This document provides tips for improving writing using "Smiley Face Tricks". It discusses 7 different techniques: Magic Three/Parallelism, Figurative Language, Specific Details for Effect, Repetition for Effect, Expanded Moments, Humor, and Full-Circle Ending. For each technique, it provides examples from literature and prompts the reader to practice applying the technique in their own writing. The overall goal is to enhance writing style and engage the reader through various literary devices.

1. Smiley Face Tricks

2. Smiley Face Tricks are used to
make your writing better.
We will learn 7 different ways to
make your writing better, by
making it sound better.

3. Magic Three / Parallelism
• Two or more parallel groups of
words
• Separated by commas
• Used to create a poetic rhythm
or add support for a point
(Elaborate & Explain)

4. Example 1
I was so excited that I
jumped up & down, cried
huge tears of joy, and
plastered a huge smile on
my face.

5. Example 2
My palms became sticky and shaky,
my neck tingled with anticipation,
and my heart puttered with
emotion.

6. Example 3
• I love to relax by reading a
favorite book, sitting in my
yard watching my animals, or
eating out with friends and
family.

7. What to do?
Every time you use a Smiley
Face Trick, remember to put a
smiley face on the periphery
(edge) of your paper, next to it.

8. Let’s Practice
Create 6 Magic Three
sentences.

9. Smiley Face Tricks
Figurative
Language

10. Figurative Language
• Non-literal comparisons
• Used to add “spice” to your
writing
• Helps paint a vivid picture for the
reader

11. Different Types of
Figurative Language
• Simile
• Metaphor
• Hyperbole
• Personification

12. Simile
• Comparing two things, using “like” or
“as” or “than”.
• Example: (copy at least 2)
–She is pretty like a summer day.
–He is as fast as a jaguar.
–He is faster than a jaguar.

13. Metaphor
• Directly comparing two things,
usually using “is”
• Example:
– She is a summer day when she smiles.
– He is a jaguar when he races down the
street.

14. Hyperbole
• An exaggeration, to express a strong
point.
• Example:
–The books weigh a ton.
–I am doing a million things right
now.

15. Personification
• Placing human-like characteristics on
an item
• Example:
–The sun smiled on me today.
–The wind kissed my cheek gently.

16. •Simile
Your Turn •Metaphor
•Hyperbole
•Personification
• Come up with 2 examples for each type of
figurative language.
• Then, draw a picture to support your
statement.

17. Smiley Face Tricks
Specific Details
For Effect

18. Specific Details for Effect
• Use your five senses to create a
specific explanation of what your
writing is trying to express.
• Help the person visualize and
imagine, through your words.

19. 5 Senses
• Hear
• See
• Smell
• Touch
• Taste

20. Specific Details For Effect
• Example 1:
• “ I started shivering. I could taste blood in my
mouth and smell it in my nose. It had a cold,
metallic taste that made my stomach twist
inside out. I tore away from Pieter’s grip and
ran back to the rail, emptying my stomach
over the side.” P. 54 Letters from Rifka

21. Specific Details for Effect
• Example 2:
• “Before I could finish, water, a wall of water, rose
up over me. Pieter grabbed me around the waist
and hurled me away from the side. The water
came crashing down over our heads, slamming us
onto the deck. Pieter held onto me as the water
sucked at my body, trying to pull me overboard.”
P. 54 Letters from Rifka

22. Your Task
1. Pick any item in your possession
2. Write 15 sentences describing
EVERY aspect of the item.
3. Remember to consider all 5 of
your senses.

23. Smiley Face Tricks
Repetition For
Effect

24. Repetition For Effect
• Repeating specifically chosen
words or phrases to make a point
• To stress certain ideas for the
readers

25. Repetition For Effect
Example 1:
“He wrote that at Ellis Island you are neither in
nor out of America. Ellis Island is a line
separating my future from my past. Until I
cross that line, I am still homeless, still an
immigrant. Once I leave Ellis Island, though, I
will truly be in America.” P. 57 Letters from
Rifka

26. Repetition For Effect
• Example 2:
• “While I was shopping with the lady from the
HIAS that first week, I saw a hat that I wanted,
a hat that would cover my baldness. I thought
if I only owned such a hat, it would not matter
so much that I was bald… but I did not have
the money.” P. 45 Letters from Rifka

27. Your Turn
Write 3 paragraphs about
today.
Think about what
happened, at certain parts
of the day. Each paragraph
should include at least 1
Repetition for Effect, giving
you a total of AT LEAST 3
for this task.

28. Smiley Face Tricks
Expanded
Moments

29. Expanded Moments
Instead of “speeding” past a moment,
writers sometimes spend some time
explaining a certain part of the story
in detail.

30. Examples:
“Then Pieter bent over and kissed me! Right on my
lips, Tovah. A warm kiss, with the soft blond hairs
of his mustache tickling me.” p. 52 Letters from
Rifka
“The treatments are not so bad as I feared. I walk to
the convent once a day. The nun in charge of my
case is Sister Katrina. She washes my scalp with a
green soap that makes my eyes water. Then she
puts me under a violet light. The light warms my
head.” p. 37 Letters from Rifka

31. Your Turn

32. Smiley Face Tricks
Humor

33. Humor
Good writers know when to add a bit of humor,
something funny, to their paper. This can
make a potential boring paper into an
interesting and entertaining paper, lifting
someone’s spirits.

34. Example:
• “There I was on the first day of school—the
picture-perfect girl. My new outfit looked like
something from my big sister’s magazine, my
hair—for once– was having a good day, and I
was strutting in my new shoes. Little did I
know that I was trailing a three-yard piece of
Charmin behind me. So much for using the
bathroom right before class.” (Ledbetter
p.106)

35. Your Turn
1. Write about something that has happened to
you that you think/thought was funny. Try to
write it down and capture it in words.
2. Then, read it out loud. Does it still sound
funny?
3. If it does not, figure out what you can
add/change to make sure your words capture
the humor.

36. Smiley Face Tricks
Full-Circle Ending

37. Full-Circle Ending
• This is a special type of ending that
effectively “wraps up” the pieces.
• One way to do this is to repeat a
phrase-perhaps with slightly different
words-from the beginning of your
writing.

38. Example:
From beginning:
I sit quietly on the old wooden deck, watching the
birds soar through the humid air. The ocean’s
waves are like wrinkles gathered up in place.
From end:
The clouds are so delicate, so fragile, yet a single
plane could not break their perfect form. I sit
quietly on the old wooden deck, watching the
birds, the waves, the clouds.

39. Your Turn
Beginning: Write 5 sentences to start off a short
story about something that has happened to
you in 10th grade.
End: Write 5 sentences to end the short story.
BUT, this time reword what you initially wrote.

40. The End
• Go forth and improve your writing!!