Method of Elaboration: Making Writing More Detailed
The world spins around like a ball that balances on the finger tip of a skilled basketball player.
What is a simile?
"But it just looks like a trip to the store for some white bread. True. But think about it. What is a ____ made of? A knight, a dangerous road, a Holy Grail, at least one dragon, one evil knight, one princess. Sounds about right? That's a list I can live with" (Foster 6).
What is "Every Trips is a Quest: Except When It's Not?"
The pencil sharpener growled at the silent classroom causing Harold's face to flood with embarrassment.
What is personification?
"If you look at any literary period between eighteenth and twenty-first centuries, you'll be amazed by how much _________ you find. He's everywhere, in every form you can think of. And he's never the same: every ae and every writer reinvents its own ________ (Foster 31).
What is "When in Doubt, It's from Shakespeare?"
Sarah face was mortified as she walked down in her grandma-bought-it-so-I-have-to-wear-it Christmas pajamas.
What is a hyphenated-modifier?
"What does it mean, what does it stand for? I often come back with something clever, like 'Well, what do you think?' Everybody thinks I'm making a joke or not doing my job, but neither one is true. Seriously, what do you think it stands for? Because that's probably what it does stand for. At least for you" (Foster 63).
What is "Is that a Symbol?"
"But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!" (Shakespeare)
What is metaphor?
"In real life, a limp is just a limp. In literature, it's often something else. In books, a physical flaw--a scar, a limp, an amputation, a twisted spine, an ugly face--can be a symbol. It has to be with being different, really. Being different on the outside is almost always a metaphor for being different on the inside" (Foster 82-83).
What is "Marked for Greatness?"
The final bell had rung, the students leapt from their chairs, through their papers into the air, and yelled with glee, "SUMMER IS HERE!"
What is "The Magic Three?"
It seems to me that if we want to get the most out of our reading, we have to try to take the works as they were meant to be taken. This is what I usually say: ___________. What I really mean is, don't read only from your fixed position in the year two thousand and some. Instead, try to find a place to read from that allows you to understand the moment in time when the story was written (Foster 99).
What is "Don't Read with Your Eyes?"