1. Mary Ledbetter’s Smiley Face Tricks for Writing Better Papers

2. Smiley-Face Trick #1 MAGIC 3
Three examples in a series can create a poetic rhythm or at least add support for a point, especially when the three items have their own modifiers.
Example: “In those woods, I would spend hours listening to the wind rustle the leaves, climbing trees, and giving the occasional wild growl to scare away any pink-flowered girls who might be riding their bikes too close to my secret entrance.” (Todd, college freshman)

3. Smiley-Face Trick #1 MAGIC 3
Three examples in a series can create a poetic rhythm or at least add support for a point, especially when the three items have their own modifiers.
Example: “If I had a sticker on my shirt that said ‘Loser’or if my hair looked like a zombie’s or if I had spinach stuck between my teeth, she would tell me the truth no matter what.” (Dancel, Maggie)

4. Smiley Face Trick #2 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Non-literal comparisons- such as similes, metaphors, and personification- add “spice” to writing and can help paint a more vivid picture for the reader.
Example: “When we first moved into the house on Orchid Street, I didn’t like it. My room was hot, cramped, and stuffy as a train in the middle of the Sahara. The looming skeleton-like gray and white frame of the place scared me. I dared not imagine living there, but the backyard, oh the backyard. It was a huge, long mass of plentifully growing trees and blackberries. Goodness, how I loved them.” (Teri, grade 7)

5. Smiley Face Trick #2 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Non-literal comparisons- such as similes, metaphors, and personification- add “spice” to writing and can help paint a more vivid picture for the reader.
Example: “It was a hot July morning, and the last few days of freedom before school were slipping by faster than a greased ten-foot-long boa constrictor at the ice capades. In other words, I only had a week and a half to play my brains out, both inside and outside, and week and a half before the evil schoolwork monsters took over my time, a week and a half before life as I had known it these past two months was over.” (West, Aaron).

6. Smiley Face Trick #3 Specific Details for Effect
Instead of general vague descriptions, specific sensory details help the reader visualize the person, place, thing, or idea that you are describing.
Example: “It was one of those experiences where you want to call a radio station and tell your problems to some guy who calls himself Dr. Myke, but who isn’t more of a doctor than your pet hamster is, one of those experiences where you want to read a sappy harlequin novel and listen to Barry Manilowe with a box of bonbons as your best friend, one of those experiences where you wouldn’t be surprised if someone came up to you and asked exactly what time yesterday you were born. Yeah, one of those.” (Ileana, Grade 7).

7. Smiley Face Trick #3 Specific Details for Effect
Instead of general vague descriptions, specific sensory details help the reader visualize the person, place, thing, or idea that you are describing. Example: “Remember the time I worked all day Saturday on an English paper? Sunday, I accidentally left the only copy I had at your house. You politely handed it back to me the next day, first period, when it was due. But all over page one you’d drawn Zombies; page two contained detailed pictures of yet-to-be-discovered worms; page three was visited by various space aliens; the fourth page featured scenes from Australia and Florida; and the last page was covered with ‘Mr. Jenkins is a Dork’, ‘English Stinks’ and ‘Mr. Jenkins is a four-eyed geek.’ Maybe that’s why he gave me a D-.” (Liz, grade 8).

8. Smiley Face Trick #4 Repetition for Effect
Writers often repeat specially chosen words or phrases to make a point, to stress certain ideas for the reader.
Example: “The veranda is your only shelter away from the sister in bed asleep, away from the brother that plays in the tree house in the field, and away from your chores that await you.”(Leslie, grade 7).

9. Smiley Face Trick #4 Repetition for Effect
Writers often repeat specially chosen words or phrases to make a point, to stress certain ideas for the reader.
Example: “She said it as through I had my own carriage I could ride on Thursdays or any day or at the snap of my fingers, like she does. She knows I’m only allowed a driver on Sundays. She knows the old woman lives three estates and one house down the way- the long, long way. She knows I have to walk the road and back, and she knows the maid was supposed to hem up that stupid petticoat- too long and all. The only reason I was asked to do such an outrageous favor for her was because everybody else on the estate was concentrating on her- how lovely her hair looked, how lovely her dress fit, and how lovely her gold broach looked with the pearls she had had to buy for herself.” (Haifley, Erin).

10. Smiley Face Trick # 5 Expanded Moment
Instead of “speeding past a moment, writers often emphasize it by “expanding” the actions.
Example: “ I wonder where them dumb old girls went?” one asked.
“They’re probably off painting their nails,” the other said. A few more insults like that, and by then my friend and I had heard enough. I looked at Annie and noticed she had the same look on her face. Two windows stood before us so we walked to one quietly and looked at each other. She had that same expression on her face that she had before she rolled down “Dead Man’s Hill” in a barrel. I knew what she was thinking. She mouthed, “One, two, three… Then we jumped from our fifteen-foot-high tree house and landed miraculously on our feet.We scared the living daylights out of those boys, and they took off running like two little sissy girls. Annie and I burst out laughing until our jaws hurt. We spend the rest of the day giggling and remembering.” (Manzak, Lauren).

