The man sighed hugely.
-E.Annie Proulx, The Shipping News
Discuss:
1. What does it mean to sigh hugely?
2. How would the meaning of the sentence change if we rewrote it as:
The man sighed loudly.
Apply:
Fill in the blank below with an adverb:
The man coughed ____________.
Your adverb should make the cough express an attitude. For example, the cough could express contempt, desperation. or propriety. Do not state the attitude. Instead, let the adverb imply it.
Diction Warm Up #5
Consider:
A rowan* like a lipsticked girl.
-Seamus Heaney, "Song," Field Work *a small deciduous tree native to Europe,
having white flower clusters and orange
berries.
Discuss:
1. Other than the color, what comes to mind when you think of a lipsticked girl?
2. How would it change the meaning and feeling of the line if, instead of lipsticked girl, the author wrote girl with lipstick on?
Apply:
Write a simile comparing a tree with a domesticated animal. In your simile, use a word that is normally used as a noun (like lipstick) as an adjective (like lipsticked).
Diction Warm Up #6
Consider:
Abuelito under a bald light bulb, under a ceiling dusty with flies, puffs his cigar and counts money soft and wrinkled as old Kleenex.
Discuss:
1. How can a ceiling be dusty with flies? Are the flies plentiful or sparse? Active or still? Clustered or evenly distributed?
2. What does Cisneros mean by a bald light bulb? What does this reveal about Abuelito's room?
Apply:
Take Cisneros's phrase, under a ceiling dusty with flies, and write a new phrase by substituting the word dusty with a different adjective. Explain the impact of your new adjective on the sentence.
Detail Warm Up #7
Consider:
Whenever he was so fortunate as to have near him a hare that had been kept too long, or a meat pie made with rancid butter, he gorged himself with such violence that his veins swelled, and the moisture broke out on his forehead.
~Thomas Babington Macalulay, "Samuel Johnson"
Discuss:
1. What effect does the detail (the spoiled hare, the rancid butter, the swollen veins, the sweaty forehead) have on the reader
2. How would the meaning of the sentence be changed by ending it after
himself?
Detail Warm Up #8consider:
MRs. VENABLE:...and the sand all alive, all alive, as the hatched sea-turtles made their dash for the sea, while the birds hovered and swooped to attack and hovered and- swooped to attack! They were diving down on the hatched sea-turtles, turning them over to expose thier soft undersides, tearing the undersides open and rening and eating their flesh.
~Tennessee Williams, Suddenly Last Summer
Discuss:
1. Williams uses the repetition of detail in three places in this passage. Underline the three places and discuss whether the repetition emhances of detracts from the overall effect of the passage.
2. What is Mrs. Venable's attitude toward the scene she describes? Which specific details reveal this attitude?
Detail Warm Up #9
Consider: The truck lurched down the goat path, over the bridge and swung south toward El Puerto. I watched carefully all that we left behind. We passed Rosie's house and at the clothesline right at the edge of the cliff there was a young girl hanging out brightly colored garments. She was soon lost in the furrow of dust the truck raised.
~Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima
Discuss:1.
Circle the words that provide specific detail and contribute to the power of the passage.
2. Contrast the third sentence with:
We passed Rosie's house and saw a girl hanging out the clothes. Explain the difference in impact
Apply:
Rewrite the passage eliminating the specific detail. Prepare to read your rewrite aloud to the class. How does the elimination of detail change the meaning of the passage?