Now let’s look at judgments. Another word we can use to describe this is opinion—the writer of the memoir gives their opinion of a person, place, or event.
Again, let’s read a snippet with and without the judgment. What does it add to the passage?
This is an Expansion exercise - please identity the expansions in this snippet.
When night came, we balanced our rocket, looking wicked and sleek, on top of my mother’s rose-garden fence.
It’s not a big change. The snippet still makes sense without the judgment. But adding Homer’s opinion of his rocket shifts it beyond a recount. It shows he’s proud of his efforts—he may also think the launch will be successful. So, planting his positive opinion before the launch gives the negative outcome (spoiler: it won’t be successful) more emphasis.
This is a Highlighting exercise - please apply these tags to this snippet.
Here are some examples, using the same pattern.
That night, we snuck out of the house, looking dodgy and dangerous, and followed the shadows to McKenzie’s ex-home.
After holding out at the loo for as long as I could, I trudged, sad and forlorn, back to Ms Finch’s office.
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