Practice 4: Imitating

Directions: Identify the delayed adjectives in the models and sample imitations. Then write an imitation of each model sentence, one sentence part at a time.

1. Dumpster diving is outdoor work, often surprisingly pleasant.
--Lars Eighner, "On Dumpster Diving"

Surprisingly pleasant - outdoor work

Sample: Doing homework is necessary discipline, sometimes incredibly helpful.

Working out is a rather hard chore, although very satisfying.

2. The baby's eyes were the shape of watermelon seeds, very black and cut very precisely into her small, solemn face.
--Anne Tyler, Digging to America

very black - baby's eyes

Sample: The unspoken pain was the weight of river rocks ,very heavy and embedded most certainly into her aching body.

The darkened room was the upstairs bed, clean and inviting.

3. I shivered as he tossed the feathered corpse of the dead chicken, limp as a cloth, into the back of the truck.
--Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

limp as a cloth - dead chicken

I shrugged as he stated the comment, dead as his head, toward the men.

Sample: I stared as he threw the battered ball from the garbage can, smelly as a foot, into the field of the pitcher.


Practice 5: Expanding

The delayed adjectives are omitted at the caret mark (^) in the following sentences. For each caret, add a delayed adjective or adjective phrase, blending your content and style wit the rest of the sentence.

1. The man topple to one side, crumpled against the railing, ^.
--Robert Ludlum, The Prometheus Deception

sick from drunkenness

2. The spiders like of their sides, ^ and ^, their legs drying in knots.
--Annie Dillard, "Death of a Moth"

thin and writhing

3. He was twenty-six, dark haired, ^, ^, ^, and ^.
--John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

tall, thin, fair-faced, and gay