Magical Scribes Use Attributes to Add Details

Week of September 25—Magical Writing Wizards

Thursday, September 29—Magical Scribes Use Attributes to Add Details

Details are often communicated through attributes—weight, color, texture, direction, and so on. We’ll spend one session at The Magical Writing Scribes camp learning about attributes and using them in our writing. Use the helpful chart below to see how you can incorporate attributes into the details of your writing.

Magical Scribes Use Attributes to Add Details

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Attributes = Qualities or characteristics

Size

            SPECIFIC:

inches                         feet                             yards              miles

            millimeters                centimeters               meters            kilometers

            COMPARISONS:

            larger than . . .                      as small as . . .

            tall like a . . .             so tiny you could . . .

Color

            SPECIFIC:

            lilac                             bottle green               fire-engine red

            pastel yellow cinnamon                   terra cotta

            COMPARISONS:

            reddish                       almost green             black as night

Shape

            SPECIFIC:

            round                          oval                             cube                square

            column                       triangle                      square            circle             

COMPARISONS:

            roundish                    tube-like                    triangular     

            boxy                            circular                      ball-shaped   

Texture

            SPECIFIC:

            smooth                       rough                          bumpy                        lumpy

            soft                              fuzzy                           slippery                      sharp

            COMPARISONS:
            Add –er or –est (smooth, smoother, smoothest)

Number

            SPECIFIC:

            0ne                              fourteen                     twenty-four               a thousand

           

            NON-SPECIFIC:

            many                           some                           several                       a few

COMPARATIVE:

            more than                  fewer                          nearly (+ number)

Direction

            up                                down                           left                              right

            under              over                            beside                         backward

            forward                      around                        across                         around

Temperature

            SPECIFIC:

            46 degrees                 three below zero

            Fahrenheit                Celsius

            NON-SPECIFC:

            broiling                      freezing                      cool                             chilly

            COMPARATIVE:

            hotter than                coldest                        hot like a . . .

Weight

            SPECIFIC:

            ounces                        pounds                       tons                             grams            

            COMPARATIVE:

            as heavy as . . .          the lightest . . .

© Rob Sanders, 2011

It’s Your Turn!

1. Go an Attribute Hunt today! Look in your favorite picture books to see how authors use attributes. Then examine a piece of your writing and revise to add in attributes.