DISCOVERING DISCOVERING VOICE:VOICE:

Voice Lessons for Middle and Voice Lessons for Middle and High SchoolHigh School

Nancy DeanNancy Dean

DICTIONDICTIONrefers to the authors choice of

words

A redheaded woman was there with Trout. Kate could see her rummaging throughout the cabin dumping drawers and knocking things from the

shelves of cabinets-Louis Sachar, Holes

1. What picture do you get in your mind when you read the second sentence?

2. How would the meaning of the sentence change if we changed some of the words? For example:Kate could see her searching through the cabin, emptying drawers and taking things off the shelves of cabinets.

M.C. heard him scramble and strain his way up the slope of Sarah’s mountain.

-Virginia Hamilton, M.C. Higgins, the Great

1. What does it mean to scramble and strain up a mountain? Close your eyes and try to get a picture of someone scrambling and straining up a mountain.

2. How would it change your mental picture if we rewrote the sentence like this?M.C. heard him walk up the slope of Sarah’s mountain.

For nearly a year, I sopped around the house, the Store, the school, and the church, like an old biscuit, dirty and inedible. Then I met, or rather got to know,

the lady who threw me my first lifeline.Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

1. What is the dictionary definition of the verb sop? This word is not usually used to describe a person’s actions. What effect does this have on the reader?

2. What is a lifeline? How is Angelou’s use of the word different from its usual use? How does this diction affect your understanding of the sentence?

He spent hours in front of the mirror trying to herd his teeth into place with his thumb. He asked his mother if he could have braces, like Frankie Molina,

her godson, but he asked at the wrong time.-Gary Soto, “Broken Chain,” Baseball in April and Other

Stories

1. What is Gary Soto implying about the narrator’s teeth when he uses the verb herd in the first sentence?

2. How would the meaning change if the sentence were written like this?He spent hours in front of the mirror trying to push his teeth into place with his thumb.

They scuttled for days and days and days till they came to a great forest, ‘sclsively full of trees and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-batchy

shadows, and there they hid: and after another long time what with standing half out of it, and what with the slippery-slidy shadows of the trees falling on

them, the Giraffe grew blotchy, and the Zebra grew stripy, and Eland the Koodoo grew darker….

-Rudyard Kiplin, “How the Leopard Got His Spots,” Just So Stories

1. What is the dictionary definition of scuttled? How would your mental picture change if the passage said, They trudged for days and days…?

2. Consider the hyphenated adjectives Kipling uses in this passage: patchy-batchy and slippery-slidy. How do these adjectives help the reader understand the scene?

“Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “far away across the city I see a young man in a garret*. He is leaning over a desk covered with papers, and in a tumbler by his side there is a bunch of withered violets. His hair is brown and crisp, and his lips are red as a pomegranate, and he has large and dreamy eyes.”-Oscar Wilde, “The Happy Prince,” The Happy Prince and Other Tales

*an attic room

1. Look carefully at the diction in this passage. Is the young man rich or poor? How do you know?

2. What does it mean to have crisp hair? Sketch a picture of someone with crisp hair.

There was a scurrying around and then eight of them snatched up their guns, formed up into twos and marched

out behind the office. He wheeled his horse about and trotted toward me. I jumped back and plunged for the tavern

doorway.-James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, My Brother Sam is

Dead

1. Look at the boldface word (snatched) in the first sentence. Notice how clearly you can “see” the action because of that strong ver. How would it change the meaning of the sentence if it read… eight of them picked up there guns?

2. What does the use of the word plunged in the third sentence tell you about the narrator’s attitude toward the other characters in this passage?

Brown as a coffee-berry, rugged, pistoled, spurred, wary, indefeasible*, I saw my old friend, Deputy-Marshal Buck Caperton, stumble with jingling

rowels**, into a chair in the marshal’s outer office.-O. Henry, “The Lonesome Road,” 41 Stories by O.

Henry

*something that can’t be cancelled

**a sharp-toothed wheel in the end of a spur

1.Look at the first 2 boldface words (pistoled and spurred). Both of these words described Deputy-Marshal Caperton. What do they mean? How would the meaning change if O. Henry has said, I saw my old friend Deputy-Marshal Buck Caperton, who wearing a pistol and spurs, stumble, with jingling rowels, into a chair in the marshal’s office?

2. The word indefeasible is usually used to describe a contract of some kind of legal document. O. Henry uses it to describe a character. What does it mean in this context? In other words, how can a person be indefeasible? What does this choice of words add to the impact of the sentence?

n you think at the ivory-n-ebonycrooning “I Left My Heart…” to momma, winkin n smiling n jazzin n profilinn sangin n sanginn sangin n soundinsweeeeeeeee t.

-Crystal Williams, “The Famous Door,” Kin

1. The words in this poem imitate the way someone talks. Why do you think Williams uses these kinds of words instead of standard English words? What does the diction add to the total effect of the passage?

2. How would the impact of the passage change if we wrote the lines like this?

and you at the piano, singing to momma,winking and smiling,and singling,and sounding sweet

How well I recollect the kind of day it was! I smell the fog that hung about the place; I see the hoar frost, ghostly, through it; I feel my rimy hair fall clammy

on my cheek; I look along the dim perspective of the schoolroom, with a sputtering candle here and there to light up the foggy morning, and the

breath of the boys wreathing and smoking in the raw cold as they blow upon their fingers and tap their feet upon the floor.

-Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

1. What words help you understand that the room was cold and dark?

2. What is a sputtering candle? How does describing the candle help you understand the feeling of the whole room?

DETAILDETAILwhat makes writing come

alive

I used to like going to have my hair cut. I liked the mirrors in the room and all the smells of lotions and shampoos. I liked to sit there-young and fresh and

pretty- and see what the women were having done, to make themselves look younger and prettier. I liked the way my mother’s hairdresser teased me

about boyfriends and dances. Not anymore, though. Somebody held the door open so my mother could wheel me in, and a few people who had met me

came around to say how sorry they were.-Cynthia Voigt, Izzy, Willy Nilly

1. Which details support the attitude that the narrator used to like having her hair cut? Underline those details and talk about there effectiveness.

2. Which detail changes the direction of the passage? Note that the narrator’s reason for not liking haircuts anymore is not explained. Nevertheless, you know what has happened. What effect does that have on you, the reader?

He was an old man. His black, heavily wrinkled face was surrounded by a halo of crinkly white hair and whiskers that seemed to separate his head from the layers of dirty coats piled on his smallish frame. His pants were bagged to the

knee. Where they were met with rags that went down to the old shoes. The rags were held on with strings, and there was a rope around his middle

-Walter Dean Myers, “The Treasure of Lemon Brown,” Face to Face:

A collection of Stories by Celebrated Soviet and American Writers

1. Underline all the vivid details in the passage. How do details help you understand the focus on the passage?

2. There are several contrasting details in the passage, details that five two completely different pictures of the man. For example, the passage says the man is wearing layers of dirty coats, which makes him sound padded and heavy; but he is also described as having a smaller frame, which makes him seem frail. Identify other contrasting details in the passage, and discuss what these contrasts add to the overall effect of the description.

When he ran, he even loved the pain, the hurt of the running, the burning in his lungs and the spasms that sometimes gripped his calves. He loved it

because he knew he could endure the pain and even go beyond it. He had never pushed himself to the limit but he felt all this reserve strength inside of him: more than strength actually- determination. And it sang in him as he ran,

he heart pumped blood joyfully through his body. -Robert Cormier, The Chocolate

War

1. What is the main idea (topic sentence) or focus of this paragraph? State it as simply as you can. How do the details in this paragraph support the main idea?

2. The details in the first sentence describe the physical sensation of pain. The next three sentences, however, focus on another characteristic of pain. What is this other characteristic of pain? How do the details of the last three sentences help the reader understand the other characteristic of pain?

Meanwhile, Confucius pursued his studies. Whenever he had a chance, he visited the state capital, Qufu, a lively town thronged with people talking,

laughing, and shouting; buying, selling and gambling; eating at food stalls in every street; and watching acrobats, jugglers, and magicians at the

marketplace, where vendors hawked such delicacies as bears’ paws, the fins of sharks, the livers of peacocks and the bees fried in there own honey

-Russell Freedman, Confucius: The Golden Rule

1. What is the focus of the detail in this description of the state capital, Qufu?

2. How would the feeling and impact of this passage change if Freedman had ended the second sentence right after people.

I loved the smell of fruits and vegetables and would savor everything, sniff at it, before I ate. We had a pear tree in the garden, and my mother would make

a thick pear nectar from its fruit, in which the smell of pears seemed heightened. But the scent of pears, I had read, could be made artificially, too (as was done with “pear drops”), without using any pears. One had only to

start with one of the alcohols-ethyl, methyl, amyl, whatever- and distill it with acetic acid to form the corresponding ester.

-Oliver Sacks, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood

1. The first sentence of the passage is a broad statement, stating the speaker’s love of the way fruits and vegetables smell in general. How does the rest of the passage enrich and strengthen the first sentence?

2. What is the speaker’s attitude toward science? What specific details reveal this attitude?

She’s this wrinkled old bat with bad breath, so kids avoid her. I tried to sit downwind of her breath but it was right after lunch and she kept burpin’ little

bursts of garlic-Sharon M. Draper, Tears of a

Tiger

1. Look at the following rewriting of Draper’s sentences: She’s an old woman with bad breath, so kids avoid her. I tried to sit downwind of her breath, but I couldn’t get away from her.Which one is more alive and engrossing? Which one best you into the scene? Why?

2. Sketch a little picture of the scene. What details are in your sketch? Why are they memorable?

I almost cried at what I saw. His coat was dirty and mud-caked. His skin was stretched drum-tight over his bony frame. The knotty joints of his hips and

shoulders stood out a good three inches from his body. -Wilson Rawls, Where the Red Fern

Grows

1. Think of one word to describe the dog in the passage. Which details in the passage support your choice of words?

2. The details of this passage describe the dog from the outside (his coat) in-through his skin to his bones. How do these details affect the reader’s attitude toward the dog?

It was full of every kind of desert plant that ever sprang out of dry hot earth. It was overrun with prairie dogs, squirrels, and horned toads, snakes, and a

variety of smaller forms of life. The space over this land knew only the presence of hawks, eagles, and buzzards. It was a region of loneliness,

emptiness, truth, and dignity. It was nature at its proudest, driest, loneliest, and loveliest.

1. Saroyan describes the scene as nature at its proudest, driest, loneliest, and loveliest. Which details support this statement?

2. Notice that the first sentence does not mention specific plants, but the second sentence mentions several desert animals. Why do you think Saroyan does this?

It isn’t a pretty pass. The ball is moving so slowly I can clearly see its white laces turning through the air. I can see Tommy Zodac and Johnny Sanders, the

middle linebackers, straining to reach for it, but it falls softly like a spent balloon into the fingers of Jared Bonton, Hudson’s tight end.

