Writing advice – show, don’t tell

By Ben Reeves | Activities, Kids, Parents, Writing Tips, Toolkit

Use this activity to help you practise the ‘show, don’t tell’ technique.

As you progress along your writing path, you’ll start to hear this phrase a lot.

SHOW, DON’T TELL!

So what does this mean exactly?

Well, let’s have a look at this sentence:

She was nervous.

There’s nothing wrong with that sentence. Except it’s telling the reader what’s happening, rather than showing them.

We could say:

She bit the skin around her nails and tried to steady her breathing.

We know from this sentence that she’s nervous, but we’re never directly told it. This is the sign of good, confident writing.

We have created an activity for you to practise this technique

Download here

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