Name ______ELA IV: Figurative Language & Sensory Imagery
- PDN: “Show Me What You Know”: Identify the following terms
Simile
Metaphor
Hyperbole
Onomatopoeia
Alliteration
Personification
Imagery
The five senses
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- The problem:
- What's the most common type of writing in high schools? ______
- It's time to put an end to mindless submissions!
- “After teaching students how to create lively characters, I felt good about myself until I read their short stories. My lessons teaching imagery had failed. Littered with unimaginative descriptions, their stories made me want to ram a toothpick through my left nostril. Seconds before the tip pierced my brain, a thought came to mind. I pulled out the toothpick, canceled my basketball party, called my wife, and told her I'd be home late. I had to teach them a different way.” -- Trent Lorcher, teacher
- Brainstorm & Connect: Describe what happens when you eat a bland meal?______
- Like a bland meal, bland writing is not appetizing. We have to fix this. What we read and write should be the literary equivalent 5-star meals (okay fine, but even a delicious hamburger can stick with you).
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2. The Solution:
Sensory writing: appealing to the ______.
A writer must totally ______the reader in order to make the writing enjoyable to read. A writer must appeal to the senses.
If a reader can see, smell, taste, or touch what the character experiences, the writing is of high quality.
It needs to paint an image within a reader’s head.
The big rule!: ______.
There are a few ways to do this: ______& ______.
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3. Figurative Language: A Class Exploration (+ notes review)
First… let’s look at a sentence:
______.
Does the sentence paint a picture for the reader? Are there details that would appeal to the readers' senses?
No and no.
Some solutions to the blandness problem:
- You can use alliteration:
(alliteration ______)
Sentence transformed______.
- You can use simile:
(simile ______)
Sentence transformed______.
- You can use onomatopoeia:
(onomatopoeia ______)
Sentence transformed______.
- You can use metaphor:
(metaphor ______)
Sentence transformed______.
- You can use hyperbole:
(metaphor ______)
Sentence transformed______.
- You can use personification
(personification ______)
Sentence transformed______.
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4. Figurative Language Practice:
Instructions: Convert these telling to showing sentences containing figurative language. Use at least 4 different types of figuration.Challenge: don’t use the italicized words.
1)Thepizzatastedgreat.
______
2)Theclasswasboring.
______
3)Thefootball teamthinks they are are so cool.
______
4)Myteacherisweird.
______
5)Themuggerattacked hisvictim.
______
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5. A Potential Trap (+ a challenge): Boring Clichés
One potential trap students often fall for is using tired clichés in lieu of actual creative language. After all, there are better ways to say that you need to eat, rather than that you are “hungry as a horse.”
For a small challenge, you are going to be assigned a specific cliché. Rewrite it in a creative, original, and appealing way.
Cliché: ______
Rewrite: ______
______
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6. Sensory Imagery!: An Introduction
Sensory Imagerycan be defined as the use of language to represent objects, actions, feelings, thoughts, ideas, states of mind, and any sensory or extrasensory experience. This includes appeals to the visual, auditory, tactile, thermal (heat or cold), olfactory, gustatory, and kinesthetic senses. This also can fix bland writing.
An example:
Here's a passage without sensory details:
I went to the store and bought some flowers. Then I headed to the meat department. Later I realized I forgot to buy bread.
Now, does this pull you in? Of course it doesn't. There's nothing to bring you into the writer's world. Read this revised version with the addition of sensory details:
Upon entering the grocery store, I headed directly for the flower department, where I spottedyellow tulips. As I tenderly rested the tulips in myrusty shopping cart, I caught a whiff ofminty dried eucalyptus, so I added thefragrant forest green bouquetof eucalyptus to my cart. While heading for the meat department, I smelled thestench of seafood, which made my appetite disappear. I absently grabbed abloody red hunk of NY Stripand tossed it into my cart. Pushing mycreaky shopping cartto the checkout line, Iheard an employeeannounce over the PA that there was a special on shrimp. On the ride home, I realized I had forgotten to buy thecrusty wheat breadI like so much.
See how the extra details made the scene come to life? It takes time and effort to incorporate sensory details, but once you get the hang of it, your writing will pop.
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7. Sensory Imagery!: Practice
We aren’t always used to describing things in detail. So let’s practice.
A)Grab it from your bag!
Object:
Description (use all the senses):
This also can apply to writing,
B)Write and Switch:
Come up with a boring, bland sentence on the top of your head.
______
Switch papers with the student next to you. (Student Name: ______)
Rewrite the above sentence using sensory details. Then switch back.
