1. Looking at the Elements of STYLE

2. Elements of Style
Word Choice
Imagery
Metaphor/Simile

3. Word Choice Good word choice includes: Sensory Words
Specific Descriptive Details
Active Verbs

4. Word Choice
Sensory language—words and phrases that trigger the senses of touch, sight, taste, smell, and hearing—can bring readers into the writer’s world.

5. Word Choice
Through sensory language, readers see what you see, hear what you hear, feel what you feel. Read from Guts by Paulsen.

6. Word Choice Specific Descriptive Language:
Using Descriptive language is like the author “calling it as he sees it.”
Imagine . . .

7. Word Choice: Descriptive Language
The author is thinking “midnight black, V8- engined, convertible Ferrari . . .”

8. Word Choice: Descriptive Language
But he writes “car.” Hmmmm. That’s not calling it as he sees it.
Read from Artemis Fowl

9. Active Verbs Active verbs obviously describe an action:
Crawl
Drag
Plunge
Flee
Active verbs do NOT use “helping verbs” (is, was, were, have, has)
were sent, had started, was shot, had discovered

10. Active Verbs Active verbs also do NOT use “—ing”
Looking
Running
Knowing
Look for original sounding active verbs
Don’t choose: say, said, come, go, see, walk, talk, hit, eat, read, write, sleep, got, took, want etc

11. Find the Active Verbs From the Advertiser’s Sports Page Headlines:
Glover surges to one-stroke lead
Warriors sweep Ohio State
Punahou tops Kamehameha
Penn St. stuffs Hawaii in five

12. Find the Active Verbs
“The Crimson Tide was voted No. 1 in The Associated Press poll today. . .”
The Hawaii volleyball team opened the new year with a bang, pounding out a 30-20, 30-20, rout of Ohio State . . .”
“With a birdie on the last hole and a spectacular mid-round surge, Lucas Glover grabbed the first-round lead yesterday . . .”

13. IMAGERY
Imagery is the use of vivid description, usually rich in sensory words, to create pictures or images in the reader’s mind.

14. Imagery
Smart Student says, “Wait a minute! You just said imagery uses descriptive and sensory language!”
Mrs. Urada answers, “Yes!”
“What’s the difference?”
“The three are almost the same!”

15. Imagery
One way that imagery MAY differ from descriptive language is that instead of directly “telling” or describing something with adjectives, imagery will SHOW a sensory-filled picture using actions and indirect examples.

16. Imagery: Showing vs. Telling
This is an example of an author directly “telling” about the king from “The Lady or the Tiger?”
Telling :
The king was a violent tyrant.
(adjective)

17. Imagery: Showing vs. Telling
However, good writers SHOW rather than tell. They let us see people and ideas in action. Showing: “. . . for nothing pleased him so much as to make the crooked straight and crush down uneven places.”

18. Imagery: Examples of Showing
“But Walt only yelled the harder at the dogs, and dashed around the bend with a couple of revolver bullets singing after him.”
Telling: Walt is brave.
2. “She cheered on these newly arrived fugitives, working herself, finding work for them, praying for them, sometimes begging for them.”
Telling: She is caring and helpful.

19. Is this Telling or is it Imagery?
“There’s a shadow hanging over me”
“She was staring, openmouthed, the coffee urn in her hand poised above a cup.”
“She was snarling. Red and blue sprinkles fell from the half-eaten donut that she wagged in Alvina’s face.”
“How do I say goodbye to what we had?”
“And let me just make my move.”

20. Is this Telling or is it Imagery?
“Been there done that in my life.”
“And you come to me on a summer breeze”
“You’re everything I thought you never were and nothing like I thought you could’ve been . . .”
“I only wanna see you smile. I just wanna make you happy.”

21. Is this Telling or is it Imagery?
“As she waddled into the elevator, Martin was sure he felt it sink under her weight.”
“They’re gonna clean up your looks with all the lies.”
“I promise that my love won’t change I will always be in love with you.”

22. Metaphor & Simile
A good way to describe something—such as a person, a place, or a feeling—is to compare it to something else.
EXAMPLE: “She’s as light as a feather.”
EXAMPLE: “My brother is a pig.”
Both create sensory images. A feather and a pig is something we can see & feel.

23. Similes
A simile is a comparison using like or as. It usually compares two dissimilar objects.
For example: His feet were as big as boats. We are comparing the size of feet to boats.

24. Metaphor Examples
A metaphor states that one thing is something else. It is a comparison, but it does NOT use like or as to make the comparison.
For example: Her hair is silk. The sentence compares hair to silk.

25. Identifying Similes and Metaphors
The baby was like an octopus, grabbing at all the cans on the grocery store shelves.
As the teacher entered the room she muttered under her breath, "This class is like a three-ring circus!"
The giant’s steps were thunder as he ran toward Jack.
The pillow was a cloud when I put my head upon it after a long day.
I feel like a limp dishrag.

26. Identifying Similes and Metaphors
Those girls are like two peas in a pod.
The fluorescent light was the sun during our test.
No one invites Harold to parties because he’s a wet blanket.
The bar of soap was a slippery eel during the dog’s bath.
Ted was as nervous as a cat with a long tail in a room full of rocking chairs.

27. Instructions for a Style Response
Quote line or lines exactly from the text. Use quotation marks.
Identify the Element of Style: Word Choice, Imagery, Simile or Metaphor
Complete the sentence starter for your chosen Element of Style.