Page 298 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade8_Flipbook

aCTIVITy 4.4
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13. Draft your anecdote. Be sure to include a beginning, middle, and end. As you write your draft, think about using verbals. Study the material below to learn about using verbals.
14. Present an oral reading of your draft to a partner. After your partner presents, provide feedback relating to his or her ideas, organization, language, and the humorous effect.
Language and Writer’s Craft: Using Verbals
You have learned that verbals are verb forms that function in a sentence as a noun or a modifier (adjective or adverb) rather than as a verb. Types of verbals include infinitives, gerunds, and participles. It is important to remember that although a verbal is formed from a verb, it does not function as a verb.
Writers add verbals to their writing for variety and effect. Jon Scieszka uses verbals in his anecdote “Brothers” to exaggerate the brothers’ reactions to the “pecan log” incident. Look at these examples from the text:
• Gerunds are verbals that end in -ing and function as nouns. Example: Playing golf is an activity that the Scieszka family enjoyed.
• Participles are verbals (-ing and -ed forms of verbs) that function as adjectives. Example: “All of the brothers—Jim, Jon, Tom, Gregg, Brian, and Jeff—spilled out of the puke wagon and fell in the grass, gagging and yelling and laughing until we couldn’t laugh anymore.”
• Infinitives are verbals (usually preceded by the particle to) that function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.
Example: “We still get together once a year to play a family golf tournament.”
Check Your Understanding
WRITING to SOURCES Expository Writing Prompt
Select an anecdote in an audio or visual format or the print anecdote you read in this activity. Explain the humor the author creates and its intended response. Be sure to:
• Establishaclearcontrollingidearelatingtheelementsofhumortotheanecdote.
• Use specific examples from the text to support your analysis.
• Use precise diction.
• Incorporate verbals into your writing.
my Notes
Unit 4 • The Challenge of Comedy 271
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