The humble adjective is often neglected when we teach
creative writing to students. Literary techniques always sound better, because
they have a name. Why put an adjective in when you can use something with a cool
name? How many times have I groaned inside when a student, when analysing a
poem, jumps to a piece of alliteration and neglects the fifty or so effective
adjectives around it? Adjectives get a tough deal. They are the basic
components of writing, yet the figurative devices sound so much cooler, like
their older brother who smokes and drinks, and even has a girlfriend.
I am teaching creative writing to Year 11 and travel writing
to Year 9 and it is amazing how I have to battle against a sea of clichés when
dealing with creative writing. Things are always trapped like animals in a cage
or a person is as slow as a snail. I want to leave the classroom like a thunderbolt,
leopard and rocket when I hear these. Sadly, the way students write at times is
devoid of thinking time, planning or exploration. Apparently, we have to get them ready to write
under pressure. They have to do it in the exam, so they may as well get used to
writing like Charles Dickens in 20 minutes. Sadly students rarely get to
craft a piece of writing. That’s why I am such a fan of ‘Slow Writing’. It is
no surprise that students rush to produce work; we have subconsciously told
them you must produce the real deal quickly from the start. This is why
students default to their bank of clichés. I need to describe a scary room:
cobwebs, shadows and lots of creaking. I often think that their writing neglects the
humble adjective. A simple, effective word that can add so much to a plain,
boring and uninteresting line.
This is something I often use in lessons. I get students to
fill the gaps.
The room was __________, ______________, and
_____________. Shadows flickered across the _________ and ____________ walls.
In the centre of the _________ room there was a ___________ , ___________
table. Amongst the _____ items on the table there was a ___________ ,
___________ and ___________ knife.
It is amazing what they come up with. Usually, I suggest
that they make it creepy. Soon as you mention that, the word ‘creepy’ appears
that or ‘eerie’ (always spelt incorrectly) several times, leading to a
discussion. Does using the word ‘creepy’ make something creepy? Most of them are
clichés or at least predictable. This does, however, produce a lot of alternatives.
A teacher then can tease the layers of meaning between different words.
The room was still, motionless and blank.
So many possibilities, but often students pick the most
obvious one. Why not use the second one? Doesn’t it make a point? It does something different with the writing
at least. Students get hung up with the idea of adding techniques (if I hear
AFOREST again, I will shove it up someone’s…nose) that their writing becomes a
collection of techniques that lacks any cohesion or continuity. I would never be
an examiner because I think I would scream with every paper as students cling
to the idea that good writing only relies on a shove-lots-of-techniques-in formula.
Anyway, I then get students to fill the gaps to make the room
positive. Surprisingly, this always produces better results, as students have
rarely been asked to describe a warm, pleasant and welcoming room – the knife
always gets them. This simple cloze exercise has always generated a good level
of understanding of how adjectives affect a piece of writing.
The exercise also helps them to look at how to use
adjectives in a sentence. We now have developed a little mantra. They recite
the following back to me every lesson. I find it useful, along with the naming
different of grammar structures, to help students understand the variety of using
adjectives in a sentence. If they can spot a noun, then they know where to add an
adjective or adjectives.
adjective noun
adjective, adjective noun
adjective , adjective and adjective
noun
adjective, adjective, adjective noun
adjective and adjective noun
Just giving the above to some of my C grade students has
transformed their writing. Things just click. I find it much better than
looking at copious amounts of examples as students are given a way to add and
adapt rather than copy.
We then also look at how adjectives can be used to slow the
pace of writing. It isn’t just long sentences that slows readers down but lots
of adjectives too. We explore how we might change the use of adjectives
throughout the piece of writing. We discuss where there is a need to describe things
and where there might not be a need to describe things in great detail. As teachers we often tell students they
need to show rather than tell in their writing, but actually it is about a
balance between the two and knowing when to describe and when not to describe
something.
I am always cautious of bombarding students with vocabulary
lists for descriptive writing because you end up getting flowery writing as
they put in words with a lack of thought for the overall impact and effect of a
text. It sounds good and clever so I will put it in my writing. Never: I want
to make the opening positive so they will help see that it is a friendly environment.
I’d rather make a connection between parts of their existing knowledge rather than
cram their brains with new things. Unlock the synapses in the brain rather than
add new knowledge to the detriment of the old knowledge. The vocabulary our students have in the brain
is hidden, yet we insist that they don’t have enough words. Maybe, they haven’t
had a bridge built between an adjective they know and a noun they know. That’s
why they never come up with a ‘friendly vase’ or an ‘unforgiving table’. They have never been given the connection . And, if we constantly
bombard then with new words, we are missing hundreds if not thousands of meaningful
combinations of words. And, along the
way they get to use personification and it wasn’t even explicitly taught to
them.
Adjective Noun
sturdy table
shining window
pane
delicate flower
deep hole
What happens if we explore how adjectives can be mixed up?
The shining flower stood on the
delicate table before the deep window, which was like a sturdy hole.
Yes, it isn’t brilliant, but it is effective. Do students
normally associate flowers with shining? Do students normally describe windows
as deep? They do, however, add texture and a new level of meaning. If more of
my students wrote like this, I’d be really happy.
Right, before people start thinking of adjectives to
describe this blog, I’ll end on this note:
I think if we spent double the time on the basics of verbs, adjectives
and other things, than we do on the ‘whizzy things’ then our students will have
good foundations to do some of the clever things naturally.
Thanks for reading,
Xris
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