-Jan Ceripko, Imitate the Tiger

1. What is the main idea of focus on this paragraph? What details support the main idea and bring the reader into the narrator’s experience?

2. How would the meaning and impact of the passage change if Ceripko had written the paragraph like this?

It is a terrible, slow pass. Members of our team try to catch the ball, but it falls right into the hands of one of their team’s players.

Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in and out of your head.Arithmetic tells you how many you will lose or win if you know how any you had before you lost of won.Arithmetic is seven eleven all good children go to heaven- or five six bundle sticks.Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.

-Carl Sandburg, “Arithmetic,” The Complete Poems of Carl Sangburg

1. What is the purples of these lines of poetry? Who is the audience? What do these questions have to do with detail?

2. Look at this line. (Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer.) How does this sequence of details add the meaning of the lines?

METAPHORS, METAPHORS, SIMILIES & SIMILIES &

PERSONIFICATIONPERSONIFICATIONFigurative Language

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into

an oasis of freedom and justice. -Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have A

Dream”

1. Identify two examples of figurative language in the passage. Are the figures of speech metaphors or simile? How do you know the language is figurative?

2. What does the figurative language add to the passage?

I was seven, I lay in the carwatching palm trees swirl a sickening pattern past the glass.My stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin.

-Naomi Shihab Nye, “Making a Fist,” Words Under the Words: Selected Poems

1. What is the metaphor in this poem? What is the literal term? What is the figurative term? What does the metaphor mean?

2. How would the meaning and impact of these lines change if Nye said simply, My stomach really hurt?

Now only the night moved in the souls of the two men bent by their lonely fire in the wilderness; darkness pumped quietly in their veins and ticked silently in

their temples and their wrists. -Ray Bradbury, “The Dragon,” The Golden Apples of the Sun and

Other Stories

1. Is the word night literal of figurative? If it is literal, what does it literally mean? If it is figurative, explain why.

2. When Bradbury says, darkness pumped quietly in their veins and ticked silently in their temples and their wrist, what does he literally mean? This entire clause is a metaphor, which means there has to be a comparison between essentially unlike things. What is the comparison? What are the literal and figurative terms of the metaphor?

He gossips like my grandmother, this manwith my face, and I could standamused all afternoonin the Hon Kee Grocery,amid hanging meats hechops…

-Li-Young Lee, “The Cleaving,” The City in Which I Love You

1. Look at the first line. Is like my grandmother a simile? Explain.

2. Is this man/with my face figurative? If so, is it a metaphor or a simile? Explain.

Frantic, Cole struggled to fly, but he couldn’t escape the nest. All he could do was open his beak wide and raise it upward toward the skin, the action a

simple admission that he was powerless. There were no conditions, no vices, no lies, no deceit, no manipulation. Only submission and a simple desire to live. He wanted to live, but for that he needed help; otherwise his life would

end in the nest -Ben Mikaelsen, Touching Spirit

Bear

1. This paragraph from Touching Spirit Bear contains an extended metaphor, a metaphor that continues over several sentences and is developed in several ways. The literal term of this metaphor is Cole, the name of the boy who struggles to survive. What is the figurative term? How do you know? In other words, what evidence can you find in the paragraph that supports your understanding of the figurative term of the metaphor?

2. The figurative term of this metaphor is never directly stated. How would the impact of this paragraph change if Mikaelsen had written it like this?Frantic, Cole was like a little bird struggling to fly, but he couldn’t do it. Like a baby bird, he was powerless. There were no conditions, no vices, no lies, no deceit, no manipulation. Only submission and a simple desire to live. He wanted to live, but for that he needed help; otherwise life would end.

The Tangerine Times printed a special pullout section on the Lake Windsor Middle School sinkhole. The photos were spectacular. They had one huge shot of the splintered walkways sticking up in all directions, like Godzilla had just

trampled through there. -Edward Bloor,

Tangerine

1. Is the phrase the splintered walkways sticking up in all directions literal of figurative? Explain.

2. ….like Godzilla had just trampled through there is a simile. Why is it a simile and not a metaphor? What are the literal and figurative terms?

Eusebio talks in a hoarse whisper that smells like tobacco, one hand on Mama’s shoulder, one hand grasping my T-shirt. He’s like a sheepdog, and we are the sheep. He makes us go in little groups, watching the road, listening.

-Frances Temple, Grab Hands and Run

1. Find one simile and one metaphor in the passage. And identify the literal and figurative terms.

2. How is the meaning of the passage deepened by the simile and metaphor?

But my mother’s hair, my mother’s hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe, is

the warm smell of bread before you bake it, is the smell when she makes room for you on her side of the bed still warm with her skin, and you sleep

near her, the rain outside falling and Papa snoring. -Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango

Street

1. List the four similes and metaphors in this passage. Be sure you can explain why they are similes and metaphors and what the literal and figurative meanings are.

2. Why doesn’t Cisneros simply say, My Mother’s hair smelled good?

The ruddy brick floor smiled up at the smoky ceiling; the oaken settles*, shiny with long wear, exchange cheerful glances with each other; plates on the dresser grinned at pots on the shelf, and the merry firelight flickered and played over everything distinction

-Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows*long wooden benches with high backs that usually have storage space in the seat

1. Remember that personification is a king of metaphor, an implied comparison that always has a human being as its figurative term. Identify the examples of personification in the passage.

