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. |
