1. Writing with Special Focus
Post-noun adjective pairs
Noun Absolutes

2. Writing with Special Focus
Technique I: Post-noun adjective pairs
We can create special focus on our adjectives if we place them after, rather
than before, the noun or pronoun that they modify.
Ordinarily, adjectives precede the noun, like this:
The black and ominous trees seemed to lean towards each other.
Adjective pair appearing before the noun that is modified (trees)

3. But look what happens when Jack London shifts those two adjectives
to the post-noun position, like this:
,...and they seemed to lean toward each other, black and ominous, in
the fading light.
Black and ominous, the adjective pair, gets special attention because it has been
shifted to the post-noun position. The reader is forced to slow down and take
special notice.
Here’s the entire sentence, from Chapter 1 of Jack London’s White Fang:
Trees and they are the noun/pronoun being modified by black and ominous.
The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost,
and they seemed to lean towards each other, black and ominous,
in the fading light.
Adjective pair, moved to
the post-noun position

4. Here’s how the adjective pairs work into Stephen Crane’s
sentence in Chapter 2 of The Red Badge of Courage:
Notice that the post-noun
adjective pair is set off by
commas on both sides.
There was a yellow patch like a rug laid for the feet of the
coming sun; and against it, black and pattern-like, loomed the
gigantic figure of the colonel on a gigantic horse.
The adjective pair
modifies sun and it
Adjective pair

5. Here’s a sentence expressed with pre-noun adjectives:
Once upon a dreary midnight, I pondered while I was weak and weary.
Maybe that’s what Edgar Allan Poe’s first draft of his famous poem “The Raven”
looked like, but here’s what the line of poetry looked like when he emphasized
the adjectives by placing them in post-noun positions:
Notice that the post-noun
adjective pair is set off by
commas on both sides.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,...
Modifying I
Post-noun adjective pair

6. When Washington Irving wanted to say that Ichabod Crane, his main character
in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” felt heavy-hearted and crestfallen, if he had
done so with two separate sentences, he might have written this:
It was the very witching time of night.
Icabod was heavy-hearted and crestfallen.

7. But here’s how those two adjectives look the way Washington Irving
wrote the sentence:
Notice that the post-noun
adjective pair is set off by
commas on both sides.
Modifying Ichabod
It was the very witching time of night that Ichabod,
heavy-hearted and crestfallen, pursued his travels
homeward, along the sides of the lofty hills which
rise above Tarry Town, and which he had traversed
so cheerily in the afternoon.
Post-noun adjective pair

8. Notice that the post-noun adjective pair does not necessarily
need to fall immediately after the noun that it modifies.
In the sentence below, from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, author
Mark Twain chose to modify the noun village with the adjective pair
sad and forlorn.
Post-noun adjective pair
Noun modified
The village went to its rest on Tuesday afternoon, sad and forlorn.
As you can see, Mark Twain chose to place the adjective pair
at the end of the sentence, with several words intervening
between the adjective pair and the noun that it modifies (village).
Note the single comma that is used
when the adjective pair ends the sentence.

9. Adjectives, of course, can have their own modifiers. The part of speech
that modifies an adjective is an adverb. So, adjective pairs may include
their adverbs:
There were other sensations that were less definable and more exquisite.

10. Here’s how this sentence takes on a more literary flair
when we take out the words that were and attach the adjective pair
with a comma:
There were other sensations, less definable and more exquisite.
Noun modified by the
adjective pair
Post-noun adjective pair,
with each adjective modified
by its own adverb
Here’s the sentence from Chapter 1 of Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome:
And there were other sensations, less definable but more exquisite,
which drew them together with a shock of silent joy; the cold wet sunset
behind winter hills, the flight of cloud-flocks over slopes of golden stubble,
or the intensely blue shadows of hemlocks on sunlit snow.
Note the two commas setting off the adjective pair.

11. Here’s how author Willa Cather uses two sets of adjective pairs
to modify the sea in her story “To the Gulls’ Road”:
I was content to let her watch the sea—the sea that seemed now
to have come into me, warm and soft, still and strong.
Note the commas setting off the adjective pair.
Second adjective pair
First adjective pair

12. Here’s another sentence from “On the Gulls’ Road.” This time,
Willa Cather uses two adjective pairs to modify her character,
Lars Ebbling, but between them she sets a participial phrase (wearing
a white uniform):
First adjective pair
As I was going down to dinner that evening, I was stopped by
Lars Ebbling, freshly brushed and scented, wearing a white
uniform, and polished and glistening as one of his own engines.
Note the set of commas separating the adjective pair.
Both adjective pairs
modify Lars Ebbling.
Second adjective pair: Note that commas are
not necessary after and.