Rewrite below:
______
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8. Sensory Imagery & Narrative: Further Exploration
In order to make sense of this and apply to narrative writing, let’s look at this a bit deeper…
A reader needs to feel engaged in the written world you are creating. Writing that incorporates sensory images engages the reader and makes the writing come alive. It quickens the pulse, gives you goose bumps, makes you taste,hear and smell what the writer tastes, hearsand smells.
Take, for instance, the following example:
The mountains are beautiful.
But, what, exactly, does “beautiful” look like?
The mountains are stacked like dominos, their white caps crisscrossing the western sky.
In another example, the writer is describing her grandmother:
She was very pretty.
What does “pretty” look like? Is “very pretty” prettier than just “pretty”?
Grandmother’s painted crimson lips were always smiling, her high cheekbones anddeep, topaz eyes reminded me of Elizabeth Taylor.
This example describes a Thanksgiving dinner:
The turkey was good.
What does “good” taste like?
The Thanksgiving turkey was moist and tender, theapple stuffing permeating each bite of delicate white meat.
In narrative essays, you want the reader to experience what you experienced. Telling an audience something looks beautiful or tastes good is vague; you need to create a sensory image of what “beautiful” or “good” means to you, and how the reader should view beautiful or taste good. The only way to do this is through sensory imagery. Look at the following short paragraph describing a boy helping an elderly woman up a flight of stairs:
Grandmother Workman reached over and grabbed her grandson’s arm. He was nervous because the staircase was so steep, but she leaned against him and they began to climb.
Now, look at the same scene, but here, the writer has incorporated sensory detail:
Grandmother Workman lurched over and grabbed the pale skin of Randal’s thin forearm with her leathery hand. The folds and creases beneath her skin coiled themselves out like electrical wiring, like the bloated, roughly-textured relief map of the world that his mother just posted above his bedside table. Randal looked ahead toward the winding spiral staircase, fidgeted with a small hole in his baseball jersey, and bit his lip. His mouth filled with the sweet, coppery taste of blood as she leaned in closely toward him, breathing her hot breath on the damp hair at the base of his neck. She smelled of wet cigarettes and bacon. As they slowly climbed the long, steep staircase, the only sound was his grandmothers’ labored breathing and the mournful creak of the wooden stairs.
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9. Imagery: More PRACTICE
Take your object from earlier, and write 2-3 sentences, describing someone using it, with lots of sensory detail.
______
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10. An Extra Credit Challenge!: Applying these skills to our readings:
As an extra credit assignment (adding extra points to this packet), pick out an example of description and imagery in something we have read in this unit. You can use an example from “By Any Other Name,” “Kaffir Boy in America,” or the book you are currently reading as your SSR.(DUE BY FRI).
Share it and explain it (type of figuration or sensory image, etc) in the space below:
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11. Tying it to something else….
DESCRIPTION AND IMAGERY IN “A CHRISTMAS STORY”
“Getting ready to go to school like was like getting ready for deep sea diving. My brother looked like a tick about to pop.”
“It always took so much time to get ready for school. Mom made us wear so many layers.” BORING
“Actually the Old Man loved it. He had always pictured himself in the pits of the Indianapolis Speedway in the 500. My old man's spare tires were actually only tires in the academic sense. They were round, they had once been made of rubber.”
The Old Man loved changing tires as if he was a professional. But the tires he used were never that good. BORING
“Immediately, my feet began to sweat as those two fluffy little bunnies with a blue button eye stared sappily up at me. I just hope Flick would never spot them as a word of this humiliation could make life at Warren G. Harding School a veritable Hell.”
“I put on the pink bunny suit. It had bunny slippers and bunny ears attached at respective ends. I hoped my friends would never see this; it would be so humiliating.” BORING
“The heavenly aroma still hung in the house. But it was gone, all gone! No turkey! No turkey sandwiches! No turkey salad! No turkey gravy! Turkey Hash! Turkey a la King! Or gallons of turkey soup! Gone, ALL GONE!”
“The neighbor’s dogs ate all the turkey. There would be no delicious turkey dinner or leftovers. It was all done.” BORING
12. Independent Practice: Bringing it all together: More Examples +_ Another Challenge
In the space provided, use the figurative and descriptive writing techniques we’ve discussed to spice up the initial (boring) scene/description. Make use of metaphors, similes, hyperboles, and sensory imagery—avoid using clichés! Your improvements should be at least 3 sentences. *Be prepared to share at least one with the class!
The athletic player made the spectators jump up in the stands as she/he made the game-changing play. ______
The meal on the table looked heavenly. The all bright colors and delightful smells filled the huge dining room. ______
As the sun set on the horizon, the handsome man held the beautiful girl’s hand as they walked along the beach.
______