One of the first big writing concepts we're covering this year (in all levels of English II) is the concept of Writing to Show, or "show, not tell." As readers, we know that descriptive language is more interesting to read. Language doesn't have to be flowery or overly complicated in order to be good. Actually, in your writings, there will be a limited amount of space/time for details and WTS. Therefore, you need to get really good at it. We need to pack as much information into a few lines as possible, and WTS is going to get you there.
Do you see that this isn't about being flowery and having too much description? It's about having
particularly apt description at just the right moment in your essay. As we continue, consider how WTS might look in an expository piece vs. a narrative piece. To aid in your ponderings, I made a word-cloud thing of all of the best WTS things we talked about in class. Enjoy:
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| From class discussions. |
WTS if one of the many things that make books as enjoyable as they are. Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t pictures supposed to be equal to a thousand words? If this is true, then why do people tend to enjoy books more than movies? In my opinion, it’s mostly because people want to be able to “read” the character’s mind, which they can only do in books. However, it’s also partially because of the vast amount of details that WTS adds to books. I like to think of it in terms of video. The more pixels a video has, the better it looks. However, too many pixels will result in the video file being unrealistically huge. The same applies to writing. The more details, figurative language, etc. you have, the better your writing will be, but too many details will consume too much time/space and have a negative effect.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the last line of what you just wrote. "Too many details will consume too much time/space and have a negative effect." Exactly. A whole paper can't be WTS. It's a tool to be pulled out at just the right time. Could you imagine a whole essay or story written in WTS-type detail? (Milton wrote this way!)
ReplyDeleteHis works must be cumbersome to read. I wouldn't know. I'm not the biggest fan of poetry. It scares me.
DeleteCumbersome is an understatement.
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