2. How does the use of personification help the reader visualize and connect to the passage? What kind of feeling is created by personification?

The camp faced a wide cove of white sane and palm trees. The bay was so perfectly blue, it looked like it had been retouched for a tourist brochure.

Across the bay stood protective mountains, shoulder to shoulder, across the Concepción peninsula

-Ann Brashares, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

1. Underline the example of personification in the third sentence. What are the literal and figurative terms?

2. How would the meaning of the third sentence change if it were written like this?There were mountains across the Concepción peninsula

HYPERBOLES, HYPERBOLES, SYMBOLS & SYMBOLS &

IRONYIRONYFigurative Language

He could shoot a bumblebee in the eye at sixty paces, and he was a man who was not afraid to shake hands with lightening.

-Harold W. Felton, Pecos Bill and the Mustang

1. This is an example of a hyperbole, an exaggeration that is based on truth but carries the trust to such an extreme that it is no longer literally true. Of course, Peco Bill couldn’t literally do these things. What, then, is the purpose of saying that he could?

2. Compare Felton’s sentence with this one:He could shoot very well, and he was not afraid of anything.

Which sentence better helps the reader understand what Pecos Bill is like? Why?

“… The grass you are standing on, my dear little ones, is made of a new kind of soft minty sugar that I’ve just invented! I call it swudge! Try a blade! Please do! It’s delectable!”… “Isn’t it wonderful!” whispered Charlie. “Hasn’t it got a wonderful taste, Grandpa?” “I could eat the whole field!” said Grandpa Joe, grinning with delight. “I could go around on all fours like a cow and eat every blade of grass in the field!”

-Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory1. Underline the example of a hyperbole in

this passage. Remember that a hyperbole is figurative, not literal. What is the literal meaning of the hyperbole?

2. The character, Grandpa Joe, first states the he could eat a whole field. Then he extends or continues this hyperbole by saying he could go around on all fours like a cow and eat every blade of grass in the field. How does this extended hyperbole help you understand Grandpa Joe’s experience of the swudge?

There was enough artillery in Beekman’s toy department to wipe our Red China and the Mau-Mau tribe of Africa, and I personally think some of the toy

manufactures could use a good course in prevention psychiatry. -Paul Zindel, The

Pigman

1. Underline the hyperbole in this sentence.

2. What is the speaker’s attitude towards toy guns? How does the hyperbole in this sentence reveal this attitude?

Flowers and other things have been laid against the wall. There are little flags, an old teddy bear, and letters, weighted with stones so they wont blow away. Someone has left a rose

with a droopy head. -Eve Bunting, The

Wall

1. This passage is from a book about the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. There are several symbols in the passage. Identify the symbols and explain what they mean.

2. Look at the last sentence about the rose. Remember that it is a rose, but it’s also a symbol of something else. What does the rose actually symbolize? Why does it have to have a droopy head here? What does the droopy heard add to our understanding of the symbol and the feeling of the passage?

The one tree in Francine’s yard was neither a pine nor a hemlock. It had pointed leaves which grew along green switches which radiated from the bough and made a tree which looked like a lot of opened

green umbrellas. Some people called it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach

the sky. It grew in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps and it was the only tree that grew out of cement. It grew lushly, but only in the tenement districts.

-Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

1. Remember that a symbol is itself and something else. This paragraph is about a tree, but it’s also about something else. What is that something else? When you identify that something else, you have understood the symbol.

2. How would this passage be different if Smith had used a simile instead of symbolism, like this?

Francie’s spirit was like a tree with pointed leaves which grew along green switches which radiated from the bough and made a tree which looked like a lot of opened green umbrellas. She always tried to rise above her troubles like a Tree of Heaven which struggles to reach the sky, no matter where its seed falls

As I reached for the porch to steady myself, there was a sense of quiet movement in the darkness. The moon slid from its dark covers, cloaking the earth in a shadowy white light, and I could see Mr. Morrison clearly, moving

silently, like a jungle cat, from the side of the house to the road, a shotgun in his hand. -Mildred

D. Taylor, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

1. Traditionally, darkness symbolizes evil and deception, and light symbolizes goodness and truth. What is going on in this paragraph? How does the use of traditional symbolism help you understand the passage?

2. Mr. Morrison is described as moving silently, like a jungle cat. Is jungle cat a symbol? Explain your answer thoroughly.

All this last day Frodo had not spoken, but had walked half-bowed, often stumbling, as if his eyes no longer saw the way before his feet. Sam guessed that among all their pains he

bore the worst, the growing weight of the Ring, a burden on the body and a torment to his mind.

-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

1. The ring in this book is, in fact, a ring; however, it is also something else. That, of course, makes the ring a symbol. What do rings usually symbolize? In other words, why would Tolkien use a ring as a symbol?

2. How does the use of a symbol help you understand the passage?

Oh, and there’s a thrilling shot of one of the kids being sick on a small fishing boat of the coast of Florida and we are hovering over him offering him salami

and mayonnaise sandwiches. That one really breaks us up.

-Erma Bombeck, At Wit’s End

1. Remember that verbal irony implies the opposite of what is said, and irony may or may not be sarcastic (intending to hurt). Bombeck describes a picture from a family vacation as thrilling. Is it ironic? Is it sarcastic?

2. Look at the following rewriting of the passage:

We have a picture of one of the kids being sick on a small fishing boat off the coast of Florida. In the picture, we’re making fun of him and offering him salami and mayonnaise sandwiches. We know it’s wrong, but it’s kind of funny.Which version is funnier? Why? How does the use of irony help shape your understanding of the author’s attitude toward vacation pictures?

