How do you get your child to use more interesting descriptive words in their writing?

[Heather in VA]

My 8 year old writes pretty well structurally. She naturally avoids Dick and Jane type writing, varies sentence order, uses longer compound sentences and usually avoids run-ons. (Unlike Mom LOL). But when she describes things she uses words like extremely, very, nice - things that aren't very specific. When we make lists of adjectives and adverbs, she has great ideas but I'm having trouble getting her used to using them in her writing. She uses very descriptive verbs so I'm confused why adverbs and adjectives are such a struggle for her. She's getting tired of me constantly asking her to come up with better adjectives. She's starting to feel attacked but I don't know how else to improve this part of her writing.

 

Ideas?

[Mrs. Readsalot]

I told him if he used better vocabulary words I would spell them. I know I may get tomatoes throw at me for this. But as a kid I avoided better words because I could not spell them. Note - this had a wonderful results and now as an older writer he can spell more of the difficult words himself. Even I have to go to the dictionary at times to find the spelling of a word he wants. I have also found reading literature by G A Henty has helped my ds writing. Henty uses wonderful vocabulary.

[Karen in CO]

A list of "banned" words and a list of adverbs and adjectives for her to choose from. Then she has a bank of words to use and to avoid. Once she gets comfortable with the new words, then she probably won't need the list anymore.

[Heather in VA]

I told him if he used better vocabulary words I would spell them. I know I may get tomatoes throw at me for this. But as a kid I avoided better words because I could not spell them. Note - this had a wonderful results and now as an older writer he can spell more of the difficult words himself. Even I have to go to the dictionary at times to find the spelling of a word he wants. I have also found reading literature by G A Henty has helped my ds writing. Henty uses wonderful vocabulary.

 

No tomatoes from me. She spells well so I hadn't considered that but she also really hates to misspell something so she may be avoiding words to make sure she doesn't have a spelling issue.

 

Thanks!!

[partyof5]

I love the ideas already given, and to add to that, I would suggest a thesaurus so that their own heavily-used words can be made more interesting. I sometimes underline the words I'd like my 9 yo dd to improve and she enjoys the thesaurus. In fact, she has experimented with some really fun words and continues to use them now, so it can be a great vocabulary builder.

[Heather in VA]

Before she starts writing why not come up with a list of good words she might use (she can help you com up with the list) and then she can use the list while writing.

 

You know - I think I'm going to need to do a better job at this. We make lists like this as part of our grammar and our writing work but I haven't ever tried to make a list right before she writes something so she'd have the topic in mind.

 

Thanks

[Heather in VA]

A list of "banned" words and a list of adverbs and adjectives for her to choose from. Then she has a bank of words to use and to avoid. Once she gets comfortable with the new words, then she probably won't need the list anymore.

 

Ok - this is going to sound stupid, but is there a list of 'banned' words somewhere already? I'm not sure I trust myself to make a good one without some guidance.

[Karen in CO]

I would just start with the list of words she uses too often - nice, good, very. I would also read the list of adverbs and interesting adjectives to her before having her start an assignment to make sure she has and idea of what the words mean.

[angela in ohio]

We use IEW, so we use the list of banned words to combat this. We have several pages of banned words, with a list of alternatives. They add new words to the lists as they find them in their reading or spelling. The owrds are already spelled correctly right there for them, so they use them easily.

[Karen in CO]

We use IEW, so we use the list of banned words to combat this. We have several pages of banned words, with a list of alternatives. They add new words to the lists as they find them in their reading or spelling. The owrds are already spelled correctly right there for them, so they use them easily.

 

Me too. :D

[happy2homeschool]

We use IEW also and have learned a great deal from the program. The list of banned words that we avoid are: good, bad, pretty, ugly, nice, mean, interesting, say (said), go (went), come (came), see, look, and get (got). IEW gave us lists of words to substitute and then my boys add to this list. Also, IEW suggests adding an adverb to every paragraph and we have a list of adverbs as well. Good luck!

