Quarter 1 - Creative Writing
TOPICS OF STUDY
WRITING LESSONS - Quarter 1
* Enhancing Description
+ by thinking of your five senses [See below.]
+ by better verb choice (more exciting/less dull - Thesaurus)
+ by better noun choice (more specific)
+ by utilizing adjectives to describe nouns
+ by utilizing adverbs to describe actions
+ by adding descriptive phrases
+ by using figurative language [See below.]
* Utilizing your five senses (giving sensory details)
(List of linking verbs: look, smell, taste, sound, feel)
* Proofreading marks
* Figurative versus literal language
* Figurative language - see Writer's Inc. for descriptions and definitions
+ simile
+ metaphor
+ personification
+ idiom - not good to use in creative writing
+ hyperbole - not good to use in creative writing
* Elements of Narration - narration is story-telling
+ setting - location (in locale and in time) where story takes place
- enhanced by descriptive writing
+ character - the people in the story (who they are and what they are like)
- developed by both description and dialogue
> vary dialogue tags (use "said replacements" like exclaimed, mused, muttered, replied, etc.)
> note that dialogue is most effective without the use of dialogue tags ("he said")
> note that "interrupting material" (prose) within the dialogue advances characterization and
story line.
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Grammar lessons, listed below, are derived from common and consistent errors made by the students in their writing for class. This is not a grammar course, per se, and systematic grammar instruction should continue at home as part of your language arts curriculum. The errors below have been observed in some of the students' writing; we have therefore briefly reviewed these elementary language arts topics and rules. If you are having trouble understanding any of these topics, please see me and/or review them with your parent(s) utilizing your own elementary language arts materials.
GRAMMAR LESSONS - Quarter 1
* Review of capitalization rules:
# 1: You must capitalize the word "I" when referring to self.
# 2: Do not capitalize common nouns in sentences. (Do capitalize proper nouns.)
# 3: You must begin a sentence with a capital letter.
* Review of adjectives versus adverbs (especially "good" and "well").
* Distinction between fiction and non-fiction writing, and between poetry and prose.
* Clarification of common homophone errors (including its/it's, there/their/they're, to/too/two, hear/here, etc.)
* It is a good idea if your writing contains paragraphs! Make a new paragraph when there is a natural shift in the focus of your writing in some way. Indicate your paragraphs by indenting five spaces.
* Complete sentences must contain a complete thought. Avoid sentence fragments.
* You may not string two complete sentences together without correct punctuation. This most often occurs when complete sentences are strung together using a comma, and it is called a run-on sentence.
* Ways to correct a run-on sentence:
+Make it two separate sentences. (Use a period and a second capital letter.)
+ Place a comma and a conjunction--and, but, or, nor, etc.--between them. (There is no second capital letter.)
+ Separate them with a semi-colon. (There is no second capital letter here, either.)
* Rules of quotation for dialogue
+ Start a new paragraph each time you change speakers.
+ Put quotation marks around the actual words spoken.
+ Put end punctuation inside the quotation marks.
+ Set off dialogue tags (like "he said") with commas--both before and/or after them.
* Review of possessives vs. plurals (including when—and where—to use or not use an apostrophe for them).