“All that he would have to do,” continued the worried bug, “is travel through miles of harrowing and hazardous countryside, into unknown valleys and uncharted forests, past yawning chasms and trackless wastes, until he reached Digitopolis (if, of course, he ever reached there). Then he would have to persuade the Mathemagician to agree to release the little princesses—and, of course, he’d never agree to agree to anything that you agreed with. And, anyway, if he did, you certainly wouldn’t agree to it…

“And, finally, after the long ride back, a triumphal parade (if, of course, there is anything left to parade) followed by hot chocolate and cookies for everyone.” The Humbug bowed low and sat down once again, very pleased with himself.

“I never realized it would be so simple,” said the king, stroking his beard and smiling broadly.

“Quite simple indeed,” concurred the bug.

-Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

1. When the bug says the task is quite simple indeed, what does he really mean? Is this verbal irony? Is it sarcasm?

2. When the king says, I never realized it would be so simple, is it ironic? Justify your answer.

We divide the world in columnswhen we stick to our own kind.We nurture our suspicions,keep our stereotypes in line.

We have to keep our distanceSo we’ve another kind to blame.How come,if we’re so different,we both react the same?

-Sara Holbrook, “Major Differences,” Walking on the Boundaries of Change: Poems of Transition

1. Read these stanzas very carefully. Several of the lines say one thing, but they mean quite the opposite. In other words, they’re ironic. What do the lines say, and what do the lines mean? (Use lines 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, and 7-9)

2. How would the impact of the poem change if we rewrote the last stanza like this?We shouldn’t keep our distanceNor stick to our own kind.BecauseIt’s not so helpfulAnd it builds a narrow mind.

IMAGERYIMAGERYThe use of words to re-

create a sensory experience.

The silence was delicate. Aunty Ifeoma was scraping a burnt pot in the kitchen, and the kroo-kroo-kroo of the metal spoon on the pot seemed

intrusive. Amaka and Papa-Nnukwu spoke sometimes, their voices low, twining together. They understood each other, using the sparest words. Watching

them, I felt a longing for something I knew I would never have. I wanted to get up and leave, but my legs did not belong to me, did not do what I wanted

them to. -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple

Hibiscus

1. Imagery is the re-creation of sensory experiences through language. Which of the five senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell) is most important here? Underline the particular words that create this sense experience for the reader?

2. The kroo-kroo-kroo of the metal spoon on the pot is described as intrusive. What does this mean? What image is contrasting with the sound of the metal spoon on the pot? What effect does this have on the passage?

Backing out the drivewaythe car lights cast an eerie glowin the morning fog centeringon movement in the rain slick street

-Nikki Giovanni, “Possum Crossing,” Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea

1. Circle the images. What kind of imagery is used in these lines? What kind of feeling is created with these images?

2. Contrast the feeling created by Giovanni’s lines with these lines:Backing out the drivewaythe car lights cast a warm glowin the morning sunshine centeringon movement in the rain slick streetHow do the images create a different feeling?

Well, after a long time I heard the clock away off in the town go boom-boom-boom-twelve licks; and all still again- stiller than ever. Pretty soon I heard a

twig snap down in the dark amongst the trees- something was a-stirring. I sat still and listened.

-Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

1. What kind of imagery is used in this passage? How do these images affect the reader?

2. Twain uses imagery to set up a contrast between sounds and quiet. How does the use of “quiet” and “sound” images shape your understanding of the scene?

He had bathed regularly in the lake, but not with soap and he thought how wonderful it would be to wash his hair. Thick with grime and smoke dirt,

frizzed with wind and sun, matted with fish and foolbird grease, his hair had grown and stuck and tangled and grown until it was a clumped mess on his

head. -Gary Paulsen,

Hatchet

1.Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between figurative language (like metaphors and similes) and imagery. That’s because a lot of figurative language contains imagery. For example, we could describe someone’s hair as limp and stringy, like overcooked spaghetti. This is a visual image- it makes you “see” the hair. But it is also figurative (hair is compared to overcooked spaghetti). Read Paulsen’s paragraph again. Is the imagery figurative or not? Explain your answer.

2. What does the imagery in this passage reveal about the character’s attitude toward his dirty hair?

Something warm was running across the backs of her hands. She saw with mounting horror that it was mixed slime and blood running from the dog’s

mouth. -Stephen King,

Cujo

1. What kind of imagery is used in this passage? Is the imagery also figurative?

2. How does the imagery in this passage help create the horror of the situation?

When I walk into a restaurant and order the trout almondine,I have to trust that it is trout, and not dogfish or mudpuppy-That my cream of mushroom appetizer won’t be creamyWith earwax; my café au lait, not laced with phlegm.

-Charles Harper Webb, “Trust,” Liver

1. Underling the important images in the passage. What kind of imagery is most vivid in this passage?

2. These liens are from a poem called “Trust.” What does Webb believe about trust? How does the use of imagery help you understand the meaning?

“This must be a simply enormous wardrobe!” thought Lucy, going still further is and pushing the soft folds of the coats aside to make room for her. Then she noticed that there was something crunching under her feet. “I wonder is that more moth-balls?” she thought, stopping down to feel it with her hand. But

instead of felling the hard, smooth wood of the floor of the wardrobe, she felt something soft and powdery and extremely cold.

