The smell...

When writing, we are required to write with good descriptive adjectives and phrases.  We are also reminded to write using the five senses to help in writing.

Here is a collection of some to do with 'SMELL':
- strange smell wafting in the atmosphere
- mysterious whiff of an odour permeated the entire house and invaded my nostrils
- the pungent scent of perfume enveloped me
- the malodorous stench pervaded the air
- inhaled the fragrance from my mother's Christian Dior perfume
- the acrid smoke clogged up the room
- the offensive pungent gas stunk the whole flat
- smelt ten times worse than the smelliest garbage dump of the face of Earth!
- sniffed with enlarged nostrils, as if I were a German Shepherd on a mission with the police to scour for hidden drugs
- I was a goldfish, using only my mouth to take in precious gasps of air
- held my breath like an underwater diver without his oxygen tank
- pinched my nose hard and my face contorted like sour plum
- my breakfast of century-egg porridge threatened to bolt upwards in my windpipe
- felt nauseous and dazed, like the whole world was spinning before my eyes
- I gasped for valuable fresh air - an essence of life which I had often taken for granted

Commonly misspelt words

Here are some commonly misspelt words uncovered as I mark my students' writing (each correct version is in parenthesis):

- reffered, refered (referred)
- momment (moment)
- develope (develop)
- imediately, immediatly (immediately)
- anouncement, annoucement (announcement)
- permernent (permanent)
- goverment (government)
- enviroment (environment)
- embarass (embarrass)
- neccessary, neseccary (necessary)

I will add more as I go along...

Types of phobias!

A phobia is "a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation, that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it' (dictionary.com).

I came across this listing of types of phobias on http://www.phobia-fear-release.com/types-of-phobia.html.

Among those, the common ones would be acrophobia (listed as altophobia) (heights), arachnophobia (spiders), claustrophobia (confined spaces), etc.

I thought there were more common ones?

The mysterious silent letters

There are instances where the letters are written, but not pronounced in words.  It is a mystery why they are there then.  Nevertheless, here are some examples of words with silent letters:


SILENT 'B'
- climb
- doubt
- dumb
- comb
- crumb
- debt (added 20 Aug 12)

SILENT 'H'
- heir
- herb, herbal
- honest
- honour, honorable, honoraray
- wheel
- whether

SILENT 'K'
- knee
- kneel
- knife
- knob
- knock
- knot
- know, knew, known, knowledge
- knuckle

SILENT 'L'
- calm
- half
- salmon

SILENT 'P"
- physic
- physical, physique
- physics
- pneumonia
- psychiatry, psychotic, psychotherapy, psychiatrist, psychic

SILENT 'S'
- aisle
- Arkansas
- debris
- Illinois
- island
- isle

SILENT 'T' (added on 20 Aug 12)
- beret
- buffet
- castle
- chestnut
- Christmas
- depot
- ditch
- fasten
- kitchen
- listen
- merlot
- mistletoe
- mortgage
- often
- stitch
- valet
- witch

SILENT 'W'
- answer
- sword
- who, whom, whose
- whore
- wrap
- wreath
- wreck
- wrestle
- wrist
- write
- wring
- writ


Do let me know if you come across more words with silent letters!

Verbs and their noun forms

This list is not exhaustive.

There are some words the noun and verb forms that are often mixed up (nouns, verbs):

1.   advice, advise
e.g.  What advice did you give him?
e.g.  The teacher gave good advice.
e.g.  Grandfather advises me to work hard from time to time whenever he comes over to visit.

2.  complaint, complain
e.g.  Mother lodged/filed a complaint against our neighbours for their fortnightly late-night parties.
e.g.  "Ah Boy hit me again," Sally complains to Teacher Susan.

3.  practice, practise
e.g.  I attended volleyball practice after school yesterday for primary four students.
e.g.  "If you want to improve in Math, you need to practise, practise and practise..." Brother Bob advised.

4.  device, devise (added 19 Aug 12)
e,g,  This is a clever device to catch unsuspecting thieves!
e.g  We can devise a way to stop theft in the neighbourhood by working hand-in-hand.

I will continue to add more when I can think of more...

Words to do with ageing

Found this new word - 'Octogenarian' - today.  Found that it meant a person from the age of eighty-something to ninety.  It sparked off my dormant interest in vocabulary words.  I know it is tough to differentiate and it could be tested: words like toddler, teenager, adolescents, and such.

I did a search and thanks to answers.com, I finally found the exact words - look under the sub-header "Dividing the lifespan".

Quite an enriching read!

Composition writing in PSLE

1.      It is imperative to write a relatively good story!  Of the ‘200’ marks for English, we are always harping on getting the main bulk, i.e. – ‘Paper 2’, as high as we can.  But if you look at the every grammar / vocabulary / cloze question and say that it is important, is it not the same that you have ‘lost’ ten to fifteen questions wrong if you score ‘30’ or ‘25’ for continuous writing?

2.      Opening – The normal openings are ‘sound’ and ‘dialogue’.  You can use a question, an adage, or just a statement of exclamation.  E.g.  That had to be the worst day of my life! / I had to score that penalty in the last minute of normal time! / I would never go on a trip to the zoological gardens again! as a hook, and explain.

3.      Plotting – Whenever possible, design your plot to have a climax near the end.  Lead the reader on an emotional roller-coaster ride.  Skilful writers are able to lead the reader to think that the story is destined for an expected ending before reining them in to an unexpected, pleasant closure. 

4.      Ending – Never end the story immediately after the climax; have a (few) paragraph(s) to explain the feelings after the climax and what the story you wrote meant to the main character.  The reader might ask: “So what does this mean to the main character?”  Be sure to answer that!

5.      Flashback - For a flashback, conclude by bringing the story back to the start of your story (present situation).  Your last paragraph could entail your main character snapping out of his/her thoughts back to the present situation with a grin, a shudder, etc.

6.      Language – It is possible to score for language!  Try your utmost to use different terms to mean the same people / things.  E.g. Police = men in blue = capable crook-catchers (notice alliteration!) = law-enforcers.  Ensure that you use a few instances of a particular creative writing technique taught.  This could be deliberately thought of but used subtly.  Techniques include:  creative similes, alliteration, idioms, good phrases, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, personification, rhyme, question, etc.

7.      Describe characters / actions / setting – Consider these: [The girl cried in the canteen.  No one cared about her.]  vs [Curling pitifully in a heap at the secluded corner of the school canteen, the primary three girl sat alone.  The shoulder-length haired girl wailed pitifully.  It must have been a hundred-decibel loud – louder than the noise emanated by a subway train.   Something was apparently wrong.  Yet, no one seemed to take any notice of her.]  Which did you prefer reading?

8.      Feelings – Write about your characters’ feelings!  We experience many different feelings within the space of an hour.  Your characters should too.  Make the feelings explicit!  Tell your readers how they felt at different points in your story.

9.      Proofread – Students feel they have nothing to check after writing.  They choose to lay on the desk and sleep.  How wrong they are!  Make use of the invaluable time to reread your story as a reader, not an author.  You might have spelt words wrongly in haste to get your writing done!  Check for possible errors used in tenses.  See if you can add any description, feeling, anything!  Improve upon your writing!

Hope these help!  Next, I will try to consolidate some examples of good phrases and creative writing,  I wish you all the best in writing!