NEW CAMBRIDGE SCHOOL

FACULTY LANGUAGES

AREA ENGLISH

TEACHER Matthew Mondrawickas

GRADE 7

DATE 22.3.2021

STUDENT

GOAL: Improve creative/descriptive writing skills

WORKSHEET
TOPIC: Creative Writing

EXPLORING

 Choose one of the pictures above and write a paragraph describing it. Make sure to write for
the 5 senses (sight/sound/smell/touch/taste). . . min. 80 words
 BUILDING UP

What is creative writing?

Creative writing is a form of writing that encompasses a number of different genres and styles outside the
more formal scope of technical writing or academic writing. Creative writing focuses on elements such as
character development, narrative, and plot, infusing its structure with imagination and story.

1. Fiction writing:
Withing their many genres and subgenres, both short story- and novel-writing involve a wide breadth of themes,
styles, and details created by authors to build worlds that feel like real life. Writing fiction can provide a writer
with plenty of freedom to craft an imaginative original story populated with fictional characters who are relatable
and three-dimensional.

2. Creative nonfiction writing:

This genre incorporates different creative writing techniques and literary styles to convey truthful, non-fictional
narratives. Creative nonfiction works, like memoirs and personal essays, use more emotion and tend to
emphasize story and tone over more traditional subgenres of nonfiction.

3. Screenwriting:
Screenwriting weaves a narrative into its blocks of action and dialogue text, setting up whole scenes and often
following a three-act structure to tell a story. Traditionally, scripts were written exclusively for either television
shows or films, but the introduction of new technology and streaming devices has made it possible for a variety
of formats to exist.

4. Playwriting:
Playwriting is a form of creative writing that is meant to be performed live on stage. Plays can be one-act long or
several—but due to limitations on space, effects, and live capabilities, plays often must utilize creativity in order
to properly tell a complete and immersive story.

5. Poetry writing:
Poetry is rhythmic prose that expresses ideas with musicality. It can be written or performed. It can be short or
contain multiple verses. It can have no rhyme scheme or an intricate and repetitive one. Poetry, like songwriting,
is a versatile writing form that allows the author to use cadence and meter to enhance their expressiveness.
What is descriptive writing?

We can define descriptive writing as a type of writing that gives a clear and concise
description of everything. It includes places, people, objects or an event. The primary objective
of descriptive writing is to provide a clear picture of the place, people or thing in a reader's
mind.

When you are writing something imaginative – such as a story or an account of an interesting
personal experience – you can make your writing more effective by including detailed
descriptions of people and places. To write effective descriptions, you need a clear picture in
your mind of who or what it is that you are setting out to describe. Doing this allows you to
focus on precise details which make the descriptions come alive in the reader’s mind. Good
writers incorporate descriptive passages into the overall piece of writing rather than write
descriptively for the sake of it.

 Sensory Details: Sensory description uses sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste to
sketch an impression in writing.

Consider the following paragraph without sensory description. . .

My sister and I walked along the boardwalk each afternoon of our vacation. We watched the ocean and
listened to the waves. Usually we stopped for a snack at one of the many stores that line the boardwalk.
Afterwards, we walked along the beach and let our feet get wet.

Now, consider this paragraph with all five sensory descriptors: sight, sound, smell, taste, and
touch.

My sister and I walked along the boardwalk one afternoon on our vacation. The hot boards warmed our bare
feet. We watched the foam-covered waves topple over each other and then slide back into sea. The crashing
water competed with the exuberant yells from the seagulls. We bought a perfectly oval fluff of pink cotton candy
that dissolved sweetly in our mouths. Afterwards, we walked along the edge of the water, letting the warm salty
air blow our hair away from our necks as the cool water lapped over our toes.

 Vivid vs. Vague Language

The sensory details you select in your writing should create for your reader the same picture you have in your
mind. Instead of using vague, general words, your sensory language should be concrete and sensory-packed. This
makes the difference between vivid and vague language. Take a look at the comparison between vague and vivid
sentences.

Vague Vivid
The food was unappetizing. The pale turkey slices floated limply in a pool of murky fat.
The sprinkler was refreshing. The cool water from the sprinkler sprayed our hot faces.
The traffic was heavy. Our old car puffed as Main Street became clogged with a line
of clamoring motorists.

