The first thing I teach for creative writing, and a quick way to up-level student work:
PARTICIPLES.
A participle is a verb that acts like an adjective. They can also have their own phrases. Examples:
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PARTICIPLES.
A participle is a verb that acts like an adjective. They can also have their own phrases. Examples:
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This is a sentence:
He burst into the room.
This is the same sentence with a PARTICIPLE PHRASE added:
Shouting in fury, he burst into the room.
Kicking the door into splinters, he burst into the room.
He burst into the room, terrifying the butler.
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He burst into the room.
This is the same sentence with a PARTICIPLE PHRASE added:
Shouting in fury, he burst into the room.
Kicking the door into splinters, he burst into the room.
He burst into the room, terrifying the butler.
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a) You see this construction all the time in "real" fiction books but hardly ever in student writing unless it's specifically taught.
b) It allows you to describe two things happening at once, which is awesome.
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b) It allows you to describe two things happening at once, which is awesome.
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COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS:
a) Some students will listen to your explanation, watch your modelling, and still begin their sentence with an adverb. They were drilled on adverbs in Primary, and showing them another way takes time.
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a) Some students will listen to your explanation, watch your modelling, and still begin their sentence with an adverb. They were drilled on adverbs in Primary, and showing them another way takes time.
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b) You run into trouble if the participle doesn't modify the subject of the main clause.
Incorrect example:
"Looking through my binoculars, a strange shape moved inside the house."
This is wrong because the subject (strange shape) isn't the one with binoculars.
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Incorrect example:
"Looking through my binoculars, a strange shape moved inside the house."
This is wrong because the subject (strange shape) isn't the one with binoculars.
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Incorrect example:
"Towering above me, I saw the snow-capped mountains."
This is pretty clear and makes sense, but because "towering" doesn't attach to the subject ("I") it leads you down a problematic path and should probably be corrected.
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"Towering above me, I saw the snow-capped mountains."
This is pretty clear and makes sense, but because "towering" doesn't attach to the subject ("I") it leads you down a problematic path and should probably be corrected.
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You can stretch this task by extending to two particple phrases OR EVEN MORE:
Listening to the radio, and pondering the impact of the day's news, I realised I'd made a terrible mistake.
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Listening to the radio, and pondering the impact of the day's news, I realised I'd made a terrible mistake.
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I like teaching this because it puts grammatical knowledge (such as "subject") to good use, and improves writing quite quickly once students get it.
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