Journal #3

Three halt haggard houses formed a kneeling rank on the far creekside and each had two or more skinned torsos dangling by rope from sagged limbs, venison left to the weather for two nights and three days so the early blossoming of decay might round the flavor, sweeten the meat to the bone

• How you word your sentences can really help the reader visualize what is happing in the text, especially if you use more unique and uncommon words. For example the words haggard, skinned, blooming, and decay are not common every day words. These words help the reader to better visualize a deer hanging from its limbs from a tree as it slowly decays.

Ree, brunette and sixteen, with milk skin, and abrupt green eyes, stood bare-armed in a fluttering yellowed dress, face to the wind, her cheeks reddening as if smacked and smacked again.

• Providing more than one detail when explaining a character or landscape can also help the reader visualize the scene. If the writer would have only written the Ree was a girl with Burnett  hair an sixteen, it would be difficult to imagine what she would look like. However, the writer provides a list of details about Ree such as her milk skin, abrupt green eyes, and the most detailed one is about her reddening checks as if they were being smacked multiple times.

The house was cool in the brighter spots and chill in the shadows.

• Sometimes changing common phrases makes the reader understand just how bad or good a situation is. For example, in brighter spots you would expect it to be warm and cool in the shadows. However, the writer uses “cool in the brighter spots and chill in the shadows” which allows the reader to visualize just how cold it is the house, as well as how they have the money to afford heating the house.