Developing a Sense of Style

Present this page as a poll using a Likert scale. Have students rate themselves on each style point, deciding whether they score 1 (Never), 5 (Always), or something in between for each item. Afterward, lead a discussion about writing style. Ask each student to share one strategy they will use to improve one of their scores.

Modeling Samples and Additional Ideas

Use the samples on this page to help students learn the strategy of modeling sentences and paragraphs.

Choosing Effective Modifiers and Words with Feeling

Adjectives and adverbs are not nearly as powerful as the words they modify—nouns and verbs. Impress upon your students that they first must select specific, interesting nouns and verbs. Then, if a modifier makes ideas clearer or more colorful, it should come into play. Help students realize they should not "prop up" general nouns and verbs by applying adjectives and adverbs. Note the powerful nouns and verbs​ that require no modification:

"The quarterback scanned the end zone and shot the football like a cannon."

Note how inferior the sentence is when the nouns and verbs are general, propped up with modifiers:

"The important athlete looked diligently at the end zone and powerfully made the football go there."

Even so, adjectives and adverbs do have their uses. After selecting specific nouns and verbs, the modifiers can make a huge difference. J. R. R. Tolkien had this advice about them (emphasis added):

But how powerful . . . was the invention of the adjective: no spell or incantation in Faerie is more potent. And that is not surprising: such incantations might indeed be said to be only another view of adjectives, a part of speech in a mythical grammar. The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift, also conceived of magic that would make heavy things light and able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into a swift water. . . .When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red from blood, we have already an enchanter’s power. . . .We may put a deadly green upon a man’s face and produce a horror; we may make the rare and terrible blue moon to shine; or we may cause woods to spring with silver leaves and rams to wear fleeces of gold, and put hot fire into the belly of the cold worm.