Language Arts Dailies: Number 12

Name: Andy Li

Sentence of the Week: Read. Analyze. Emulate.

Instructions: for the next few weeks, we are going to use our dailies to sharpen our understanding of writing techniques that create voice. Each day,
you’ll read a mentor sentence that uses 1-3 techniques. Then, you’ll emulate those techniques in your own practice sentence.

Day Mentor Sentence Observations Imitation

Monday “We can’t get City Hall to pick up our trash, but we Italisized for Emphasis The house was in shambles. The couch had a stain the size of
got it delivered just fine. The smell’s enough to curl Hyperbole Texas, and the carpet was so dirty it looked like a used pizza box.
up a crocodile’s nose, especially in the summer” Striking Verb The kitchen sink was overflowing with dishes that seemed to
(25). multiply faster than bunnies. Then they came.

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

Tuesday “But everything evened out eventually, didn’t it –
every wave subsided, lapsed back into the ocean,
returning, giving them time to put themselves back
together again.”
The Inconvenient Process of Falling by Katie
Neipris
Taffy sentence He opened the door, his heart racing. Slowly, he stepped inside
(every wave subsided, lapsed back into the the house. He felt a chill in the air--his eyes searched the
ocean, returning, giving them time to put darkness for any sign of movement.
themselves back together again)
Metaphor
Dash to Create a Dramatic Pause.

Wednesday "I know that the whole point—the only point—is to

find the things that matter, and hold on to them, and
fight for them, and refuse to let them go."

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Thursday “And suddenly, there I was, Ginny Christianson, Hyperbole

displaced person, sitting at a marked-up desk a Taffy Sentence
thousand miles from home, in the middle of a Hyphenated Adjective
school filled with hundreds, maybe thousands, of Appositive phrase(renaming)
people who didn’t even know they didn’t know me”
(3).
 The Only Alien on the Planet by Kristen Randle

Click HERE to view a list of comprehensive voice

crafting techniques

Friday “Yeah, I hated him…every inch of him. From his
broken-veined, red-nosed face to his dirty, stinking
feet. I hated his beery guts. But I never meant to
kill him.”
Martyn Pig by Kevin Brooks
Click HERE to view a list of comprehensive voice
crafting techniques
Use of ellipses to create a pause
Hyphenated adjectives
Dime-Dropper Phrase/Fragment
Rule of three
Cliffhanger
The detective sat at his desk, studying the case file, his eyes
straining in the dim light of his office. He had been following this
lead for weeks, but every new clue seemed to lead to a dead end.
He knew that time was running out, and he needed to find a break
in the case soon. Suddenly, he remembered a key witness he had
spoken to months ago. His heart racing, he picked up the phone,
dialing the number... but the line went dead.