Writing Concisely

Here's a great example of writing concisely. Saw it on Facebook today.

The monkey bars claimed another victim today...‪#‎raisingboys‬

Adjectives Can be a Nuisance

I substituted in a second grade class the other day. Their language arts for the day was learning about adjectives. The flowery descriptive adjectives they were coming up with made me cringe.

As far as I'm concerned, adjectives--and adverbs too--can be a bit of a nuisance. It is so much more important to dig for powerful nouns and verbs to put your point across. Instead of writing a long skinny dog with floppy ears and a pointy nose, why not use the word dachshund, then everyone will know what you're talking about.

Let Me Make Myself Perfectly Clear

Sometimes we assume that young children have an understanding of things that we as adults consider elementary.

This week I substituted in a third grade class. The science assignment was to study two paintings and to list the things in the picture that are living and the things that are non-living. When I first read the assignment, I thought, how simple can it get. Was I surprised.

Many of the children struggled with the distinction between living and non-living. "Mrs. M., is sky living? Are clouds? They move." "No, the sky and clouds are not living." "Are mountains?" "Well, some of the things on the mountains are living, like bushes and grass, but mountains are basically rock and dirt. They aren't living." And so it continued.

When we work with children, or write for children, the challenge is to make sure they not only understand what you're trying to say but also don't misunderstand you. How do you do that without talking down t them?