Show Don’t Tell

Worksheet Description

This worksheet titled “The Memoir: Show, Don’t Tell” is designed to enhance a student’s writing skills by focusing on the expression of emotions in a nuanced and vivid manner. The classic writing advice to “show, don’t tell” encourages writers to depict emotions through actions, thoughts, and sensory details rather than simply stating them. The worksheet facilitates this practice by providing eight boxes, each labeled with a different emotion: happy, discouraged, sad, angry, disappointed, anxious, frustrated, and resigned.

Students are prompted to brainstorm ways to convey these emotions from the first-person perspective, focusing on showing rather than telling. This encourages the use of descriptive language and active storytelling techniques to engage readers and allow them to experience the emotions alongside the narrator. By filling in each box with specific examples, students learn to enrich their memoir writing with more show-don’t-tell descriptions. This exercise is particularly valuable for those looking to deepen their narrative skills and enhance the emotional impact of their memoirs. It serves as an excellent practice tool for students to explore and refine their ability to convey feelings effectively in their writing.