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A TELLING STATEMENT�

A “telling statement” tells you something that is happening.

ex: It was raining.

This statement lacks description about the event being discussed

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A SHOWING STATEMENT�

A “showing statement” describes something that is happening. It does this by creating sensory imagery through word choice or diction.

Examples:

Rain pelted the windows.
Soaked from the rain, my hair dangled limply in my eyes.
The musty smell of wet asphalt filled the air.
Puddles began to surface and well up as the storm continued its rage.
The pitter patter of rain outside my window soothed me back to sleep.
Car tires sliced through pools of water.

Now you write two more showing sentences for

“It was raining.”

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A TELLING SENTENCE: �It was a hot day.

A showing paragraph:

The sweat ran down from my forehead and onto the tip of my nose, hanging there until it fell onto the desktop. SPLAT! I stared up at the clock, which had progressed only two minutes since the last time I checked. I leaned forward from the sticky, plastic chair and felt my shirt adhered firmly to my back. “I’d kill,” I thought, “to have an ice cube to rub all over my face and neck.”

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A TELLING SENTENCE: �The teacher was boring.

A showing paragraph:

Thunk! Mike’s head hit the desk but even the impact was not enough to wake him. His head rolled to the side and a thin thread of drool escaped his lips and poured onto the desk. Mr. Tomlinson didn’t seem to notice as he droned on and on about how interesting the novel was going to be. Only three students who were hoping to get an A at the semester still had their eyes fully open. Some alternated keeping one eye open at a time while others kept both eyes at half mast. The entire back row has their heads propped up, elbows on desk, pretending to be absorbed in their notes as they snoozed.

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PRACTICE

Now you try!

Open up a new blog post and title it

“Showing Writing: Entry 1”

Write the following “telling” sentence on your post:

“The pizza tasted good.”

Skip a line and type a showing paragraph describing the pizza using all five senses.

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PRACTICE

Time to improve:

Re-read what you wrote, and look for the following words: is, was, were, be, being, been

Re-write any sentence that contains one of those words to make the sentence more descriptive.

When you have finished, publish your post.

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FEEDBACK

Read the posts of each of the members of your

writing group.

You can find your group members blogs on Mrs. Capen’s blog page listed at the top as either Blk 2 Blogs or Blk 3 Blogs.
Decide as a group which post is the best and most descriptive.
Have the winner e-mail Mrs. Capen with the subject line of Blog post #1 winner.