Writing Life Session 6

Emulating Style & Structure

Guiding Questions

1What are

some strategies that good writer’s

use?

2What do writers write

about?

3Why

emulate another author’s style and structure

?

Emulating-imitating the style & structure of a favorite author.

MIMIC, MODEL, EMULATE=ALL MEAN THE SAME THING

1

As I read aloud, think about how the paragraph is structured.

The Perfect Storm

Que

stion

s to

Ask

our

selv

es…

Practice Together…To emulate or mimic the writing of another author, first you must ask the following questions:

• What is this paragraph?• Description of a place or person?

• Where does the paragraph begin?• Outside? Weather?

• Where does the paragraph end?• Inside? Talking about a person?

• How does the author get us from the beginning point to the end point?• General to specific? Like a Zoom on a

camera

Practice by Modeling

MODEL, MIMIC, EMULATE

We will model Junger’s structure, but our paragraph will describe something completely different.

Our topic: The School Principal in his office.

• General to Specific• Outside to Inside• Begins with a description of the weather• Ends with a description of Mr. Turner in his

office.

Describe Mr. Turner in his office.

Teacher writes paragraph on the projector or board as class models together.

Outside it lays cold, smells like wet trees, and you can feel the humidity. Outside the school, the cars drove by as you could hear them honking at each other. Meanwhile, the kids were hopping out of their cars and running into the building since the bell just rang. Homework lays scattered across the bright green grass and juice boxes lay empty. As parents are trying to get to work on time, you hear students complain about having to go to school. Across the school yard and around the flag pole, through the door and up the stairs, down the elevator and into Mr. Turner’s office, stretched out in his chair, Mr. Turner was doing paperwork.

On a stormy, snowy day you could practically smell the wood burning from people’s fire. The sound of snow trucks plowing across the snow and the kids yelling and screaming across the street caused the snow truck to honk its horn. Around the corner from freezing Lake Lewisville I could hear the kids slurping on their hot chocolate. The ice on the lake was so thick that you could almost walk on it. Kids were throwing snowballs at passing cars as they honked in frustration. Across from the lake and around the glowing houses, through the front yard of my grandma’s house and up the hill, down the drive and into the school’s parking lot I ran into the building to greet Mr. Turner as he was eating a bucket of snow in his office.

On a hot and sunny day, you see the trees blowing in the wind and smell the fresh breeze. You can hear airplanes flying overhead while sitting on a bench reading, “Jurassic Park”. Meanwhile a 32 year old and a 16 year old were throwing punches. The freshly cut grass was blowing around and the flowers were blowing the other way. Children were screaming as they watched their father get beat up and the mother was screaming for her 16 year old. Across the bridge and around the haunted house, through the woods and up the hill at the back of the school, down the hill and into Lakeview lies Mr. Turner on his desk.

5th Period:

• It was a scorching summer day as Mr. Turner was fishing on a boat in Lake Lewisville. He heard a loud pop as a golf ball plunged into the roasted pig of someone’s BBQ. He felt a little shake on his boat and he looked down through the murky water and saw a diesel truck tire with smelly dead fish in it floating away. The golfers came to look for their ball and found it in the pig! They complained to Mr. Turner for stealing the BBQ pig with their golf ball. He decided that he had enough commotion for one day, so he grabbed the pig, jumped on the helicopter, flew over the houses and trees, parachuted down to Lakeview’s roof, drilled a hole through the ceiling, and pencil-dove into his chair.

• Tactical Turner

8th Period: • One morning while Mr. Turner was in Chick Fil A, he

glanced outside and noticed that the clouds were so low that he could almost touch them with his hands. The foggy mist in the air was spreading like a wild fire. He hears a loud kaboom and turns to see his beloved motorcycle flattened like a pancake. As the oil spills out over the pavement, the heat from the engine causes a flaring explosion! He looks over and realized that it was his mom! She was complaining about the damage to HER car. His mom calls in a helicopter, he shoots up the ladder, glides across town, lands on the school, breaks through two stories, lands in his desk, and realizes it’s Saturday!

» Crashing into Saturday

• Cut & glue the two passages (Perfect Storm & Bully) into your notebook. They shouldn’t be on the same page.

• Under (or beside) the second passage, work with your partner to emulate the author’s style.

5-10 minutes, then volunteer share outs

Partner Practice

• What is being described?• Is there dialogue?• Is there description?• What is being described at the beginning?• The end?• Does it progress from general to specific?

Or the other way around?• WHAT STANDS OUT AS BEING DIFFERENT,

INTERESTING, OR UNIQUE

Things to look for…

Model passage

• The Day of the BullyMost kids at school get along with everyone and

no one picks on them, but I wasn’t so lucky. There was one boy in my 6th grade class who made it his life’s mission to make my life miserable.

One day was especially bad. When I got to the classroom, I found his coat hanging on my peg. I did not dare put my things in his space, so I rolled up my coat and put it by the door.

During recess, he pushed me down in the snow. During lunch, he stole my sandwiches and threw my apple into the woods. After school, he followed me home and called me a baby because I would not stand up to him.

Life can be hard for a skinny little kid like me.

INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE

• 1-FIND A PARAGRAPH IN YOUR SSR BOOK THAT WOULD BE GOOD TO MIMIC.

• MAKE A LIST OF THINGS THAT ARE UNIQUE TO THIS STYLE.

• 2-MIMIC THE PARAGRAPH IN YOUR NOTEBOOK ON YOUR OWN.

• REMEMBER TO MODEL THE SAME ITEMS IN YOUR LIST.