-C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

1. Underline all the images you can find. What kind of imagery is mostly used in this passage?

2. What does Lucy feel in the passage? How does the imagery help you understand what has changed in the closet?

The camels move on, their only sound the kachinnik, kachinnik, of their bracelets, the gentle thong of their bells, and the creaking of goathair cords

against their wooden saddles. -Suzanne Fisher Staples, Shabanu, Daughter of

the Wind

1. Underline the images. What kind of imagery is used in this passage?

2. Imitate the sounds captured by these words: kachinnik, thong, creaking. How do these words bring the reader into the experience of the passage?

Back in Montana you had steep craggy mountains that rose ten thousand feet into the clouds. Here the only hills were man-made highway bridges- smooth,

gentle, slopes of concrete. -Carl Hiaasen,

Hoot

1. What kind of picture to do you get when you read the first sentence? What kind of picture do you get when you read the second sentence? Sketch a picture of each.

2. Which does the speaker like better- the craggy mountains or the highway bridges? Base your answer on evidence from the text, not your own opinion. How does the imagery in this passage help you understand the speaker’s attitude?

And still this was not all. For, on the old beamed ceiling of the parlor, streaks of light swam and danced and wavered like a bright mirage, reflected through the windows from the sunlit surface of the pond. There were bowls of daisies everywhere, gay white and yellow. And over everything was the clean, sweet

smell of the water and its weeds, the chatter of a swooping kingfisher, the carol and trill of a dozen other kinds of birds, and occasionally the thrilling bas note of an unastonished bullfrog at ease somewhere along the muddy banks.

-Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

1. Look at the images in the second sentence. Which images are figurative and which are not? Fill in the following chart with your answers.

2. This passage uses sight, sound and smell imagery to capture the scene. What is the speaker’s attitude toward the scene, and how do the images reveal this attitude?

SYNTAXSYNTAXThe way words are arranged in

sentences

He was a year older than I, skinny, brown as a chocolate bar, his hair orange, his hazel eyes full of mischief and laughter.

-Esmeralda Santiago, When I was Puerto Rican

1. Look carefully at the way this sentence is written. All of the words that follow the Word I are used to describe the he of the sentence. They are adjectives and adjective phrases. This is not the way words are usually ordered in English. (In English, adjectives are usually right before the nouns they modify, or at least right next to them.) What effect does this word have on the meaning of the sentence?

2. Placing all of the adjectives and adjective phrases one after the other is called layering. What effect does this layering have on the impact of the sentence?

But once I spread my fingers in the dirt and couch over the Get on Your Mark, the dream goes and I am solid again and am telling myself, Squeaky you must win, you must win, you are the fastest thing in the world, you can even beat your father up Amsterdam if

you really try. And then I feel my weight coming back just behind my knees then down to my feet then into the earth and the pistol shot explodes in my blood and I am off and

weightless again, flying past the other runners, my arms pumping up and down and the whole world is quiet except for the crunch as I zoom over the gravel track.

-Toni Cade Bambara, Raymond’s Run (Creative Short Stories)

1. Look at the first sentence in this passage., The sentence is made up of many short clauses in a row, each clause separated by a comma. Read the sentence aloud several times and think about it. A comma indicates a short pause, a little breath. Why do you think the author wrote the sentence this way instead of dividing it into separate sentences? In other words, how does the sentence structure emphasize the meaning of the sentence?

2. Both of these sentences start with conjunctions (but, and). What is the purpose of a conjunction? Why do you think the author has chosen to start these sentences with a conjunction?

When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little- a very, very crevice in the lantern. So I opened it-

your cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily-until, at length, a single dim ray, like the thread of a spider, s how from out the crevice and full upon the vulture

eye. -Edgar Allan Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” The Tell-Tale Heart and

Other Writings

1. Look carefully at the sentence. There are several groups of words called phrases (very patiently, without hearing him lie down, a very, very little) that interrupt the flow of the sentence. Why do you think Poe wrote the sentence like this?

2. Look at the second sentence. What is the purpose of the dashes? How do these dashes, and the words they set off, involve the reader in the action of the passage?

Grayson said, “Pitcher.” This word, unlike the others, was not worn at all, but fresh and robust. It startled Maniac. It declared: I am not what you see. I am a

line-laying, pickup-driving, live-at-the-Y, bean-brained parkhand. I am not rickety, whiskered worm chow. I am a pitcher.

-Jerry Spinelli, Maniac Magee

1. Notice that the passage alternates long, layered sentences with short sentences. What is the purpose of the short sentences? What is the purpose of the longer sentences?

2. Why is the last sentence in italics? What effect does this sentence have on the impact of the passage?

He found that he was often angry, now: irrationally angry at his groupmates, that they were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his

own was taking on. -Lois Lowry, The

Giver

1. What is the purpose of the colon in this sentence?

2. How would it change the effectiveness of the sentence if he rewrote it like this?He found that he was often irrationally angry at his groupmates because they were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on.

When I woke up it was light. It was awfully quiet. I mean , out house just isn’t naturally quiet. The radios usually going full blast and the TV is turned up loud and people are

wrestling and knocking over lamps and tripping over the coffee table and yelling at each other. Something was wrong, but I couldn’t quite figure it out. Something had

happened…. I couldn’t remember what-S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders

1. Hinton starts the passage with two short sentences, a sentence fragment, and another short sentence. Then she writes two longer sentences. Look at these sentences carefully, and contrast the purpose of the short sentences and fragment and the purpose of the longer sentences. How does the sentence length reinforce the meaning of the passage?

