The Five Brush Strokes of Writing

The Participle

What is a participle? A participle is an –ing verb tagged on to a sentence. * A participle is a verb acting as an adjective Example: swimming pool *There are more verb forms for participles but this is the basic definition that we will be starting with

Mentor Text Initial sentence: The diamond-scaled snakes attacked their prey. After adding participles to make the sentence more interesting: Hissing, slithering, and coiling, the diamond- scaled snakes attacked their prey.

Copy this sentence down in your writer’s notebook. Then create your own sentence by mimicking the grammar of the sentence. Hint: What animal are you going to use? What three –ing verbs can you describe this animal with?

Where To Put Participles

An example Consider the following sentence The dog approached me. What are all the –ing verbs that a dog could do while approaching ?

Where can we place these participles?

Opener Wagging its tail, the dog approached me. Interrupter The dog, wagging its tail, approached me. Closer The dog approached me, wagging its tail.

More Mentor Texts Barking furiously, Cujo gave chase (King 18). Cujo trailed at Brett’s heels, looking hot and dispirited (King 46). -Stephen King

What is a participial phrase?

We have looked at many examples of participles now. Make a prediction: what is the difference between a participle and a participial phrase? Find an example of each in your notes. Write down the two examples and label each as either “participle” or “participial phrase”

Participles: Hissing, slithering, and coiling, the diamond-scaled snakes attacked their prey. Participial phrase: Wagging its tail, the dog approached me. Notice the participial phrase includes

More Participial Phrases Flying through the air on the wings of a dream, the Olympic long jumper thrust the weight of his whole body forward. -Cathleen Conry The clown, appearing bright and cheerful, smiled and did his act with unusual certainty for someone who had just killed a man. -Christi Flick

Mentor Text Mimic the grammar and structure of the following sentence. The only word you may re- use is “appearing” The clown, appearing bright and cheerful, smiled and did his act with unusual certainty for someone who had just killed a man. Hint: Pick a noun, then describe what it could appear to be (participle + adjective), then finish the sentence with the action and what the noun is really like

Student Error: Dangling Modifiers Avoid doing this: Rummaging in her giant handbag, the sunglasses escaped detection. What is wrong with this sentence?

This sentence means that sunglasses are alive and can look through purses!

How would you reword the sentence to fix it?