1. Show Don’t Tell
Day 2 Notes

2. Review from Monday, February 13th
Good writers …let us see people and ideas in action rather than depend on qualifiers.
They give us specifics: strong nouns, precise verbs, actions we can see and hear, reactions we can feel. An apple is big, red, round, crisp, shiny, and juicy.
Unless this is a commercial for McIntosh apples, so what? Instead, a writer would try to show something about the apple only if there’s something to be shown—if a quality of the apple reflects some
meaning in the sentence or story.
For example: I gobbled the green apples, I found in the clearing. Now we have specific: hunger, unripe apples, a forest setting: now the apple beings to have a significance we can understand

3. Example of Telling
One day George was riding his bike. A guy came up to him. He chased George into a dark alley. George rode through it fast and the man stopped to rest.
How could we revise this using action, sensory details, dialogue and personal thoughts?

4. Example of Showing
Oh my gosh,” shrieked Mary. (dialogue) The “new toy smell” filled Mary’s nostrils. (sensory details) Before even taking her out of the box, Mary noticed the spur boots and cowboy hat. (description) “Mom and Dad, how did you know I wanted her?” she asked.
Mary’s father shot her mother a wink making a note of the price tag.
“We noticed that you could not keep your eyes off of her when we went to the American Girl Store in Chicago last month,” replied her mother.
Mary’s eyes lit up and an upward crack formed along her lip line. (sensory details)
“You are the best parents a girl could ask for her.”
What would she do if she found out her parents bought her a knock off? (personal thoughts)

5. Next Step in Showing: Three Strategies
Strategy #1: Diction - refers to the author’s choice of words…the perfect word is clear, concrete, and exact. In other words, it says exactly what you want it to say, is specific, and creates just the picture you see in your mind.
Strategy #2: Details -Detail includes facts, observations, reasons, examples, and incidents that a writer uses to develop a subject. Specific details create a clear mental picture for the reader by focusing on particulars rather than abstractions

6. Next Step in Showing: Three Strategies
Strategy #3: Figurative language - similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, and alliteration, is another device to muscle up writing.
Use figurative language because it’s a rich, strong, and vivid way to express meaning

7. Examples
The man went to the store. He couldn't find what he wanted, so he left.
Student #1 : Zavier went roller-skated to the store Wal-mart. He couldn't Kraft's Peppercorn Ranch on sale, so he left so he storming out like a bat out of hell.
Student #2: The homeless man crawled out of his box, and wobbled to Wal-Mart. He couldn't find his change, so he begged for money, with no luck. Dejected, he shuffled back to his box, crying.