel construction.

p = parallel structure Students capped their pens, closed their notebooks, and zipped their book bags as they tried to alert Professor Jones that class was over. NOT Students capped their pens, were closing their notebooks, and zipped their book bags as they tried to alert Professor Jones

q = quotations Definition: A group of words taken from a text or speech and repeated by someone other than the original author or speaker. Quotes

r = repetition Definition: The repeating of words phrases, lines or stanzas "And I looked upwards, and there stood a man upon the summit of the rock; and I hid myself among the water-lilies that I might discover the actions of the man. . . . And the man sat upon the rock, and leaned his head upon his hand, and looked out upon the desolation. . . . And I lay close within shelter of the lilies, and observed the actions of the man. And the man trembled in the solitude;--but the night waned, and he sat upon the rock." (Edgar Allan Poe, "Silence")

s = snapshots Definition: Creates a picture in a reader’s mind through the use of imagery (5 senses) “Maniac had seen some amazing things in his lifetime, but nothing as amazing as that house. From the smell of it, he knew this wasn’t the first time an animal had relieved itself on the rugless floor. In fact, in another corner he spotted a form of relief that could not be soaked up by newspapers. Cans and bottles lay all over, along with crusts, peelings, cores, scraps, rinds, wrappers—everything you would normally find in a garbage can. And everywhere were raisins. As he walked through the dining room, something—an old tennis ball—hit him on top of the head and bounced away. He looked up—into the laughing faces of Russell and Piper. The hole in the ceiling was so big they both could have jumped through it at once. He ran a hand along one wall. The peeling paint came off like cornflakes. Nothing could be worse than the living and dining rooms, yet the kitchen was. A jar of peanut butter had crashed to the floor; someone had gotten a running start, jumped over it, and skied a brown, one-footed track to the stove. On the table were what appeared to be the remains of an autopsy performed upon a large bird, possibly a crow. The refrigerator contained two food groups: mustard and beer. The raisins here were even more abundant. He spotted several of them moving. They weren’t raisins; they were roaches.” - Jerry Spinelli, Maniac Magee

t = thoughtshot Definition: A look at what a writer/character is thinking or feeling “The old woman sat and thought about the shy brown dog who had no collar with a name. Wherever it was, no one would know that it was supposed to come to the old woman’s gate every day, that she was supposed to feed it and tell it to go home every day, that things were always supposed to be this way.” The Old Woman Who Named Thingsby Cynthia Rylant (Harcourt, 1996)