Workshop Overview

Using visual images and powerful passages, Harry Noden will show your teachers how to teach grammar with an artist’s eye and a writer’s perception as part of the writing process.

Recommended as an important resource to meet state standards, Image Grammar is designed to  provide teachers with classroom-tested strategies that can improve students’ writing.

Materials Taken Directly from a Workshop

Painting Images of Style

Key Concepts Covered:
I. Brush Strokes

II. Combining Brush Strokes

III. Painting Images of Form

IV. Painting Images of Content

V. Painting Images of Convention

VI. Key words for Painting Parallel Structures

Example of Exercises from Brush Strokes

Painting with Absolutes

Absolutes Painted by Anne Rice

The mummy was moving. The mummy’s right arm was outstretched, the torn wrappings hanging from it, as the being stepped out of its gilded box! The scream froze in her throat. The thing was coming towards her--- towards Henry, who stood with his back to it--- moving with a weak, shuffling gait, that arm outstretched before it, the dust rising from the rotting linen that covered it, a great smell of dust and decay filling the room. (72)

Absolutes Painted by Students

Mind racing, anxiety overtaking, the diver peered once more at the specimen.     --- Erin Stralka

I glanced at my clock, digits glowing florescent blue in the inky darkness of my room.   --- Jenn Coppolo

Jaws cracking, tongue curling, the kitten yawned tiredly, awaking from her nap.    --- Tara Tesmer

  
Painting with Participles

Participles Painted by Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway, for example, uses participial phrases to create tension
and action in this excerpt from Old Man and the Sea:

Shifting the weight of the line to his left shoulder and kneeling carefully, he washed his hand in the ocean and held it there, submerged, for more than a minute, watching the blood trail away and the steady movement of the water against his hand as the boat moved. (56-57)
      
Participles Painted by Students

Flying through the air on the wings of a dream, the Olympic long jumper thrust the weight of his whole body forward.       --- Cathleen Conry

Melody froze, dripping with sweat, hoping with all her might that they wouldn’t hear the noise. A beam of light swung out into the darkness, searching. --- Becky Swab
   
The clown, appearing bright and cheerful, smiled and did his act with unusual certainty for someone who had just killed a man.      --- Christi Flick

The rhino, caught in the tangled rope, looked for freedom.        --- Erika Schreckengost
(Note that Erika generated this "ed" form before it was presented in class by imitating "ing" models.)

Painting with Appositives

Appositives Painted by Cornelius Ryan

Plowing through the choppy gray waters, a phalanx of ships bore down on Hitler's Europe: fast new attack transports, slow rust-scarred freighters, small ocean liners, channel steamers, hospital ships, weather-beaten tankers, and swarms of fussing tugs. Barrage balloons flew above the ships. Squadrons of fighter planes weaved below the clouds. And surrounding this cavalcade of ships packed with men, guns, tanks, and motor vehicles, and supplies came a formidable array of 702 warships. (243)

  
Appositives Painted by Students

The volcano, a ravenous God of fire, spewed forth lava and ash across the mountain.    --- Ben Quagliata

The old Navajo woman, a weak and withered lady, stared blankly. --- Jon Vadnal
 
The waterfall, a tilted pitcher, poured the fresh, pure spray into the creek.  The essence of natural beauty, tranquil and majestic, it seemed to enchant the forest with a mystical rush that echoed throughout the untouched virgin paradise.    --- Allie Archer
 
The fish, a slimy mass of flesh, felt the alligator’s giant teeth sink into his scales as he struggled to get away.         --- Lindsey Kannen

Painting with Adjectives Out of Order

Adjectives Out of Order Painted by Doyle, Carr, and Peck

Sir Arthur Conon Doyle in The Hound of the Baskervilles:
“And then, suddenly, in the very dead of the night, there came a sound to my ears, clear, resonant, and unmistakable."

In the Alienist, by Caleb Carr: “The Pavilion was a simple city, long and rectangular.”

Robert Newton Peck from A Day No Pigs Would Die: “I could smell Mama, crisp and starched, plumping my pillow, and the cool muslin pillowcase touched both my ears as the back of my head sank into all those feathers.”

Adjectives Out of Order Painted by Students

The woman, old and wrinkled, smiled upon her newborn great-grandson with pride.    --- Stephanie Schwallie

The boxer, twisted and tormented, felt no compassion for his contender.      --- Chris Hloros

The cheetah, tired and hungry, stared at the gazelle, which would soon become his dinner. --- Zach Vesoulis

 
Painting with Action Verbs
  

The runaway horse was ridden into town by an old, white-whiskered rancher.

The grocery store was robbed by two armed men.

The old, white-whiskered rancher rode the runaway horse into town.

Two armed men robbed the grocery store.