Creative Writing
Computer Lab #1
Mrs. Hooper
Welcome to the Computer Lab. Remember to turn in your papers before you do anything else!!!
Today we are going to start working on descriptive
papers. These exercises were planned to
help you write a riveting descriptive paper.
PLEASE FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY!!!!
NOTE:
If you don’t get through all of these exercises in this lab period, don’t worry. You will have time to finish them later. BUT, if you finish all of these activities early, that probably means that you did not do them very thoroughly. The whole point of these exercises is to assist you in becoming a better writer; if you do the exercises half-heartedly, you will be passing up the opportunity to really improve your writing style!
1. Look at the class website.
I want you to familiarize yourself with the website so you know where to look if you are absent or need to find out about a day’s assignments. So click on the following link:
https://www.angelfire.com/poetry/mrs.hooper
When you get to the website, feel free to look around, read the Writer of the Week’s paper, etc. Then, click on Creative Writing and look around. You can find out your grades (if you gave me your social security number.)
2. Type the poem you intend to enter into the poetry contest. Everyone MUST submit one poem for credit.
3. Practice Exercises
In order to prepare for your upcoming assignment (you will be turning in a 2-page descriptive essay next week) complete this assignment. Write it on a separate paper or you can type it up (if the printer is working). Click here for the link:
http://www.lessontutor.com/eescw9.html
4. Select a Topic for your Descriptive Essay (which is due Monday). If you are having difficulty thinking of a topic, click here for some ideas:
http://sundance.heinle.com/writer/ex_description.htm - selecting
Creative Writing
Computer Lab #2
1.
Finish
Writing your Descriptive essay. Make
sure that your topic is narrow enough.
For some hints, click here:
http://sundance.heinle.com/writer/ex_description.htm
- narrowing
Don’t forget that adding figures of
speech can enhance your writing. Click
here for more details:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_metaphor.html
To help with your writing, make sure you
look at this site to improve your
essay.
http://sundance.heinle.com/writer/ex_description.htm
- strategies
Make sure you look over the checklist,
too.
2. THESAURUS
Now that you are finished with your rough draft, I want to
introduce you to a new tool that can help your writing immensely—the Thesaurus
(online). As you write, if you repeat
the same words over and over, it can lose the impact that you are striving for,
not to mention, get annoying. Also,
sometimes it is hard to think of a better, more descriptive word. That’s where the thesaurus comes in. A thesaurus is different from a
dictionary—it doesn’t give definitions, but gives you synonyms (words that mean
the same thing) and antonyms (words that have the opposite meaning) You may have already used one in high
school, but I want you to try using the thesaurus on the Internet.
First, I want you to choose at least 3 words from your essay
that you think you should change, either because it is repetitious or because
it isn’t descriptive enough. Then, log
on the Internet and look up this site:
http://www.m-w.com/netdict.htm
Once you get on this site, you can look around. You have the option of using either the
dictionary or the thesaurus. Play
around and explore, but don’t forget to look for three substitutes for words in
your essay.
3. Now here’s another activity. This time it is to practice your understanding of loaded words (or connotations and denotations).
Click on the following website and complete the exercise. The exercise is to read the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and rewrite it for a different effect. Choose one of the choices and rewrite it.
http://kalliope.hypermart.net/begin4.html
