1. Writing 101
Visualisation Technique –
enhancing your writing through
mental recreation
2. Learning Objectives
Apply visualisation technique in enhancing
essays.
Vary the intensity and complexity of words to
recreate the story in the reader's mind.
3. Introduction
The ability of students to express a given idea is
the fundamental requirement in writing.
You write for a purpose.
Whether is to entertain or to solve situations
like emailing a friend to inform about an
upcoming school event, there's always a clear
purpose behind any writing.
A clear purpose helps you find the right words
for successful writing. (For this lesson, we will
focus on Continuous Writing)
4. Word Play
What determines the right words? Since for a
single event or action, there're many ways of
expressing it.
Consider the word, 'said':
pleaded snapped begged croaked choked out
bellowed drawled droned hissed retorted
reproved roared rumbled screamed shrieked
swore sputtered smugly snorted
Q: Is ANY word here exactly the same as any
other?
5. Writing with a purpose
The principle of good writing is to remember the
action, thought or feeling you want to recreate
for your reader's pleasure or entertainment.
The words, the language, will then come.
In other words, aim to have a visual picture in
your head first of what your story will look and
sound like so you can recreate it easily.
6. Picture Aid
Thankfully, there's picture aid; given in
Continuous Writing to help you visualise what
had taken place.
Based on the picture, you can visualise your
story's development. This will help you find the
right choice of words.
The intensity and complexity of the words
chosen should match exactly the picture you
want to recreate in your reader's mind.
7. Picture Aid
Look at the picture below.
This is a typical picture given for PSLE's
continuous writing task. Visualise the story's
development then think of some key words for
key ideas.
8. Visualisation – Step 1
Do you have any of these words?
Picnic Twig
Grateful Town garden
Snapping sound Lesson
Sunny and windy Alerted
Focus Dangerous
Passer-by Take care
Playful Happening
Alarm Inattentive
Accident Avoided
Q: What makes these words key words?
9. Visualisation – Step 2
Consider the earlier words visualised:
dangerous passer-by take care
playful avoided alerted
inattentive accident
Add complexity and intensity to them . . .
extremely dangerous jogger cautious
mischievious split-second alarmed
distracted tragic accident
To form a clearer picture recreated!
10. Visualisation – Step 3
Form them into sentences with quick writing.
Tom, ever mischievious, was throwing the ball
farther and farther away from his parents.
The cyclists were distracted as they were
chatting.
“Look out!” shouted a jogger.
Alarmed, the cyclists applied the brakes in time.
A tragic accident had been avoided.
11. Important to note
When adding complexity, think about using
adjectives, adverbs and phrases.
dangerous – extremely dangerous
accident – tragic accident
For intensity, use exact words:
naughty – mischievious (very naughty)
alert – alarm
passer-by – jogger / pedestrian
13. Learning Activity Suggested Answers
KW: Snatch thief Grabbed Busking Tune
Scanned Lightning quick Betting with sister
Quick Writing:
“Let's have a bet, if you can grab a coin, you'll
have my share of computer time tonight.”
“You're on!”
Alex scanned the surrounding. All was clear.
With lightning quick hands, Alex grabbed a coin
when the busker was singing his tune.
14. Discussion
What's story-telling for?
What technique can we use to help us recreate
the scenes we want for our readers?
How does this technique help us when we
write?
15. In summary
All writing involves a purpose – an end-in-
mind – before writing is started.
For stories or continuous writing, the purpose is
to entertain or give reading pleasure.
Using visualisation technique, we can picture
the exact scene in our minds first so we can
paint our scenes effectively.
This guides us for the exact words – with the
right intensity and complexity – for quick
writing, as part of pre-writing, before we start.