Complete the following chart using a thesaurus.

 Find at least 3 synonyms and antynoms for the words below. For the final 5, use your own root word.

SYNONYM ANTONYM
(a word or phrase that means (a word opposite in meaning to
ROOT WORD exactly or nearly the same as another)
another word or phrase in the
same language)

Happy
 Violent

Possible

Oppose

Clean

Fire

Hot

Bored

Help

Big

Fake

Big

Old

Varying sentence structure

 Varying Subject or Word Choice

One of the easiest ways to spot text that requires variety is by noting how each sentence opens.
Writers can often overuse the same word, like an author’s name, or a subject, like pronouns to
refer to an author, when beginning sentences. This lack of subject variety can be distracting to a
reader. Review the following paragraph’s sentence variety:
My philosophy of education is derived from my personal experiences. I have been an educator for 4 years, and I
have learned a lot from more experienced teachers in my district. I also work mainly with students from a low
socioeconomic background; my background was quite different. I will discuss how all of these elements, along with
scholarly texts, have impacted my educational philosophy.

Notice how the writer of this paragraph starts each sentence and clause with a personal pronoun.
Although the writer does alternate between “I” and “my”, both pronouns refer to the same
subject. This repetition of personal pronouns is most common when writing a Personal
Development Plan (PDP) or other personal papers. To avoid this type of repetition, try adjusting
the placement of prepositional phrases or dependent clauses so the subject does not open each
sentence:

My philosophy of education is derived from my personal experiences. Having been an educator for 4
years, I have learned a lot from more experienced teachers in my district. I also work mainly with students from
a low socioeconomic background that is quite different from mine. In this paper, I will discuss how all of these
elements, along with scholarly texts, have impacted my educational philosophy.

 Varying Sentence Length

Another way to spot needed sentence variety is through the length of each sentence. Repeating longer sentences
can inundate a reader and overshadow arguments, while frequently relying on shorter sentences can make an
argument feel rushed or stunted.

Overusing Long Sentences

The company reported that yearly profit growth, which had steadily increased by more than 7% since 1989, had
stabilized in 2009 with a 0% comp, and in 2010, the year they launched the OWN project, actually decreased
from the previous year by 2%. This announcement stunned Wall Street analysts, but with the overall decrease in
similar company profit growth worldwide, as reported by Author (Year) in his article detailing the company’s
history, the company’s announcement aligns with industry trends and future industry predictions.

Notice how this paragraph is comprised of just two sentences. While each clause does provide relevant
information, the reader may have difficulty identifying the subject and purpose of the whole paragraph.

Overusing Short Sentences

In 2010, the company’s yearly profit growth decreased from the previous year by 2%. This was the year they
launched the OWN project. The profit growth had steadily increased by more than 7% since 1989. (They
stabilized in 2009.) This announcement stunned Wall Street analysts. However, it aligns with the decrease in
similar company profit growth worldwide. It also supports future predictions for the industry (Author, Year).

Notice how this paragraph uses the same information as the previous one but breaks it into seven sentences.
While the information is more digestible through these shorter sentences, the reader may not know what
information is the most pertinent to the paragraph’s purpose.

Alternating Sentence Length

Alternating between lengths allows writers to use sentences strategically, emphasizing important points through
short sentences and telling stories with longer ones:

The company reported that profit growth stabilized in 2009, though it had steadily increased by more than 7%
since 1989. In 2010, the year they launched the OWN project, company profit growth decreased from the
previous year. This announcement stunned Wall Street analysts. According to Author (Year), however, this
decrease was an  example of a trend across similar company profit growth worldwide; it also supports future
predictions for the industry.

The Snowflake Method

Step 1) Take some time to write a one-sentence summary of your short
story. The sentence must include answers to the 5 Ws
(who/what/when/where/why) and provide a general overview of the story.
Something like this: “A young man gets lost while hunting alone in a
Canadian forest and must battle the brutal December weather to survive.”
The sentence will serve you forever as a ten-second description of the
story and a point of reference to keep your story together. This is the big
picture and what you will shape the details of your story around.

