Craft of Writing: Ellipsis, Anthimeria, and Antithesis

 

Time for another installment of some Craft of Writing mini-lessons. As mentioned in more detail previously on this blog, these are mini-lessons designed to support students in practising writing craft all year-round. Below are three writing techniques or elements that can be brought into close-up to make the craft of writing more explicit for students.

Ellipsis

What is it: Anything that has been 'cut out' or omitted from a text. This is often explicitly denoted by three dots '...' but can also be implicitly used without the punctuation marks, such as when a key detail is deliberately left unsaid or taken out of the text.

Examples:

• "Did he... peacefully?" - The Dubliners, James Joyce
• "Honestly, Vernon Gregory, if your father was here..." - Vernon God Little, DBC Pierre

Why use it: 

• Omits unnecessary words in everyday language, EG. "I asked for a Pepsi, [I did] not [ask for] Coke."
• Indicates in dialogue when someone loses a train of thought, or gets cut off, or deliberately leaves something unsaid. Can build tension in this way, or reinforce characterisation.
• Used by academics and journalists when quoting, with [...] to signify when a quote has been trimmed down for usefulness.
• Conveys 'jumps' in thinking during stream-of-consciousness.
• In a broader sense, ellipsis is used to remove parts of a narrative that are either unnecessary (the Harry Potter series takes place over 7 years but Rowling only includes the parts of Harry's life that are relevant to the main narrative) or intended to be ambiguous (certain details related to Laura Wishart's life and death are left unsaid in the novel Jasper Jones).

Quick Activity: Write an exchange, using ellipsis, between a character from The Tempestand a character from Hag-Seed.

Anthimeria

What is it: Taking a word and using it in a way contrary to its normal grammar function. This could be using a noun as a verb, or a verb or noun as an adjective. Anthimeria can often start as a form of slang before becoming a permanent part of the language. It demonstrates the way the English language is constantly changing.

Examples:

• "Way to red plague go!" - Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood
• "Teach me how to dougie" - the song 'Teach Me How to Dougie' by Cali Swag District; about a dance named after the '80s rapper Doug E. Fresh.

Why use it: 

• Cultural changes can lead to words being used in new ways, such as a proper noun (Orwell) being used as an adjective (Orwellian).
• Can be used to build a distinct shared lexicon between a set of characters when they talk to each other.
• A lot of neologisms (new words) are often examples of anthimeria - 'texting', 'hashtagging', etc. 
• Used in pop culture to grab attention or emphasise new ideas. 

Quick Activity: Invent two anthimeria and then use them in a sentence each. One must be a noun turned into a verb, the other a noun turned into an adjective.

Antithesis

What is it: An opposition between two things. This can include opposition between two statements or ideas. These pairs are presented in a similar fashion, or in close proximity, and to qualify as antithesis there must be parallel use of grammatical structure or equal weight given to each of the ideas.

Examples:

• "She is ten times more gentle than her father (is ten times) crabbed" - The Tempest, William Shakespeare
• "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" - Neil Armstrong, moon-landing (1969)
• "We will extend a hand if you are unwilling to unclench your fist" - Inaugural speech from Barack Obama (2009)
• On a conceptual scale, Ariel and Caliban are presented as the antithesis of one another in The Tempest - both are servants to Prospero but one is linked to the air, the other the earth.

Why use it:

• To show contrast in order to emphasise one side of the contrast.
• Separating an idea into two halves in this manner can demonstrate its duality and/or complexity.
• Separating an idea into two opposing halves can indicate a sense of tension between the halves.
• Builds a sense of difference between ideas when presented on a larger scale. 

Quick Activity: Write a 4-8 line piece of poetry about the view from a window. Make sure that it demonstrates antithesis.  

You can find these all together on a handy sheet below:

• Writology Issue 7

Happy writing!

Macbeth and Grammar Analysis

The lightbulb moment.

It's that point where you see a student's facial expression shift as the meaning of what you're saying dawns on them. You don't always see it in every lesson, or even in every week, but when you do see it - you know it. I haven't seen half as many lightbulb moments in all my other lessons combined as I have when explicitly teaching grammar skills.   

These skills include, but aren't limited to:

• Lexical Chains (also known as 'text chains')
• Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences
• Embedded Clauses
• Adjectival Clauses
• Ellipsis
• Lexical Density and Grammatical Intricacy 

I recently spent a lesson with my Year 10 class honing in on text chains. This was done in conjunction with teaching Shakespeare's Macbeth. The first thing I did was get the students to copy this short piece of text on some of the play's themes.

The copying is the easy part, and you can even skip this step by just handing them the text on a piece of paper. The next bit is the interesting part where they have to start engaging with some text analysis. This is done through the identification and highlighting of 'lexical chains' (also known as 'text chains'):

1. Model an example first. Highlight the name of the play, 'Macbeth', in one colour and then highlight three other words or word-groups that mean the same thing, drawing arrows to show the 'chain' that runs through the text. (The other three examples are 'the play', 'this text', and 'piece of theatre').
2. Once students have seen one of these chains, ask them to identify some of their own. Examples could include: 'Shakespeare' and associated terms, 'themes' and associated terms, and 'Macbeth' (the character) and associated terms.

The purpose of this activity is to show students the way synonyms can be used to increase the cohesion of a text. 'Cohesion' refers to the way a text hangs together, and text chains are one of several ways that increased sophistication can be achieved in writing. 

Here are the completed examples:

The point here is that students begin to get a better sense of why it's important to utilise a wider vocabulary, and they can also now see explicit lines of meaning that tie the text together. The longer a particular text chain the more the piece can be said to maintain this specific theme throughout the paragraph or essay.

Another byproduct of this process is that it assists students in decoding unfamiliar terms. The lexical chains encourage the reader to 'read' the text in a different way, building up their understanding, and gathering further literacy tools with which they can attack increasingly sophisticated pieces of writing. For those of you out there who are keen on Super Six comprehension, this comes under monitoring.

Coming to grips with text chains is the point where students have that aforementioned 'lightbulb' moment, and it primes them for further analysis of the text in other ways. It's empowering for students to now see at least one clear way that they can determine the quality of a piece of a text. I point out here that it isn't by any means the only indicator of quality, however, it is nonetheless a way in which students can assess both their own writing and the writing of others. Having gained a better understanding of how an extensive vocabulary can improve writing, students now also seem much more willing to try a few other new things. They've essentially been scaffolded to a point where they can begin an even closer reading of the text.

Here's how we can build further. Ask students to do the following:

The first question is asking students to actively decode new words by using what they've already learned. I nudge them along at this point but it's important to let them have a few educated guesses first, and for them to share their answers with one another. 

The second question is a way to make students consider the usefulness of adjectives in building deeper shades of meaning. Take an example, such as 'underlying concepts', and demonstrate the way in which 'underlying' can be removed without changing the essential meaning of the sentence. Then ask students to consider what the adjective 'underlying' adds to the word 'concepts'. This demonstrates the overall point of the adjective as a grammatical function that describes an attribute of the noun it precedes.

The third question deals with the cohesive device known as 'ellipsis'. In this context, an ellipsis is any word that is implied but not stated. The phrase 'Chief amongst these are' omits the word 'themes' between 'these' and 'are' due to the fact that the term 'themes' has already been made clear in the prior sentence. Gaining an understanding of ellipsis is dependent on context; students need to read the preceding and proceeding sentences to achieve greater awareness of the word that is subject to omission. Ellipsis exists (much like synonym use to build text chains) as another way for writers to avoid unnecessary repetition. Getting students to become consciously aware of this allows for further empowerment in their own writing.