ENHANCING YOUR

WRITING

Making your writing meaningful,

interesting, and powerful.

Expressing your ideas in more

vivid, colorful, and beautiful ways.

MAGIC THREE

Three groups of words, usually separated by

commas, that create a poetic rhythm or add

support for a point, especially when the

three word groups have their own modifiers.

The look in her eyes was vacant.

She seemed confused, disoriented, even lost.

Non-literal comparisons—

such as similes, metaphors,

and personification—add

“spice” to writing and can

help paint a more vivid

picture for the reader.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

Justice is

blind and, at

times, deaf.

The ancient,

corroded

engine

wheezed its

death cough.

DETAILS FOR EFFECT

Instead of general, vague descriptions, use specific

sensory details help the reader visualize the person,

place, thing, or idea being described. Five Senses.

The bottle glowed in luminous blinking intervals as the

fireflies played a fitful game of hide and seek inside.

REPETITION FOR EFFECT

Writers often repeat specially chosen

words or phrases to make a point, to

stress certain ideas for the readers.

The cold attacked her body like a thousand

tiny pin-pricks.

It was cold, cold like she had never felt before ,

cold she knew she never wanted to feel again.

EXPANDED MOMENT

Instead of “speeding” past a moment,

writers often emphasize it by

“expanding” the action.

She stopped, looked out at the cars whizzing

by on the busy street, checked her watch,

straightened her skirt and pushed the door open.

HUMORWriters know the value of laughter; even subtle

humor can help turn a “boring” paper into one

that can raise someone’s spirits.

His skis flew out in opposite directions as he tumbled

down the snow packed slope, finally coming to an

awkward halt in a soft pillow of white powder, his body

sprawled out as if ready to make another snow angel.

HYPHENATED MODIFIERS

Sometimes a new way of saying something can

make all the difference; hyphenated adjectives

often cause the reader to “sit up and take

notice.” But be careful not to overuse this

technique in a single paper.

What terrible disapoint-ment would he feel upon seeing

not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?

FULL CIRCLE ENDING

It is often effective to use a special

technique - tying the introduction and

conclusion together that effectively

“wrapping up” the piece. This can be

done by referring to a phrase, antidote,

comment from the beginning of the piece.

ACTIVE VERBS

When another writer catches your attention, he is

probably using active or strong verbs in most of his

sentences. Which interests you more “Batman’s entry

into the Joker’s hideout was noisy”, or “Batman blasted

his way into the Joker’s hideout”? The use of a strong

active verb adds interest.

He whipped his head around when he heard the

violent crash of glass and metal behind him.

USE ACTIVE VOICE

In passive-voice expressions the verb phrase will always

include a form of be, such as am, is, was, were, are, or been.

The presence of a be-verb, however, does not necessarily

mean that the sentence is in passive voice. Another way to

recognize passive-voice sentences is that they may include

a "by the..." phrase after the verb; the agent performing the

action, if named, is the object of the preposition in this

phrase.

Not: I am fascinated by her. Instead: She fascinates me.