The weekend is here!

Friday is that wonderful day each week filled with excitement and anticipation of the upcoming weekend! Let's practice some outlining skills. Make a brief outline that shows what you have planned for the weekend! You can use a format similar to the one I have shown below.

I.) Saturday
A.) Sleep late
B.) Watch TV
C.) Check email
D.) Work on homework

II.) Sunday
A.) Sleep late
B.) Do laundry
C.) Watch "Desperate Housewives"
D.) Prepare for upcoming week
E.) Finish homework

Describe It - Weather!

I'm going to stick to the "trend" I've had lately about descriptive writing. The great thing about this topic is that there's so much out there to use as inspiration! Today, we'll focus on the weather. But this doesn't have to be about the weather that's currently happening. Maybe you want to think about a place you've been or a weather event you've endured: a rainy day, a hurricane, a snow storm, an August day in Florida, etc.

I grew up in New Jersey and went through many snow storms. The most beautiful part was at night as the snow fell. If you turned on a light outside, you could see the dainty, delicate, crystal flakes just slowly falling from the night sky. Once you stepped outside, you'd hear this very faint, but distinct crackling of the flakes reaching the ground and piling on top of the snow that was already there.

What type of weather would you like to tell me about? Write a few complete sentences that describe this. Remember that a complete sentence has a subject and a verb. Use those adjectives, as that's what helps paint that vivid, detailed picture in your reader's mind!

Describe It More!

The last blog entry I did talked about descriptive writing. This is essential in any type of communication you do. This time, I'd like you to pick a color that you like and describe it as best you can!

Turquoise blue - light, bright, vibrant, warm, tropical

Describe It!

Have you ever had someone describe something to you that you could perfectly picture in your mind? That's what we should all strive to do with our writing. It should be detailed in a way that your reader has a clear vision of what you're discussing.

Pick some item and describe it with a few key phrases!

I'll start with what I'm having for breakfast, potato salad. (Yes, that really is what I'm eating for breakfast today!)

Potato salad: chunky potatoes, creamy mayo, small chive pieces, crunchy celery bits

With those descriptive phrases, can you picture (and almost taste) that in your mind?

Now you give it a try!

Word of the Day

If you're a regular blog reader & participant, you know that the Merriam Webster website has lots of great resources, including the Word of the Day feature. Let's visit the archive. Once there, pick any word listed in the section for December or January (which you may need to scroll down to see). Click on the word and review the information given. Please come back to the blog, post the date the word was originally used, the word you picked, definition, and the example sentence that was given. Be sure to check back often to see what other words were picked by fellow bloggers!

http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/wodcalendar.pl

I'll start!

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December 11, 2009
namby-pamby
1.) lacking in character or substance : insipid
2.) weak, indecisive

Example sentence: The candidate criticized her opponent during the debate, calling him a namby-pamby flip-flopper who could not stand up for what he believed in.

New Year's Resolutions (Part 3)

Happy new year!!!

You've had a chance to learn what a resolution is and to see some of the top yearly resolutions. No matter what you have resolved to do in 2010, now is a good time to see some tips to help you be successful!

http://www.ehow.com/how_12076_keep-new-years.html

Once you've visited that site, tell me which of the 5 tips listed did you think would help you the most? Which one, if any, would help you the least?