CREATIVE WRITING NCEA INTERNAL ASSESSMENT 1.1 Creating a Character credits

Your Task: In this assessment you will develop a descriptive piece of writing in which you focus on a character. It should be of at least 300 words It can be based on either:A ‘real life’ person Fictional character A mixture of both – For example a real life person with fictional elements added.

The purpose….. The purpose of this piece of writing is to effectively convey your characters appearance, personality and attributes by “showing” rather than telling.

EXAMPLE Don’t say “her hair was brown” Say “her hair was the colour of ripe chestnuts, flecked with shades of gold.”

How do I do this? The most successful writers make use of language techniques to make their writing interesting and effective.

Language Techniques Here are some common language techniques you should use in your writing to make it interesting and descriptive: Adjective Simile Metaphor Extended Metaphor Personification Onomatopoeia Alliteration Assonance Emotive Words ( -/+ connotations)

What NOT to do… Rambling-The best way to avoid rambling is to write a plan before you start your piece of writing. Spending too much time on the opening and not developing the ending Overwriting – using too many language techniques Distracting errors. Proofread carefully and ensure you spend time editing your draft. Mixed tenses – (past/present) For Example: Marie stands up and walked to the bus. She takes her bag from her shoulder and dropping it on the ground sighs heavily. Repetition of simple words and using excess conjunctions – For Example: and, but, then

Using Sentences Effectively Another way to ensure your writing is effective is to vary your use of sentence types Simple- Contains one is idea and makes sense on its own. Complex- Made up of two or more simple sentences joined by a conjunction.

Using Sentences Effectively Using a variety of sentence types makes writing much more interesting. Your choice of sentence can create tension, give detail or imply action.

Simple Sentence Simple sentences speed up the pace of a story and are generally used to create tension, imply action or get across an important point.

Complex Sentence Long or complex sentences often slow down the pace of a story. Complex sentences usually contain crucial detail or information.

EXAMPLE: Sharon screamed. She jumped from the plane and began plummeting to the ground below waiting nervously for her parachute to open. The earth drew closer with each passing second. Tick. Tick. Tick. Sharon began to get nervous. Whooosh. Suddenly the parachute exploded from its case. Relief washed over Sharon as she glided to the landing strip ahead.

EXERCISE Complete the exercises on your worksheet relating to the following: Language features Tenses Sentence types