One Exercise and One English Assignment

Eliminating Clutter and Wordiness Exercise

Example: I carried my book bag that was red to school. (10 words)

Revise to no more than 8 words: I carried my red book bag to school.

Example: I saw that the cobwebs covered the light fixtures. (9 words)

Revise to no more than 5 words: Cobwebs covered the light fixtures.

#1: The winds were cold and brushed by my skin. (9 words)

Revise to no more than 7 words: Click here to enter text.

#2: I noticed that the children standing on the street corner were laughing as I walked by. (16 words)

Revise to no more than 11 words: Click here to enter text.

#3: The smoke that filled the room made it difficult to breathe. (11 words)

Revise to no more than 8 words: Click here to enter text.

#4: The cliff dropped to reefs seventy-five feet below. The reefs below the steep cliff were barely visible through the fog. (20 words)

Revise to no more than 13 words: Click here to enter text.

#5: I heard the cars drive past my window last night, which made it hard for me to sleep. (18 words)

Revise to no more than 13 words: Click here to enter text.

#6: The tea spilled on the tile that was chipped. (9 words)

Revise to no more than 7 words: Click here to enter text.

#7: The cold snow blanketed the ground. (6 words)

Revise to no more than 4 words: Click here to enter text.

#8: The wet rain pounded the pavement. (6 words)

Revise to no more than 4 words: Click here to enter text.

#9: The sky was gray. It created a gloomy feeling around me. (11 words)

Revise to no more than 9 words: Click here to enter text.

#10: The chair was soft and looked lonely. (7 words)

Revise to no more than 5 words: Click here to enter text.

Postcard Exercise Assignment

Focusing on specific images and their connotations will help create a clear dominant impression and focused point of view. And, this must be done with sentence structure and word choice.

Process:

· Examine and select a postcard from one of the following sites:

https://www.pinterest.com/mluiken/boring-postcards/?lp=true

https://www.pinterest.com/davidjpearce1/postcards-people/?lp=true

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/tkhearniii/interesting-vintage-postcards/?lp=true

· Analyze the location, person/people, and items present in the picture and determine the overall feeling/impression you have (this is the dominant impression).

· With this dominant impression in mind, type a paragraph description of the scene by giving only the details that help create the impression you have. Keep in mind that when presenting sensory detail, we must you subjective information to interpret the image for the reader. For instance, don’t state “He looked into the distance,” but rather something like, “His weary face looked into the distance.”