Quickwrite: Write about a memorable experience. Try to be as descriptive as possible. Write as much as you can in 5 minutes.

•What was the experience?

•Who was involved? Describe the people.

•Where were you? Give some details of the setting.

•What were your feelings during the experience?

•Hi!

Maggie decided to make friends during lunch, but the girls made fun of her instead. She could still hear their laughter as she cried all the way to the bathroom. Maggie felt hurt and embarrassed.

Maggie sprinted out of the cafeteria as fast as she could. She could still hear their laughter, the cackling of witches echoing through the hall. Hot tears flooded her cheeks, and Maggie could not hold back the sobs that had been consuming her the past week. She burst into the girls’ restroom and collapsed on the floor. A wilting flower, Maggie was crushed by the forces she could not control.

Her desperate longing for acceptance in a new school had failed once again.

Painting a picture with words:

Showing, not telling

The tree glistened in gold and orange as Calvin and Hobbes laid lazily in the tree.

With the fire crackling and a warm cup of hot chocolate, Calvin and Hobbes enjoyed their afternoon reading the Sunday comic.

Participles = an ing verb (or a series of ing verbs) tagged on to the beginning or end of a sentence.

A participial phrase is the ing verb plus its modifiers and complements.

Sitting tall, holding their weapons with one hand, Legolas and his men rode toward the Paths of the Dead.

Peering at the onlookers, slumping forward, staring dejectedly, the gorilla passed hour after hour in his depressing cage.

Frank looked at his little brother.

Look at your quickwrite from yesterday. This time, re-write the experience by showing, not telling. Paint a picture with words for your readers.

•What kind of descriptions can you add?

•Would you be able to include any participial phrases to add to the imagery?

•Can you place the reader in that experience?

Participles serve as adjectives…so for example:

Peering at the onlookers, slumping forward, staring dejectedly, the gorilla passed hour after hour in his depressing cage.

1. What is the underlined part describing?

2. What punctuation does it need?

Traveling might be something you enjoy.

1. Why isn’t this a participle?

Gerund = a verbal that ends in –ing and functions as a noun.

Participles Gerunds

•Used as a noun

•Virtually never requires punctuation

•Functions as an adjective

•Set off by commas by:

•Coming at the beginning of a sentence

•Interrupting a sentence as a nonessential element

•Coming at the end of a sentence (but it is separated from the word it modifies).

The guitarist's finger-picking was extraordinary.

Commas are important!!

(The person was extraordinary, demonstrating the technique.)

The guitarist, finger-picking, was extraordinary.

(The technique was extraordinary.)

In extreme cases, commas determine what gets eaten!

Eat, small children.

Eat small, children.

Eat small children.

Sometimes, our descriptions “interrupts” our sentence:

I was stretched out on my back, my paws dangling at my sides,thinking nothing more of the meal I’d just eaten and the chocolate I hoped still lie ahead.

I was stretched out on my back, my paws dangling at my sides, thinking nothing more of the meal I’d just eaten and the chocolate I hoped still lie ahead.

And she didn’t want to sit next to Frank Pearl, who ate paste, in class.

Our yellow ranch house, 26 Bobolink Drive, had a garage and a bathroom shower with sliding glass doors.

Our tiny apartment, Number 302 on Veteran Avenue, had posters covering every inch of the wall and cheap IKEA coffee tables stacked everywhere. When I started tripping over those tables, that was when I realized too much furniture only led to clutter.

Interrupter = any sentence part that could be inserted into a sentence and which must be set off with commas.

Sent , interrupter, ence .

Use two commas to set off an interrupter.

Unbeknownst to you, you have been creating different types of sentences.

Simple sentences:

Tucker was a trucker.

Sentence .

Compound sentences: 2 or more independent clauses but NO subordinate clauses.

I was next in line for lunch.

Joseph cut in front of me.

Sentence , FANBOYS sentence .

When summer comes to the North Woods, time slows down.

Complex sentences: one independent clause + one subordinate clause.

Opener, sentence .

AAAWWUBBIS

Compound-complex sentence: two or more independent clauses + one subordinate clause

While my son was playing video games, I ate his last piece of pizza, and it was delicious.