13. In this beautiful sentence from Chapter 1 of White Fang, Jack London
modifies the noun desolation with an array of post-noun modifying
structures:
adjective
prepositional phrase
The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement,
so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness.
Note the set of commas
around the post-noun adjective
adjective pair
+ adverb:
Note that no comma is necessary after so.
adjectival clause

14. Writing with Special Focus
Technique II: Noun Absolutes
Noun absolutes are phrases that begin with nouns, act as modifiers,
and provide a close-up of a part of a sentence deserving special focus.
noun phrase
prepositional phrase
Present
participle
Examples:
Sam, his lips curling into a sly smile, revealed the good news.
Note the set of commas around the noun absolute.
This noun absolute begins with a noun phrase
followed by a present participle and
a prepositional phrase.

15. In Chapter 33 of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, author Mark Twain
might have chosen to write two sentences like this:
Injun Joe’s bowie knife lay close by.
Its blade was broken in two.
Instead, Mark Twain chose to use a noun absolute to give special focus to
the broken blade:
noun phrase
prepositional phrase
past
participle
Injun Joe’s bowie knife lay close by, its blade broken in two.
Injun Joe’s bowie knife lay close by, its blade broken in two.
Injun Joe’s bowie knife lay close by, its blade broken in two.
Injun Joe’s bowie knife lay close by, its blade broken in two.
Note the comma that
sets off the noun
absolute.
This noun absolute begins with a noun phrase followed by a past participle and a prepositional phrase

16. In her description of being a Civil War nurse, Louisa May Alcott might have
chosen to describe a soldier named John in two separate sentences,
like this:
John sat with his head bent.
His hands were folded on his knee.
Instead, Louisa May Alcott chose to describe the scene in one sentence,
using a noun absolute to give special focus on John’s hands:
past
participle
prepositional
phrase
noun
phrase
John sat with his head bent, his hands folded on his knee.
John sat with his head bent, his hands folded on his knee.
John sat with his head bent, his hands folded on his knee.
John sat with his head bent, his hands folded on his knee.
John sat with his head bent, his hands folded on his knee.
Note the comma that
sets off the noun absolute.
This noun absolute begins with a noun phrase followed by a past participle and a prepositional phrase

17. In Chapter 1 of her novel Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton might have written
two sentences to express a cold, dark moment in Ethan’s life, like this:
One cold winter morning, as he dressed in the dark, Ethan’s candle flickered
in the draught of the ill-fitting window.
He had heard her speak from the bed behind him.
Note the comma
setting off the
noun absolute.
Instead, Edith Wharton used a noun absolute to give special focus to the
flickering candle and the draughty window casement:
present
participle
prepositional
phrase
noun phrase
prepositional
phrase
One cold winter morning, as he dressed in the dark, his candle flickering
in the draught of the ill-fitting window, he had heard her speak from the bed
behind him.
One cold winter morning, as he dressed in the dark, his candle flickering
in the draught of the ill-fitting window, he had heard her speak from the bed
behind him.
One cold winter morning, as he dressed in the dark, his candle flickering
in the draught of the ill-fitting window, he had heard her speak from the bed
behind him.
This noun absolute begins with a noun phrase followed by
a present participle and two prepositional phrases.

18. In Chapter 1 of her novel Ethan Frome, author Edith Wharton might have written
two sentences to describe the appearance of Ethan’s sickly wife, like this:
He turned and looked at her where she lay distinctly outlined under the
dark calico quilt.
Her high-boned face was taking a grayish tinge from the whiteness of
the pillow.
Instead, she used a noun absolute to give special focus to Mrs. Frome’s face:
Note the comma setting off the noun absolute.
her high-boned face taking a grayish tinge from the
whiteness of the pillow.
He turned and looked at her where she lay distinctly outlined under the
dark calico quilt,
This noun absolute begins with a noun phrase followed by a present participle,
another noun phrase, and then two prepositional phrases.

19. In Chapter 6 of her novel Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton might have written
two sentences to express Ethan’s emotional pain, like this:
Ethan sat looking at her.
His heart was in his throat.
Instead, Edith Wharton chose to use a noun absolute to give special focus
to Ethan’s physical state:
noun phrase
prepositional phrase
Ethan sat looking at her, his heart in his throat.
Ethan sat looking at her, his heart in his throat.
Note the comma setting off the noun absolute.
This noun absolute begins with
a noun phrase followed by a
prepositional phrase.

20. Review: Detail and Dimension
If you want to be in interesting writer, do what the great writers have
done:
Use post-noun adjective pairs to cause the reader to focus on your
description. Signal the post-noun adjective pair with a set of
commas to direct the reader’s attention.
Use noun absolutes to create a specially-crafted moment
within a sentence. Signal the noun absolute with a set of
commas to direct the reader’s attention.

21. Practice: Be a Better Writer
Use several post-noun adjective pairs and noun absolutes to describe an exciting moment, such as:
A figure skater or dancer
An exciting sports play
A thrilling concert