Resources

Emotions


Emotions are a very important part of stories. A story without emotions, no matter how exciting the plot, will be very flat. It is the emotions of the characters that draw the reader into the story.


Readers identify with the characters in the stories because they can identify with the emotions that arise in the characters when they are confronted with certain situations. When a character gets scolded unfairly, they can empathise with the character because they have also felt the same indignation. When a character is cornered by a bully, they too have felt the same paralysing fear when facing a violent person.


But describing emotions in stories do not come naturally to pupils. Many beginning writers tend to leave them out or describe them in a very simple and bland manner. (Examples: I was scared. Mr Tan was angry. Mary was sad.)


Thus at Learning Partners, we break them down into a series of concrete steps that pupils can follow, making the process simpler and less intimidating.


We call this process PEA.


1. P - Physical Reactions

Most people would betray their emotions via their physical reactions, aka body language. These emotions will clue the reader in to the state of mind the character is in.


2. E - Description of the Emotion

Pupils tend to use very simple descriptions (see above). There is nothing wrong with that (in fact, there is a school of thought that writing should be simple and effective). The only catch is that the standard of the work handed in in the PSLE is very high. And many candidates use very sophisticated and flowery language. As such, it is advisable to use more descriptive language so as to get an edge in the examination.


3. A - Actions

These are the actions taken by the character in response to his emotions and the situation he is facing.

~.      ~.      ~.

As a start, we get the pupils to implement the PEA technique by including a point from each step in the P-E-A order. However, the number of points and even the order in which they are listed are actually not cast in stone and as pupils become more adept and confident in using them, we encourage them to experiment with the technique.


We'll be putting out a sample of the resources we use in classes for this technique. Please feel free to download the resources if you find them useful.


EMOTIONS

Fear

Anger


Sadness

Happiness



LITERARY DEVICES

Metaphors

Figures of Speech



MISCELLANEOUS

Onomatopoeia