Step 2) Now expand the sentence from Step 1 to a full paragraph

describing the story setup, major disasters/events, and ending of the story.
This is known as the plot of the story. Plots, also known as storylines, include the most significant events of the
story and how the characters and their problems change over time. You must include the following 5 components
in the plot.

1. Exposition: At the beginning of the story, characters, setting, and the main conflict are typically introduced.

2. Rising Action: The main character is in crisis and events leading up to facing the conflict begin to unfold. The
story becomes complicated.

3. Climax: At the peak of the story, a major event occurs in which the main character faces a major enemy, fear,
challenge, or other source of conflict. The most action, drama, change, and excitement occurs here.

4. Falling Action: The story begins to slow down and work towards its end, tying up loose ends.

5. Resolution/Denoument: Also known as the denouement, the resolution is like a concluding paragraph
that resolves any remaining issues and ends the story.

Step 3) The steps above give you a high-level view of your short story. Now you need something similar for the
storylines of each of your characters. Characters are the most important part of any novel, and the time you
invest in designing them up front will pay off when you start writing. In the space below, write a brief
description for three characters that will be in the story.

1.)
2.)

3.)

Step 4) By this stage, you should have a good idea of the large-scale structure of your story. If the story is
broken, you know it now, rather than after investing many hours in a rambling
first draft. So now just keep growing the story. Take some time and expand each
sentence of your summary paragraph into a full paragraph.

Step 5) At this point, just sit down and start pounding out the real first draft of
your short story. You will be astounded at how fast the story flies out of your
fingers at this stage.

PRACTICING
- Read the extract below and answer the questions that follow.
 High Winds in Jamaica

The sun was still red and large: the sky above cloudless, and light blue glaze poured over baking
clay: but close over the ground a dirty grey haze hovered. As they followed the lane towards the sea they
came to a place where, yesterday, a fair-sized spring had bubbled up by the roadside. Now it was dry.
But even as they passed some water splashed out, and then it was dry again, although gurgling inwardly
to itself. But the group of children were hot, far too hot to speak to one another: they sat on their ponies
as loosely as possible, longing for the sea.

The morning advanced. The heated air grew quite easily hotter, as if from some enormous
furnace from which it could draw at will. Bullocks only shifted their stinging feet when they could bear
the soil no longer: even the insects were too lethargic to pipe, the basking lizards hid themselves and
panted. It was so still you could have heard the least buzz a mile off. Not a naked fish would willingly
move his tail. The ponies advanced because they must. The children ceased even to think.

1.) Choose three details that convey the extreme heat of the day. Give reasons for your choice.

2.) How did the heat affect the children?

3.) Explain, using your own words, how the animal life responded to the heat.

4.) Later in the day, a hurricane hits the area. How do the descriptions in the passage suggest that
something serious is about to happen?

“How-to” for Aliens

Write clear, detailed instructions for an alien to impersonate you
 You helped the Alien get ready in your house, but now they are going to try and impersonate you in
school. You have to give them detailed instructions on what to do from leaving the house to 1st break
(9:30) when you will switch back. Start with gathering the general tasks it will need to perform, and
then describe them in detail.

Busted! . . .Time for a peer review of your instructions. First, exchange work with another
student. Using only details from their story (or a lack thereof), write 3 sentences that describe
when/how someone realized it was actually an alien.

Journaling
Entry 1: What did you do over Easter break?

Entry 2: If you were stuck inside a video game or cartoon, which one would it be? Why?
Entry 3: Would you rather be a dolphin or an eagle? Why?

Entry 4: Describe an object that you can currently see. Practice your descriptive language skills and try
to describe something boring in an interesting way.

Entry 5: If you could travel back in time, what year would go to? Who would you want to meet/where
would you want to go? Why?

Entry 6: What makes you angry? Why?

Entry 7: 10 years from now, I will be. . . .

Entry 8: Invent a monster and describe it. Tell where it lives, eats, and what it does.

Entry 9: If you could have have any job in the world, what would it be?

Entry 10: What makes you happy? Why?

FEEDBACK

Peer Reviews: In this area you will write a peer review for the rough draft of a classmate’s short story.
DESIGNED BY: APPROVED BY:

Matthew Mondrawickas Javier Tarazona

DATE: DATE OF APPROVAL:

5.4.2021 5.4.2021