[beansprouts]

Ok - this is going to sound stupid, but is there a list of 'banned' words somewhere already? I'm not sure I trust myself to make a good one without some guidance.

 

I am going to try this one with my own dd. Top of my list are words that mean "good" and words that mean "beautiful". I want her to paint a clearer picture and show me why something is "good" or "beautiful".

[Kathie in VA]

Pictures speak louder then words!

Draw a picture of what YOU think your dc has written about. They can draw a picture of why THEY were thinking when they wrote their paper. Make big notes of the differences. If you dc wants you to picture something the way they are thinking it then they will need to use just the right word to get that idea accross.

 

This works also works well if you use all the kids, everyone draw what they imagine when hearing one story. Differences will always be there but the best set of adjectives, adverbs, nouns and verbs will force more similarities to appear in their pictures.

[Pretty in Pink]

my ds tends to get into a rut w/ his words too, i like the idea of a banned word list, may have to incorporate that into our lessons.

 

my ds uses the 5 step writing process: planning, drafting, revising, proofreading, publishing. during the revising stage i usually provide him a checklist of things to do to his work. it includes things like:

 

circle at least 5 words in your writing that could be more descriptive. use your thesaurus to help you choose other words to use instead.

 

you could also incorporate the list of descriptive words into the planning stage.

[angela in ohio]

Pictures speak louder then words!

Draw a picture of what YOU think your dc has written about. They can draw a picture of why THEY were thinking when they wrote their paper. Make big notes of the differences. If you dc wants you to picture something the way they are thinking it then they will need to use just the right word to get that idea accross.

 

This works also works well if you use all the kids, everyone draw what they imagine when hearing one story. Differences will always be there but the best set of adjectives, adverbs, nouns and verbs will force more similarities to appear in their pictures.

 

This is a fantastic idea! :)

[Beth in Central TX]

I agee! What a great idea! This approach will really work for my very visual son.

[Ellie]

Both Writing Strands and Understanding Writing encourage the use of more expressive, descriptive nouns and verbs rather than more use of adjectives and adverbs. One of the exercises in Understanding Writing is having children think of how many words they know for woman, or walk, or whatever. Stronger nouns and verbs are much better than lots of adjectives and adverbs.

[Kathie in VA]

My dd is taking a co-op writing class for 7th graders. She said that her class was told the use of many adverbs and adjectives signifies weak verbs and nouns.

 

Why say that he 'swiftly ran' when you could say that he 'sprinted'?

[jail warden]

My ds is about to start writing next year and this has given me great ideas! Thanks!

[Heather in VA]

Pictures speak louder then words!

Draw a picture of what YOU think your dc has written about. They can draw a picture of why THEY were thinking when they wrote their paper. Make big notes of the differences. If you dc wants you to picture something the way they are thinking it then they will need to use just the right word to get that idea accross.

 

This works also works well if you use all the kids, everyone draw what they imagine when hearing one story. Differences will always be there but the best set of adjectives, adverbs, nouns and verbs will force more similarities to appear in their pictures.

 

Wow!!! This is a great idea. THANKS!!

[Ellie]

My dd is taking a co-op writing class for 7th graders. She said that her class was told the use of many adverbs and adjectives signifies weak verbs and nouns.

 

Why say that he 'swiftly ran' when you could say that he 'sprinted'?/quote]

 

Exactly. How much more *interesting* is something that uses stronger nouns and verbs?

 

When I'm reviewing a product that teaches writing, I want to see samples of student works. If they're full of adjectives and adverbs, that product goes on my not-to-recommend list.

[angela in ohio]

My dd is taking a co-op writing class for 7th graders. She said that her class was told the use of many adverbs and adjectives signifies weak verbs and nouns.

 

Why say that he 'swiftly ran' when you could say that he 'sprinted'?

 

We do this with IEW, too. One of the first things learned is to throw out plain verbs and pick stronger ones, instead. There are plenty of verbs banned, too (said, went, etc, etc.) This is an excellent point.