11. Smiley Face Trick # 5 Expanded Moment
Instead of “speeding past a moment, writers often emphasize it by “expanding” the actions.
“But no, I had to go to school. And as I said before, I had to listen to my math teacher preach about numbers and letters and figures…I was tired of hearing her annoying voice lecture about ‘a=b divided by x.’ I glared at the small black hands on the clock, silently threatening them to go faster. But they didn’t listen, and I caught myself wishing I were in a bathing suit again, walking carelessly on white sand and looking down at almost transparent pale-blue water with Josh at my side…”
“I don’t belong in some dumb math class. I belong on the beach, where I can soak my feet in caressing water and let the wind wander its way through my chestnut-colored hair and sip Doctor Pepper all day long. I want to grip a straw all day, not a mechanical pencil that will try unsuccessfully to write the answer s to unsolvable questions.” (Shelly, grade 7)

12. Smiley Face Trick # 6 Humor
Professional writers know the value of laughter; even subtle humor can help turn a “boring’ paper into one that can raise someone’s spirits.
“And you (yes, you, Justin) were the guilty party who, after I took off my shoes to enjoy the hot pavement in early spring, put a frog in them. Of course, I didn’t look at the shoes when I put them back on; it was the squish that gave your prank away.” (Liz, grade 8)

13. Smiley Face Trick # 6 Humor
Professional writers know the value of laughter; even subtle humor can help turn a “boring’ paper into one that can raise someone’s spirits.
“There I was on the first day of school- the picture-perfect girl. My new outfit looked like something from my big sister’s magazine, my hair- for once- was having a good day, and I was strutting in my new shoes. Little did I know that I was trailing a three-yard piece of Charmin behind me. So much for using the bathroom right before class!” (Ledbetter, Mary)

14. Smiley Face Trick #7 Hyphenated Modifiers
Sometimes a new way of saying something can make all the difference; hyphenated adjectives often cause the reader to “sit up and take notice.”
Example: “She’s got this blonde hair, with dark highlights, parted in the middle, down past her shoulders, and straight as a preacher. She’s got big green eyes that all guys admire and all girls envy, and this I’m-so-beautiful-and-I-know-it body, you know, like every other supermodel.” (Ileana, grade 7)

15. Smiley Face Trick #7 Hyphenated Modifiers
Sometimes a new way of saying something can make all the difference; hyphenated adjectives often cause the reader to “sit up and take notice.”
Example: “Little did I know that when Mom asked if I liked the new neighborhood in town that that one innocent question would be the beginning of the destruction of my life. I was going to choose’yes’ as my answer, but it had one of those I-don’t-want-to-lose-my-friends looks.

16. Smiley Face Trick #8 Full Circle Ending
Sometimes students need a special ending, one that effectively “wraps up” the piece. One “trick” is to repeat a phrase from the beginning of the piece.
Introduction “Hey you, with the green and neon-orange striped shoelaces, you who always pulled on my old frazzled ones. Hey, you, Justin, who always added your version of the ‘art’ to my math problems for Mrs. Caton’s class, so that x 7= 63 turned out to be a train with puffs of smoke and two boxcars and made me get an 83 instead of a 93 since Mrs. C. doesn’t count locomotives as correct answers.
Conclusion “Now Justin still sits behind me in math with his neon-green and orange striped shoelaces and pulls on my old white frazzled ones. He still draws zombies on my homework, but he hasn’t dumped another pitcher of Kool-Aid on me- not yet at least. Oh, and by the way, in case you’re wondering his first words when he opened his eyes were, ‘It was James Kenton who hid your clothes and made you walk around in a chicken suit…I’m not that mean.” (Liz, grade 8)

17. Smiley Face Trick #8 Full Circle Ending
Sometimes students need a special ending, one that effectively “wraps up” the piece. One “trick” is to repeat a phrase from the beginning of the piece.
Introduction “Do I seem mad to you? I’m not mad! I’m furious! Does my face seem as red as an apple? It’s not! My face is a fire! The divorce was taking my heart and crushing it into oblivion. My tears were a flowing stream, my brain an exploding bomb.”
Part of the Body “My Dad had this I-don’t-care-about-my-family-I’m-gonna-get-wasted kind of look. But do I seem mad? He used to have my sister and me in his back pocket, but now he has his new I-like-you-now-but-when-we-get-serious-I’ll-stab-you-in-the-back “perfect” girlfriend there instead. But do I seem mad?”
Conclusion “Dad just got married. They had been dating for about an hour and he popped the question. Do I seem mad? I just sit there with my fake smile while she puts on the biggest show and says, ‘Oh, I love your kids, they’re so cute’ and fake smiles back at me. But do I seem mad? My dad used to be my best friend and protector of my childhood. Now he is my enemy. But do I seem mad? His new wife has me in her death-grip, waiting for me to do something bad. She is cobra waiting to strike. But do I seem ? I’m not mad! I’m furious! (Odom, Ed)

18. Smiley Face Trick #9 Identification
Give your reader something that they can identify with.
The teacher gave the class the get-to-work-now-and-not-another-sound look and we all knew the gig was up.

19. Smiley Face Trick #9 Identification
Give your reader something that they can identify with. Something the reader may have seen, thought, or done themselves
Example: “We won’t put up our superhero cape just yet because we might notice that one of our classmates has no lunch and no money that day. Instead of thinking, ‘That’s his problem,’ and start shoveling food into our own lucky faces, we should make it our problem as well. Would it kill us to share the lunch mother packed? Who can’t make it on half a tuna sandwich, half a bag of chips, and one- instead of two- chocolate chip cookies? Or we could let loose with a little of our allowance so that hungry one can proudly ask himself, ‘tacos or cheeseburger?’ and smile in our direction. If truth be told, we’ll both be smiling for days. (Ledbetter, Mary)