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In this segment, we'll provide you with short exclusive writing lessons! More coming soon.
Lesson By Noah:
Italics. Italics have the godlike ability to make emotion pop out of a story, and if you don't use them in narratives and other writing pieces you write you can use this tip: When writing a thought, or when you want to emphasize something, italics are necessary to advance your skill.
You're probably thinking, why? My writing is amazing already. See, that made it a lot better. What if I wrote, You're probably thinking, why? My writing is amazing already.
Italics light EVERYTHING up.
Lesson by Eva:
50 Cent Words! This is a phrase my elementary school teacher taught me. It means words that are unique and powerful. Words that add meaning to your writing, whether it's just 3 letters or 45!
For example, here's a list of some 50 Cent Words replacements:
Bad = Horrible, Downright awful, Absolutely terrible, Outrageous
Ugly = Horrendous, Disgusting, Unsightly, Nasty, Undeniably hideous
This = The one in question, Particularly that one, The previous
Make a list for yourself with loads of synonyms for your most used words. Using 50 Cent Words can make your writing more dominant and potent. I use this in all of my pieces--even warmup paragraphs--and it makes a gargantuan difference!
Lesson By Noah
I usually show my favorite writing pieces to my parents, and they usually give me some advice in return. One thing my dad usually tells me is the phrase, "A nickel a word." This phrase refers to Wordy Sentences and if a sentence is too wordy you may get a reader mixed up in a sentence and lose their attention to your writing. You do not want this.
Let's show an example:
I think if the guy named Timmy over there tried harder when it comes to school work it would be much, much, much easier for him to succeed with his school grades.
Let's fix it:
Maybe if Timmy worked harder at schoolwork he would succeed with grades.
Isn't it amazing what cleaning word clutter could do? It clears up your writing in bright way. But you may ask, what if I want to add descriptive words to make my sentence more vivid? Let's use that using our example sentence:
Maybe if Timmy, a tall 11 year old boy, tried incredibly harder at his challenging math homework, he would excel with his stubby grades.
That's better.
Lesson by Noah
Have you ever written something, and felt like it was bland? Empty? If yes, this lesson will help you so much. I'll be talking about giving context in the middle of a sentence. It may sometimes be hard to fit all you want to say into a sentence, but when trying to tell your reader about something without sounding goofy, you may want to do this.
Example Sentence: The boy was riding his bike, a two-wheeled outdoor vehicle, through the woods calmly.
Instead of saying: The boy was riding his bike through the woods calmly. A bike is a two-wheeled outdoor vehicle.
This technique helps writing flow easier when having a reader; someone who reads your writing, pay close attention to your idea.
Lesson by Madeline
Writing can feel like a very unorganized process, but it doesn't have to be; by having a good outline process, your writing (and mental state while writing) can improve significantly.
For things like Warm-Up Paragraphs or even your State Test Essay, an outline can help quicken the process or help you develop your thoughts.
Something like separating your sentences by the details you are using in them can help you and your mind to take things one step at a time.
For Example:
Detail 1: We went to the grocery store (any additional details can also be added with something like this:)
Sub: I got lots of fun food!
Detail 2: Then we went to the playground.
Detail 3: At the end of the day, we got ice cream, and then went to bed!
As you can see, by breaking up the events of the day, it will be much easier to form this into a paragraph, and this is also just a more organized system, which will help you as a future writer, and scholar!
Lesson by Eva
Stemming off of Madeline's interesting lesson about planning, I will let you know about warmup paragraphs and why practicing with them is helpful in plenty of ways.
For any non-SAAS students or anyone who doesn't use warm-up paragraphs, they are tiny little paragraphs ranging around 12 sentences that follow an interesting prompt. I have completed over a hundred of these this school year alone, and I can confirm, just this daily practice has improved my writing significantly.
This is my average warm-up paragraph:
Paragraph #1: 4/16 What is your favorite sport?
There are many sports I enjoy playing.
