Deviation Actions
Literature Text
How to tell if you are good writer
Model Sentence: The gallows stood in a small yard, separate from the main grounds of the prison, and overgrown with tall prickly weeds.
—George Orwell, "A Hanging"
Student’s Imitation: The dog shivered in the background, wet from nosing his way through the early-morning grasses and covered with damp cockleburs.
Write in the same style.
The wyvern stood at the edge of the cliff, waiting out the sunset glow as the violet clouds soon closing in the horizon, and watching its younglings take off into flight. (This is mine)
Model Sentence: He went through the narrow alley of Temple Bar quickly, muttering to himself that they could go to hell because he was going to have a good night of it.
—James Joyce, "Counterparts"
Student’s Imitation: They stood outside on the wet pavement of the terrace, pretending that they had not heard us when we called to them from the library.
Write in the same style.
She stood outside in soft drizzle showers, ignoring every word of her friend that stood beside her with an umbrella as she listened carefully of the rain beats the ground. (Also mine)
Model Sentence: I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
—Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Write in the same style.
I stormed outside of the home because I did not wish to stay, while the time is at very minimum edge, and to many time is unknown, yet it is to wage on amount of life that is contained. (Mine)
Model Sentence: Slowly, all day through the forest, in the terrible heat, the soldiers marched.
—Frank O'Hare, Sentencecraft.
Write in the same style.
Trudging, up the mountain of snow, the expedition awaits.
Model Sentence: When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers . . . when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no hotel will accept you . . . then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.
—Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”
Write in the same style.
When that moment after realization of your whereabouts… when you lied to your friends or family about doing something together and try to make it up for them because they assumed you’d be there… then you will know that your family and friends can no longer bring trust in you.
Model Sentence: What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed? And what if, in your dream, you went to Heaven and plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awoke, you held the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?
—Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World
Write in the same style.
Did you have that moment? Like you’ve been here before, but never actually the proof you were? Or when you’ve seen a movie of such that just came out on the big screen, you knew what’s going to happen before it actually revealed? Did your mind or dream made you get a future sighting? Perhaps it was Deja Fu? (Mine, and please answer it if this had happened to you)
Model Sentence: As she stepped out of the school that night, into the wintery air, walking with the talking Henry to their car in the far parking lot, she had the sensation that she had been seen. And she had not even known she’d felt invisible."
—Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kittredge
Write in the same style.
As she leaped off her dragon, landing onto wet moist grassy plains, she looked beyond the plains, spotting figures wandering on their own. She thought she had arrived alone to unhabituated island. (Mine, this can be a starter for an RP)
