Writing Workshop

Getting started with hooks

Sentence expanding techniques

OGT Writing TestHas at least 2 long essays for you to write

Will be graded based on your writing Applications (how well you organize and write) and your use of writing Conventions (grammar, punctuation and spelling)

Highest score for Applications is 6 and for Conventions is 3. That is the grading scale used in class to judge your writing.

OGT Writing Test

To earn a Superior score (6) on your Writing Applications you need to have an essay that is:

“Exceptionally developed with compelling examples and details, structure is unified and coherent, sentences are varied and style is engaging.” (from the OGT Writing rubric)

What does this mean?

OGT Writing Test

Exceptionally – unusually excellent

Compelling – irresistible

Coherent – orderly

Varied – different

Engaging – interesting

How do I do this with my writing?

Hooks

One way to make your writing more compelling and engaging is to start your essay with a hook.

A hook is an attention getter used in the introduction of an essay to arouse the reader’s interest.

HooksTypes of hooks:

Rhetorical question: “Have you ever wondered when the exact moment of your death would be?”

Quotation: Abraham Lincoln once said, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.”

Description or Scene: There is no stopping it; the bullet rips through the hot summer haze, missing tees, houses, unsuspecting birds, coming to roost, finally, like an old homing pigeon.

HooksTypes of hooks:

Anecdote (story): When I was a girl, I was taught to fight and kill without emotion. My father, when he was around, was always training me. Little did I know, he was training me to be an assassin, just like him.

Background Information: At 8:15 am on August 6, 1945, Hiroshima, Japan became the first city ever to be destroyed by a nuclear bomb.

Allusion: Not since we took one small step for man has there been such a giant leap for mankind.

Hooks

On your interactive notes, do the

activity:

“Practice using hooks”

Sentence Expanding

One way to make your writing more exceptional and varied is to use sentence expanding techniques

Sentence expanding is a way to make your sentences longer and more detailed.

Sentence ExpandingWays to expand your sentences:

Specific detail: Today I wore a red sweater.

Magic Three (Parallel structure):

3 adjectives:Today I wore a red, itchy, wool sweater.

3 verbs: Today I wore my red sweater, I strutted down the hall and I received a lot of attention.

3 nouns: Today I wore my red sweater, my black boots and my leather biker jacket.

Sentence ExpandingWays to expand your sentences:

Figurative Language (paint a picture with words): Today I wore my red, itchy, wool sweater that my grandmother made for me with her own hands and gave to me for Christmas last year.

Simile: Today I wore my red sweater that feels like rabbit fur.

Metaphor: Today I wore my red sweater and was the brightest ornament in the class

Hyperbole: Today I wore my red sweater that is so big it could stretch all the way to China!

Sentence ExpandingWays to expand your sentences:Hyphens (link words together to act as one adj.):

Today, I wore my red, look-at-me sweater.

Repetition: Today I wore my red sweater, not just any red sweater, my favorite red sweater from my favorite grandma.

Humor: Today I wore the red sweater my grandma knitted, but the arms hung down to the floor; the neck had me in a headlock all day, and everyone said I looked like a blushing giraffe. I can’t wait for my grandmother’s next project.

Sentence Expanding

On your interactive notes, do the activity:

“Practice using Sentence Expanding”