D1: First, soccer is my primary sport and extracurricular.
I get such a kick (literally) out of it; I’m passionate about it.
Even though I’m still learning, I have become a decent player and hope to improve more and more.
D2: Next, I grew up swimming.
I spend summer after summer in the pool or ocean, doing freestyle, tricks, or butterfly.
I don’t do swim team because of the stress I received after a year on it, but I still love to feel the flow of the water now and then.
D3: Lastly, handball is so entertaining.
It may not be trendy where I live, but I still dominate gym classes.
It consists of a lot of throwing and passing, so I love how it somewhat trains me for soccer at the same time.
Overall, sports are a big part of my life, and these three are the greatest.
There are many sports I enjoy playing. First, soccer is my primary sport and extracurricular. I get such a kick (literally) out of it; I’m passionate about it. Even though I’m still learning, I have become a decent player and hope to improve more and more. Next, I grew up swimming. I spend summer after summer in the pool or ocean, doing freestyle, tricks, or butterfly. I don’t do swim team because of the stress I received after a year on it, but I still love to feel the flow of the water now and then. Lastly, handball is so entertaining. It may not be prevalent where I live, but I still dominate in gym class. It consists of a lot of throwing and passing, so I love how it somewhat trains me for soccer at the same time. Overall, sports are a big part of my life, and these three are the greatest.
Anyway, this is a great warm-up if you want to improve your writing and develop new, good habits.
Dealing with a blank page
By Noah Solovey
I recently heard this quote, "An author's worst fear is a blank page." And I have to agree with that. When you just want to write something, you have to start empty. How do you generate ideas? For some people, this takes days to figure out, but for others, they may get it in a few seconds. Using the technique in this lesson will help you generate a story quicker.
I'm going to list each of TWS's genres below and below them I will list brainstorming ideas.
Editorials:
What is a headline that caught your eye that you have an opinion on?
What is something that you want to tell people?
Do you have a strong opinion on something and want others to agree with it?
Write about something that you can't get out of your mind; that you are always thinking about.
What's something people would love to hear about?
Is there a type of editorial you excel at? Write it!
Tell me a collection of stuff. Can you rank these items?
What's a writing skill you are currently working on?
Do you want to give advice to your reader?
What can you rant about?
Do you love sports? Then write about your sport!
Stories
Describe a recent experience to me.
What is a fantasy world you want to live in?
Who do you wish you could be? Now make that person a character.
Do you think you could make a really funny story? Do it!
Write something about your life.
What is something that happened that you want others to know about?
Write something scary!
Persuasive
Convince me about something.
Is there a problem? Write about it!
What is something that has to stop?
What is something that you don't believe in but others do?
What's getting on your nerves?
Choose a side of a debate.
Poetry
Think about the word vivid. Make your poetry vivid and show detail most interestingly.
Think about writing. Writing has so many rules, why not break them? Nobody is going to stop you.
How can you mess with writing to show an idea?
Can you write a poetic story about yourself?
What's something beautiful? Make a haiku about it!
Informal
Informal writing is all about flexing your knowledge about something. So that leads me to ask, what is something you are a master at and you want to inform others about?
Think about a topic. Now put that topic in the blank. Inform about ______.
Show off your knowledge of something in informal writing!
Use a random thing generator on Google. Now, research what it tells you to and become a master at it!
What is something you want to learn about? Research it and write about it!
Expressive Writing
For a descriptive, you can either think about an image and closely describe it or think about an experience you or someone else had and closely describe it. For a challenge, describe a moment. A split second.
For a satire, think of something and then ask yourself, "How can I poke fun out of this?"
For a speech, think of something you are passionate about and have a strong feeling about. Would you be good at speaking about it?
After all, writing is creative. What you write about is from your mind, not anyone else's.
Q & A: Poetry
By Noah Solovey
Q: Why space out letters?
A: To emphasize an action.
Example:
And he r a n
And s p r i n t e d
Through the dark stormy woods
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