take a base sentence and rewrite it using six Brush Strokes

For this exercise, you will take a base sentence and rewrite it using six Brush Strokes (this term taken from Harry Noden’s book Image Grammar, Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook Heinemann): first, you will add a participle; next, you will add an absolute; next, you will add an appositive; next, you will add adjectives out of order; next, you will change the verb to make it stronger; and finally, you will use a combination of two of the strategies. To complete this exercise, you must use each of the Brush Strokes three times for a total of eighteen sentences.

• A participle is a word that looks like a verb but isn’t. It’s used as a modifier. Participles are words formed by adding the endings -ing, -ed, and -en to a root word. Eating, dancing, and flying are formed by adding the -ing ending to the roots eat, dance, and fly. Eaten and smashed are formed by adding the -en and -ed endings to the roots eat and smash. Typically, if a participle modifies a noun, the -ing ending shows that the noun is performing the action named by the participle: Dancing (participle) like a wind-up toy, the man (noun modified) crossed the floor. The -ed and -en endings show the noun is having the action performed upon it: Smashed into a thousand tiny pieces (participial phrase), the chair (noun modified) lay on the ground.

• An absolute is in its simplest form a noun + participle: eyes glistening, clothes drenched, feet tapping. The absolute can also be expanded with other modifiers: eyes glistening with tears, clothes drenched by the sudden shower, feet tapping to the beat of the music pouring from her headphones. The absolute usually focuses our attention on a detail of another noun in a sentence: Eyes glistening with tears, the child knelt by the lifeless bird. Here the eyes belong to the child.

• An appositive is a loose noun phrase. You should know about the form of a noun phrase after having studied them earlier this semester. The appositive, like the absolute, focuses on a detail of another noun in the sentence. It typically does so by renaming the noun: Joe Smith (noun), the neighborhood’s friendliest man (appositive renaming Joe Smith), took the children for ice cream.

• An adjective, as you have learned, typically appears before a noun: The tall, lean stranger knocked on the door. If you pull the adjective out of this spot, you create adjectives out of order: The stranger, tall and lean, knocked on the door.

• A verb, as you have learned, typically names an action or state of being. When it appears in a verb phrase and shows agreement with a subject, it is used to create clauses. However, some verbs may lack the charge of energy that can bring a scene to life. If you say, for example, She sang a song, you have a grammatically correct but neutral and lifeless sentence. But if you change the verb and say instead She belted a song, you give the action more energy.

Here is an example of how to complete the six exercises, using the sentence The snake watched its prey as the base (the brush strokes appear in boldface):

Participle: Hissing and writhing, the snake watched its prey.
Absolute: The snake, tongue flickering, watched its prey.
Appositive: The snake, a knotted rope of quivering flesh, watched its prey.
Adjectives out of order: The snake, short but as thick as a man’s thigh, watched its prey.
Change the verb: The snake studied its prey.
Combination: Rattling its tail softly, the snake examined its prey, eyes boring through the still air.
Note that you can add your brush strokes most conveniently at the beginning of the base sentence, at the end, or between the subject and the verb.

Please clearly label each sentence by type, as shown in the examples above, and format special characters according to the posted guidelines.

Your base sentence today is The hungry man got some ice cream from the freezer case.