2. Hinton uses ellipses in the last sentence to show that something has been left out. What has been left out? How do you know?

They came because they were afraid or unafraid, because they were happy or unhappy, because they felt like Pilgrims or did not feel like Pilgrims. There was a reason for each man. They were leaving bad wives of bad jobs or bad

towns; they were coming to find something of leave something of get something, to dig up something or bury something or leave something alone.

They were coming with small dreams or large dreams or none at all.-Ray Bradbury, The Martain

Chronicles

1. Bradbury repeats sentence parts in this passage. In the first sentence he repeats clauses beginning with because. In the third sentence he repeats similar clauses (They were leaving…. They were coming). How does this influence your understanding of the passage?

2. What is the purpose of the semicolon in the third sentence? Why do you think Bradbury uses a semicolon instead of a period in this sentence?

Like sunshine after storm were the peaceful weeks which followed. -Louisa May Alcott, Little

Women

1. What is the subject of the sentence (underline it)? What is the main verb (circle it)? Is this the usual order of subjects and verbs in English?

2. How would the meaning and impact of the sentence be different if it read:The peaceful weeks which followed were like sunshine after storm.

Suddenly there was sickening thud. A loud crack. The ship shuddered, then split ocean. It had slammed into a reef near the Scilly Isles, the outermost

islands off the southwest English coast. Within minutes it sank. Moments later three other ships pierced their hills on the same rocks.

-Kathryn Lasky, The Man Who Made Time Travel

1. Look at the first two sentences Which one is a sentence fragment? What effect does the use of a sentence have on the reader?

2. Label the sentences in this paragraph with short and long. What effect does the use of short and long sentences have on the reader?

I picked up a tomato so big it sat on the ground. IT looked like it had sat there for a week. The underside was brown. Small white worms lived in it. It was

very juicy. I had to handle it carefully to keep from spilling it on myself. I stood up and took aim, and went into the wind-up, when my other at the kitchen window called my name in a sharp voice. I had to decide quickly. I decided

-Garrison Keillor , Lake Wobegon Days

1. Label each sentence in the passage short or long. In terms of meaning, what do short sentences have in common? What do the long sentences have in common? How does the sentence length help the reader understand the speaker’s attitude?

1. What did the narrator decide? How does the syntax help you know what the narrator decides?

TONETONEThe expression of the author’s

attitude toward his/her audience and subject matter.

The Baudelaire orphans went to the bedroom and glumly packed their few belongings. Klaus looked distastefully at each ugly shirt Mrs. Poe had bought for him as he folded them and put them into a small suitcase. Violet looked around the cramped, smelly room in which they had been living. And Sunny crawled around solemnly biting each of Edgar and Albert’s shoes, leaving

small teeth marks in each one so she would not be forgotten. -Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad

Beginning

1. What is the tone of this passage? Brainstorm tone words with your class and add new words to your Tone Words List.

2. How do you know the tone of this passage? Create evidence of what you identify as the tone of this passage.

Rachel/Rachelle and some other twit about the movie date before Mr. Stetman starts class. I wasn’t to puke. Rachel/Rachelle is just “Andythis” and

“Andythat.” Could she be more obvious? I close my ears to her stupid asthmatic laugh and work on the homework that was due yesterday.

-Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

1. What is the attitude of the narrator toward Rachel/Rachelle? Circle and discuss the diction, details, and imagery that reveal this attitude.

2. What is the tone of the passage? How do you know? Look at your list of tone words and decide which words best describe the tone of this passage. If you think of new words, add them to the list.

MIRANDA: O, wonder!How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is! O*brave new worldThat has such people in’t!

-William Shakespeare, The Tempest

1. What is the tone of this passage? How do you know?

2. How would the tone of the passage change if we simply changed the punctuation like this?

MIRANDA: O, wonder. How many goodly creatures are there here?How many beauteous mankind is. O brave new

worldThat has much people in’t.

The haunted house was half in the shadows of the clump of elms in which it stood. The elms were almost bare now, and the ground around the house was yellow with damp leaves. The late afternoon light had a greenish cast which the blank windows reflected in a sinister way. An unhinged shutter thumped.

Something else creaked. -Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in

Time

1. What is the tone of the passage? How does L’Engle use diction, detail, and imagery to create the tone?

2. Would the tone of the passage change if we deleted the words haunted and sinister? Explain.

The Navy guy and I told each other we were glad to’ve met each other. Which always kills me. I’m always saying “Glad to’ve met you” to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive you have to say that stuff, though.

-J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

1. What is the narrator’s attitude toward people in general? How do you know? Explain how the element of voice help you to identify that narrator’s attitude towards the diction, syntax and hyperbole’s in this passage.

1. How would the tone of the passage change if Salinger had written in like this?John and I told each other we were glad to’ve met each other. I’m not sure I really meant it. I’m always saying “Glad to’ve met you” to somebody I’m not sure I’m glad I met.

It is my observation that dogs feel certain basic emotions like affection, fear, confusion, and joy. I’m not sure they’re capable of feeling sadness or jealousy or if they can get their feelings hurt. But I believe a dog can get embarrassed! Take the Sunbeam clippers to along-haired dog and see if he doesn’t slink off

behind the barn. -Baxter Black, “Dog Emotions,” Cactus Tracks & Cowboy

Philosophy

1. Does the narrator like of dislike dogs? How do you know.

2. What is the tone of the passage? How do the detail and diction of the last sentence affect the tone of the passage?

At the gate he heard his mother’s voice raised in a storm of anger. She had discovered the shotgun where he had leaned it against the smoke-house wall. She had discovered Flag. She had discovered, too, that the yearling had made

the most of the early hours and had fed, not only across the sprouting corn, but across a wide section of the cow-peas. He went helplessly to her to meet her wrath. He stood with his head down while she failed him with her tongue.

