absolute phrase theater

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Absolute phrase theater Absolute phrase theater by Nancy Devine by Nancy Devine co-director Red River Valley Writing Project co-director Red River Valley Writing Project email: email: [email protected] [email protected] blog: blog: http://nancydevine.blogspot.com http://nancydevine.blogspot.com twitter username: nancydevine twitter username: nancydevine This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

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Page 1: Absolute Phrase Theater

Absolute phrase theaterAbsolute phrase theaterby Nancy Devineby Nancy Devine

co-director Red River Valley Writing Projectco-director Red River Valley Writing Project

email: email: [email protected]@yahoo.com

blog: blog: http://nancydevine.blogspot.comhttp://nancydevine.blogspot.com

twitter username: nancydevinetwitter username: nancydevineThis work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United

States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Page 2: Absolute Phrase Theater

How does absolute phrase theater work?

In absolute phrase theater, the writer acts as a camera.

He or she writes a sentence, the medium or long shot.

Then he or she moves in to the subject to get a close-up.

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Very important….

The close-up, written in a particular way, is the absolute phrase.

Page 4: Absolute Phrase Theater

It’s called Absolute Phrase Theater for a reason---

When the medium or long shot sentence and the close-up absolute phrase are combined, the result is a sentence that gives a reader a cinematic view of his or her world, where whole and detail are presented nearly simultaneously, much the way we often apprehend the world in which we live.

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Let’s look at some examples

Medium/long shot: The dog pointed at the bird’s nest.

Close-up: its right front paw curled up

Result: The dog, its right front paw curled up, pointed at the bird’s nest.

Page 6: Absolute Phrase Theater

Examples

Medium/long shot: My sister ran across the country road.

Close-up: her tennis shoes making imprints in the gravel

Result: My sister ran across the country road, her tennis shoes making imprints in the gravel.

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Exploring the thinking:

Let’s take a good look at an absolute phrase, so you can quickly get to writing many of them. We will use two thinking strategies to help us: form and function.

Form is how something is put together, how it is made, etc.

Function is what something does.

Page 8: Absolute Phrase Theater

Exploring the thinking (cont’d)

You know that the side image is that of a clock, an alarm clock to be specific. How do you know?

You know a clock’s form. It has a face with numbers or marks that indicate numbers. It has hands which move around its face.

And you know a clock’s function, what it does. A clock tells time.

You use form and function all the time to make decisions about your everyday life.

Page 9: Absolute Phrase Theater

Now let’s look at the absolute phrases from the example sentences. Here are the sentences again with the absolute phrase in each sentence in bold type Let’s try to figure out the form, how something is made, and the function, what something does, for each of these absolute phrases.

The dog, its right front paw curled up, pointed at the bird’s nest.

its right front paw curled up

form: function:

My sister ran across the country road, her tennis shoes making imprint in the gravel.

her tennis shoes making imprint in the gravel

form: function:

Page 10: Absolute Phrase Theater

Form?

The form of an absolute phrase is that it is almost a sentence. If you removed the bold print word in each of the sentences below, each would become an absolute phrase.

Her tennis shoes are making an imprint in the gravel.--

her tennis shoes making an imprint in the gravel Its right front paw is curled up.-----its right front paw

curled up.

Page 11: Absolute Phrase Theater

Function?

The function of an absolute phrase is that, most often, it zooms in on a detail of a noun or pronoun in a sentence. Remember the camera idea.

Tennis shoes are a detail of my sister. Paw is a detail of dog. My sister ran across the country road, her tennis

shoes making imprint in the gravel. The dog, its right front paw curled up, pointed at

the bird’s nest.

Page 12: Absolute Phrase Theater

Having trouble?

If you’re having trouble, stop and look again at the example sentences.

Try to make an inference about both the form and function of the absolute phrase in each.

An inference is an explanation that comes as a result of looking at a situation, idea, person, etc. It might be helpful to think about the idea of a camera and that the writer, in writing absolute phrases, acts like a camera moving in on his or her subject. Also, think about how the absolute phrase, the close-up, in each of the above sentences is related to the main part of the sentence, the medium or long shot.

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Medium shot

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Close-up

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Medium shot

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Close-up

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Long shot

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Close-up

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Absolute phrase theater practice sheet

1. Long/medium shot: Close-up: Resulting sentence:

2. Long/medium shot: Close-up: Resulting sentence:

3. Long/medium shot: Close-up: Resulting sentence:

4. Long/medium shot: Close-up: Resulting sentence:

Page 20: Absolute Phrase Theater

The EndThe End

Best Boy:Best Boy:

Key Grip:Key Grip:

Gaffer:Gaffer:

Caterer:Caterer:

Special effects:Special effects: