Paint with Action Verb Brush Strokes

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Paint with Action Verb Brush Strokes
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What are action verbs?

• An action verb is a word that expresses action.
• It may be made up of more than one word.
• An action verb can be physical (shout, arrive) or
  mental (memorize, forget).

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Examples

• The director shouts at the members of the cast.
• The lights are flashing above the stage.
• The audience arrived in time for the performance.
• Several singers have memorized the lyrics of a
  song.

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Specific and General Nouns
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What is a noun?

• A noun is a word that names a person, a place, a
  thing, or an idea.

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Examples

• Persons sister, mayor, coach, children, George
  Washington, Jessica Alba
• Places park, lake, playground, city, Houston,
  Alabama, America, France
• Things magazine, boots, rose, peach, Titanic,
  ship, Statue of Liberty
• Ideas honesty, truth, democracy, pride,
  maturity, progress, courage

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How can you make this sentence more specific?
The person jumped along the street.
Sally jumped along Sunset Boulevard.
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Paint with Adjectives Out-of-Order
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What are adjectives?

• An adjective is a word that describes, or
  modifies, a noun or a pronoun.
• They answer one of three questions
• What kind? We studied ancient history.
• How many? I read four chapters.
• Which one? That invention changed history.

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Paint with Appositive Brush Strokes
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What is an appositive?

• An appositive is a noun that is placed next to
  another noun to identify it or add information to
  it.
• Appositives can appear anywhere in a sentence as
  long as they are right next to the noun they
  identify.

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Examples

• James Madisons wife, Dolly, was a famous first
  lady.
• The noun, Dolly, tells us James Madisons wifes
  name. Dolly is an appositive.
• Notice how it is set off from the sentence by
  commas. This is how we punctuate appositives.

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Examples, contd

• Sometimes you can use more than one word to make
  an appositive.
• Madison, our fourth president, held many other
  offices.
• Our fourth president tells us more information
  about Madison and it is set off by commas. Our
  fourth president is an appositive.

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Revising with Appositive Brush Strokes

• If you have two sentences and one of them has a
  being verb you can combine them with an
  appositive in place of the being verb.

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Paint with Participle Brush Strokes
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What is a participle?

• There are two kinds of participles present and
  past.
• Present participles are verbs that end in ing.
• Past participles are verbs that end in d or ed.
• In order to use a participle as a brush stroke
  the participle cannot be the main verb in the
  sentence.

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Examples

• Sitting quietly, Erik loses himself in the music.
• Playing the piano, Eric taps his foot along to
  the beat.
• Dreaming of fame, Eric sits at the piano.
• Lingering at the door, Brent waited for his
  friend.

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One word Participles

• Instead of using a phrase (Jumping in place) you
  can use a combination of one word participles at
  the beginning or end of a sentence to create
  drama.
• Jumping in place, Mike skipped rope.
• Leaping, sweating, smiling, Mike skipped rope.

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Warning!

• Make sure that your participle brush stroke comes
  right before or right after the noun that you are
  describing.
• Singing, splashing, and laughing the swimmer
  attracted the shark.
• The swimmer is the one singing, splashing and
  laughing so it is the noun closest to the
  participle brush stroke.

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Warning! Contd

• Singing, splashing, and laughing, the shark was
  attracted to the swimmer.
• Is the shark singing, splashing, and laughing?
• MAKE SURE THAT YOU PUT THE CORRECT NOUN NEXT TO
  YOUR PARTICIPLE BRUSH STROKE!

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Paint with Absolute Brush Strokes
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What is an absolute?

• An absolute is a noun followed by a verb that
  ends in ing.

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Examples

• Mind racing
• Anxiety overtaking
• Jaws cracking
• Tongue curling

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Examples Contd

• Dont think that you have to stick to two words
  if you have something more involved in mind

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• Digits glowing florescent blue in the inky
  darkness of my room, my clock edged its way
  toward midnight.
• Notice that it still begins with a noun and an
  ing word

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Helpful Hint!It is always a good idea
to create your simple sentence before adding your
absolutes! If you do this, then you know that you
have used your brush stroke correctly!
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Revising to add Absolute Brush Strokes

• Remember that when revising you can combine a few
  short sentences using absolutes.

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Helpful Hints when using Brush Strokes

• Never use more than 3 brush strokes per sentence.
• Try not to put more than 2 brush strokes right
  next to each other.
• You dont have to use brush strokes in every
  sentence.
• Varying the types, location, and frequency of the
  brush strokes will make your writing more
  interesting.

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