-Marjorie Kinnan Ralings, The Yearling

1. In the passage, the he of the story is a boy who has raised a fawn, Flag. What is the boy’s attitude toward the Flag? What is his mother’s attitude toward the Flag?

2. How did you figure out the characters attitude’s?

The Rum Tum Tugger is a terrible bore: When you let him in, then he wants to be out;He’s always on the wrong side of every door,And as soon as he’s at home, then he’d like to get about.He likes to lie in the bureau drawer,But he makes such a fuss if he can’t get out.Yes the Rum Tug Tugger is a curious cat-

And it isn’t any use for you to doubt it:For he will doAs he will do

And there’s no doing anything about it! - T.S. Eliot, “The Rum Tug Tugger,” Old possum’s Book of

Practical Cats

1. What is the author’s attitude toward cats? How do you know? What is the tone of the passage? How it the tone related to attitude?

2. How would the tone change if we changed the last four lines like this?

That old cat is spoiled and useless-can you doubt it?For he will do itAs he will do

And I might have to do something about it.

I’m boiling with rage, and yet I mustn’t show it. I’d like to stamp my feet, scream, give Mummy a good shaking, cry, and I don’t know what else,

because of the horrible words, mocking looks, and accusations which are leveled at me repeatedly every day, and find their mark, like shafts from a

tightly strung bow, and which are just as hard to draw from my body.-Anne Frank, The Diary of a

Young Girl

1. What is the tone of the passage? Add your new tone words to the class list.

2. Examine and discuss the diction, detail, syntax, imagery, and figurative language that shape the tone.

We went with sandwiches, thick, poor-man’s ham from Aldi’s supermarket, slapped onto wheat bread and slathered with a thin film of mayonnaise.

-Mawi Asgedom, Of Beetles & Angels: A Boys Remarkable

Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard

1. What is the speaker’s attitude toward the sandwiches?

2. How did you figure out the speaker’s attitude toward the sandwiches?

Turning off my headlamp, I freeze in the darkness. I quietly wait to hear the noise again. Suddenly something scuttles n the leaves scattered on the ground. My heart beats faster.

What is it? Could it be a snake? -Rene Ebersole, “Night Shift,” National Geographic Explorer,

Oct. 2004

1. What is the tone of this passage? How does the syntax help create the tone? Look especially at the use of verb tense, sentence length and questions.

2. How would the tone of the passage change if it were written like this?I turned off my headlamp and froze in darkness. I quietly waited to hear the noise again. Suddenly something scuttled in the leaves scattered on the ground. My heart beat faster. I wondered what it was and if it could have been a snake.

I stood up nervously, wondering what it would be. I felt my classmates’ piercing eyes as I mechanically left the classroom. Teacher Hou walked ahead

of me without seeming to notice my presence. I followed silently. -Ji-li Hiang, Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural

Revolution

1. What is the tone of the passage? This passage is told in the first person. That is, the speaker (I) is a character. How does this affect the tone?

2. Find one example of each of the elements of voice below and explain how the example helps create the tone.

“I have lived in this tree, in this same hollow,” the owl said, “for more years than anyone can remember. But now, when the wind blows hard in the winter and rocks the forest, I sit here in the dark, and

from deep down in the bole, down near the roots, I hear a new sound. It is the sound of strands of wood creaking in the cold and snapping one by one. The limbs are falling; the tree is old and it is dying. Yet I

cannot bring myself, after so many years, to leave, to find a new home and move into it, perhaps to fight for it. I, too, have grown old. One of these days, one of these years, the tree will fall and when it

does if I am still alive, I will fall with it.” -Robert C. O’Brien, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats

of NIMH

1. What is the owl’s attitude toward the tree? What is his attitude toward himself?

2. What is the tone of the passage? How does O’Brien use diction, imagery, detail, and syntax to create the tone? Remember that attitude helps create tone but is not necessarily the same thing as tone.

“Yes ma’am. That’s right. Now, I have tot ell you, I was a little-miss-know-it-all. I was a miss-smarty-pants with my library full of books. Oh, yes ma’am, I thought I knew the answers to everything. Well, one hot Thursday, I was

sitting in my library with all the doors and windows open and my nose stuck in a book, when a shadow crossed the desk. And without looking up, yes ma’am,

without even looking up, I said, ‘Is there a book I can help you find?’”-Kate DiCamillo, Because of Winn-

Dixie

1. What is the speaker’s attitude toward herself? What is the author’s attitude toward the speaker? How do you know?

2. What is the tone of the passage? The speaker repeats the phrase yes ma’am three times in this passage. How does this help create the tone?

It is my belief that no write can improve his work until he discards the dulcet notion that the reader is feebleminded, for writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar… a writer who questions the capacity of the person at the other

end of the line is not a writer at all, merely a schemer. -E.B. White, “calculating Machine,” Poems and Sketches of

E.B. White

1. What is E.B. White’s attitude toward the people who read his writing? How does his diction reveal and reinforce this attitude?

2. What is the tone of this passage? How do you know this?

THETHEEND!END!