Building a character in life writing
Compare Text 1 and Text 2.
Use the characterisation devices table to help you find the characterisation devices in Text 2.
Look for, and highlight:
- Naming
- Action
- Speech
- Appearance
- Other characters’ views
- Internal monologue
Text 1 – Without characterisation
devices
My grandma lives a few streets away
from my school. I usually visit her on
Tuesdays. Yesterday, as I got closer
to her gate, I heard a loud argument.
I started to worry that grandma was
in trouble so I ran as fast as I could
through the gate to her front door.
When I got inside, I realised that the
‘argument’ was actually between two
characters from Home and Away on
the television. I looked at the coffee
table next to grandma, where her
hearing aid rested.
Text 2 – With characterisation devices
My grandma lives alone now. After
school on Tuesdays, it’s my job to
visit her and keep her company for a
little while. She only lives a few
streets away from school. Even
though I know it’s childish, I usually
drag my feet and dawdle along the
worn track to her place.
Yesterday, I was slouching along,
reluctantly, as usual. As I
approached her gate, a timorous
feeling came over me. Infuriated
voices bellowed from inside. Initially
fretful and apprehensive, I found
some courage from somewhere
within and burst intrepidly through
her door into her lounge room.
There sat grandma, composed and
unruffled in her favourite recliner,
watching as two characters from
Home and Away argued, on the
television. A quick glance to the left
of her chair revealed her hearing aid,
sitting slightly obscured under the TV
Guide on the side table.
Building a character in life writing

1.Identify the words and phrases that build your interpretation of the person writing the
text. Overall, do you judge the writer in a way that is positive? Negative? A mixture, but
mainly sympathetically? Fluidly? (That means your judgement of the character changes
as the text progresses.)

I like how the author uses multiple adjectives to describe the actions of the child’s
behaviour when approaching his grandmas house. The adjectives are very exquisite and
are used in every sentence to make the story come to life. The author creates a picture
in my mind, but I don’t like how the text doesn’t say if the child is he or she.

2.Identify the words and phrases that build your interpretation of the grandmother in the
text.

“Composed and unruffled.” These two words got stuck in my head when it comes to

describing the grandma, as the author said, “she sat, composed and unruffled in her
favourite recliner.”

3.Overall, do you judge the grandmother in a way that is positive? Negative? A mixture,
but mainly sympathetically? Fluidly?

Overall, I judge the grandma as a lazy and tv addicted grandma, that doesn’t want to put
her hearing aid in. She is a grandma, so I also think she is very nice when her grandson
comes over.

4. Overall, how do the two versions differ? Is one version more interesting than the
other? Why? Which version do you find yourself reacting to more and why?
Building a character in life writing

The second version of the story is definitely better, because the story puts a picture in
your mind and gives more detail about how the child reacts, when he hears the fight
coming from inside grandma’s house. The author really gives you the idea of what the
grandma does and looks like in the story. The first little story is boring and barely puts a
picture in your head.