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Reading and Writing 6-8 / Week 04 / Wednesday
3/6
Week 04 · Word Choice and Tone

Wednesday

Writing Lab: words that mean more
// Every word casts a shade
⏱ about 20 min

Wednesday: Writing Lab

Wednesday is Writing Lab, and Raven has claimed the lamp end of the Signal Desk.

"My column is about this desk at dusk," she says. "But every sentence I write sounds like a list."

Rocket reads her draft. "The lamp is on. The paper is stacked. The corkboard has cards." He nods. "A list."

"What do you notice when the lamp comes on?" Raven asks herself. Then she answers. "It looks like it is waiting for us."

Nova hovers low over the page. "A lamp cannot wait," she says. "Unless you let it."

Raven writes: The lamp waited for us, patient as a porch dog. Rocket whistles. "Now it is a column."

Learn it: figurative language

Figurative language says one thing to mean another. It gives the reader a picture, not just a fact.

A simile compares two things with like or as: patient as a porch dog. A metaphor says one thing is another: the corkboard is a sky.

Personification gives a thing human actions or feelings: the lamp waited for us.

Raven thinks aloud: "The text says the lamp waited, so I can infer that the desk feels like a friend."

  • Simile: like or as. Look for those two words.
  • Metaphor: one thing is another thing, with no like or as.
  • Personification: a thing does something only a person can do.
  • Ask what the picture adds that a plain sentence would miss.
SIMILE, METAPHOR OR PERSONIFICATION?
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
The pencils rattled in their jars like impatient children.
The corkboard is a sky of small white cards.
The lamp waited for us.
Rocket writes the way rain falls.

Read it

Read it
The Lamp That Waited
A Signal column by Raven.
By six the porch has gone blue. The street is a long gray ribbon, and the maples hold the last light in their top branches.
Then the lamp on the Signal Desk comes on, and the whole corner wakes up.
The lamp waits for us, patient as a porch dog. It does not mind how long we take.
The paper stacks lean toward it like plants toward a window.
The corkboard is a sky of small white cards, each one pinned in place by a single star.
Rocket arrives first, always, and the pencils rattle in their jars as he drops his bag.
He writes the way rain falls, all at once and everywhere. I write the way a snail crosses a path.
Nova hums above the table, a small moon that has learned our names.
By seven the issue is a mess of arrows and crossed-out lines. By eight it is a paper.
Then the lamp clicks off, and the desk goes back to being a table.
But I think it remembers. I think it waits all day for the moment it becomes a newsroom again.
CHECK IT: THE LAMP THAT WAITED
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
What are the stars in the corkboard sky?
He writes the way rain falls tells us Rocket writes
Which metaphor describes Nova?
What does the ending suggest about the desk?
Which animal does the simile compare the lamp to? Type one word.
WHY THIS EXERCISEA porch dog is loyal and calm, so the simile makes the lamp feel loyal and calm too.
SentenceTrue or false?
The street is a long gray ribbon is a metaphor.?
Raven says she writes the way rain falls.?
The paper stacks lean like plants toward a window is a simile.?
The column says the lamp stays on all night.?
WHY THIS EXERCISERocket writes like rain; Raven writes like a snail. The lamp clicks off at the end.
SHADES FOR THE COLUMN
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Raven wants the desk to feel welcoming. Which word for the lamp light fits?
Which word for Rocket arriving keeps the playful tone of the column?
Thin, slender and scrawny share a denotation. Which has the kindest connotation?
Which word for the quiet porch sounds peaceful rather than lonely?
Try it
Look at the room you are in right now. Find one object that could wait, watch or listen.
Say one sentence of personification about it out loud.

Write it: Writing Lab

Checklist
My paragraph describes one place at one time of day.
I used at least one simile with like or as.
I used at least one metaphor or one personification.
I swapped at least two plain words for shades that fit the feeling.
Every sentence makes sense if I read it out loud.

Figurative language lets a lamp wait and a corkboard hold stars. Tomorrow we hear the voice behind the words: tone.

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