Download Image Grammar by Harry Noden

Image Grammar
by Harry Noden
Using Grammatical Structures to
Teach Writing
How is the writer like an artist?
Writers paint images of life using techniques
similar to artist brush strokes on a canvas.
What are the brush strokes that
writers use?
Brush strokes are fundamental artistic
elements of grammar that bring depth,
flow, tone, and rhythm to a piece of writing.
They allow a reader to experience.
“Paint pictures with words.”
Compare: 1 - “It was winter. Everything
was frozen and white with snow. Snow
had fallen from the sky for days. The
weather was horrible.”
“Paint pictures with words.”
2 – “Mossflower lay deep in the grip of
midwinter beneath a sky of leaden gray
that showed tinges of scarlet and orange
on the horizon. A cold mantle of snow
draped the landscape, covering the
flatlands to the west. Snow was
everywhere, filling the ditches, drifting high
against the hedgerows, making paths
invisible, smoothing the contours of earth
in its white embrace.” Author: Brian
Jacques
What are the five basic brush
strokes?
-Participles
-Absolutes
-Appositives
-Action Verbs
-Adjectives Shifted out of order
Painting with Participles
• One form of the PARTICIPLE is a
ing verb tagged on the beginning or end of
a sentence.
A writer/artist might describe the
scene:
• Original sentence: “The diamond-scaled
snakes attacked their prey.”
OR
• Revised sentence with a few participles:
“Hissing, slithering, and coiling, the
diamond-scaled snakes attacked their
prey.”
Participial Phrase
• Another revised sentence with participles
phrases:
“Hissing their forked red tongues and
coiling their cold bodies, the diamondscaled snakes attacked their prey.”
PARTICIPLES evoke action!
- Using single participles creates rapid
movement.
“Hissing, slithering, and coiling…”
- Using expanded phrases add detail at a
slower but equally intense pace.
“Hissing their forked red tongues and coiling
their cold bodies…”
Participles can also end with ed.
Examples:
Preoccupied, distracted and
unfocused, Jane swerved as she drove
along the slippery road.
Trapped in the pouring rain and
distracted by its intensity, Jane swerved
as she drove along the slippery road.
Participles Painted by
Hemingway
Shifting the weight of the line to his left
shoulder and kneeling carefully, he washed
his hand in the ocean and held it there,
submerged, for more than a minute,
watching the blood trail away and the steady
movement of the water against his hand as
the boat moved.
--- Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
PARTICIPLES are not VERBS
• A participle is a form of a verb that can
act as an adjective.
• They are verb that have been changed
by adding an –ed or –ing ending BUT
they are used to describe the subject of
the sentence.
Participles and participial
phrases are “extra” descriptions
– The sentence without them must be
complete
– They must be offset by commas
– Verbs that end in –ing or –ed (called
participles) only work if they are “extra”
descriptions for the subject, not when they
are normal verbs
– They are not adverbs, which are verbs
often ending in ly
Student Example:
• Base Sentence/Independent Clause:
“The Olympic long jumper thrust the weight of is
whole body forward.”
• “Flying through the air on the wings of a
dream, [the Olympic long jumper thrust
the weight of his whole body
forward.”]
--- Cathleen Conry
Student Example:
• Base Sentence/Independent Clause:
“The rhino looked for freedom.”
,
,
• “The rhino trapped in the tangled rope
looked for freedom.”
--- Erika Schreckengost
Remember:
Single participles = rapid movement
Participial phrases = slower, but
equally intense pace
Your Turn:
Add participles or participial phrases to the
following base sentences:
1 – The cats pounced on the ball of yarn.
2 – The dancer flew across the stage.
3 – The enraged dog attacked the intruder.
Check out these two common mistakes and
see if you can find the error and fix them:
• “My lab assistant Skippy twittered with
craziness.
• The sink is leaking like a baby’s
diaper.”
• “Susan, energetically like a dog who is
happy to see its master, couldn’t
contain her excitement.”