Writing

CLICK HERE for the Vocabulary Assessment

Recount Sentence Structure Activity: That Cat

Character Description Examples

Setting Description Examples

Sizzling Starts

It moved, why was it moving? That should not have been moving, well not on it's own anyway.

It slowly lifted itself off the ground and stretched its long spindly legs that appeared from under it.

It was no longer a motionless object but a living, breathing creature like I’d never seen before.

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I hadn't seen the door before. It wasn't there last night. It had mysteriously appeared at the end of my hallway.

It was an enormous wooden panelled door with a great brass knocker in the middle.

I placed my hand on the ornate knocker and held my breath as I quickly made three sharp raps on the imposing door.

No answer. I could hear my heart beating furiously as I cautiously turned the handle.

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As she walked along the street the tiny dragon in her pocket stirred restlessly.

She pushed him gently back into the corner of her pocket, afraid that someone

would notice his long spiky tail or shimmering purple wings.

She had to find his mother before her precious secret was exposed.

Introducing a Conflict/Problem:

Simply stated: conflict is anything that stands in the way of your character reaching their goal. Conflicts should not be solved straight away - you need to ‘tighten the tension’ - picture the scene in your mind and use your five senses - what are you seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, feeling?

Imagine the problem was a volcano erupting. What would you:

• See (smoke, people running, fire spurting, ash floating in the air, etc)
• Hear (rumblings, people crying out, animals squealing, sirens blasting, etc)
• Touch/Feel (Hot air, ash, scratches and bruises, people pushing you, etc)
• Smell (Smoke, heat, sweat, burning, etc)

Signal Words

Exciting Ending:

Here are some examples of BORING endings that we do not want to see…

• And then I woke up and it was all a dream
• They all lived happily ever after
• BOOM, they all died
• To be continued…
• THE END

Sound familiar? These are called ‘quick fix’ endings. It’s a quick way out for you as a writer but really annoying as a reader.

Endings are not something ‘tacked on’ at the finish, they should have been planned from the beginning.

Writing prompts

Examples of persuasive texts:

Identifying fact or opinion:

CLASSIFICATION: How do you write one?

DESCRIPTION: How do you write it?

1. Use paragraphs

2. Can use subheadings

3. Topic sentences

Examples of good descriptions

CONCLUSION: How do you end your writing?