Make your writing come alive: SHOW don’t Tell
Writing strategies used to engage your reader
Imagery involves one or more of your five senses – the abilities to hear, taste, touch, smell, and
see. An author uses a word or phrase to stimulate your memory of those senses and to help
create mental pictures.
Show
Don’t Tell
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Bores the reader by telling,
advising, and judging.
Tells the reader what to
think or how to feel.
Uses dull words such as bad,
good, fun, cool, exciting.
vs.
• Engages the reader through description of
actions, movements, and appearances.
• Allows the reader to make his or her own
conclusions about events in the story.
• Uses active words, adjectives, expressions,
and adverbs.
• Uses sensory words that describe sight,
sound, taste, touch, and smell.
• Uses description and dialogue to guide the
story.
Example: A Monster Calls
Telling: The house creaked during the dark, windy night.
Showing: "A cloud moved in front of the moon, covering the whole landscape in darkness, and a whoosh of
wind rushed down the hill and into his room, billowing the curtains. He heard the creaking and cracking of
wood again, groaning like a living thing, like the hungry stomach of the world growling for a meal." - page
Let’s Practice!
Telling:
I was in the waiting room. I was nervous.
Rewrite this description by “showing” the reader what it was like to be nervous. Appeal to the senses and focus
on the physical body’s response to the emotion. Focus on the face, the eyes, the mouth, the hair, the skin, the
heart, the blood, the pulse, the sweat, the breath and the tears, etc. Show, don’t tell.
Showing:_______________________________________________
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Using Show Don’t Tell in your slice of life
Find one place in your slice of life where you tell the reader something. Rewrite the
line here:
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Now rewrite this same part of your writing but show the reader instead.
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IR Task:
Find an example of where your author used show don’t tell:
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How did your author create imagery during IR time today?
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