Task 1
Below are some “telling” sentences. Rewrite each one using sensory details and strong verbs to “show” the scene instead.
Telling: The library was quiet.
Showing: The only sounds were the soft rustle of turning pages and the occasional creak of a chair as someone shifted in their seat. Even the librarian’s footsteps were muffled by the thick carpet as she moved between the towering shelves.
Task 2
Below are neutral sentences. Rewrite them twice—once in a cramped, restricted setting and once in an open, expansive setting.
Cramped, restricted setting: She walked across the room
She shuffled sideways between stacks of moldering boxes, her elbows brushing the peeling wallpaper as she inched forward. The floorboards groaned under her weight, and the low ceiling forced her to duck beneath a sagging beam, the air thick with the scent of damp wood and trapped dust.
Open, expansive setting: She walked across the room
She glided across the vast ballroom, her bare feet whispering over cool, mirrored tiles that stretched endlessly under cathedral ceilings. Golden afternoon light poured through floor-to-ceiling windows, painting honeyed stripes on the walls as a breeze carried the scent of orange blossoms from the open veranda. Each step sent ripples through the silence, her shadow stretching long and graceful toward the horizon-line of double doors at the far end.
Task 3
Below are five themes. Choose one and create a setting that symbolizes or reinforces it.
A Fear of the Unknown
The platform is empty, swallowed by thick, swirling fog that muffles sound and hides the tracks. A flickering bulb buzzes overhead, its weak light barely piercing the gloom. The air smells of damp metal and something faintly sour, like forgotten flowers left to rot on a bench. A locked suitcase sits abandoned nearby, its contents a mystery. Somewhere in the mist, a distant screech echoes—train or something else? The fog shifts, almost breathing. You check the timetable, but the ink has bled into illegible stains. The only clear words are spray-painted on the wall: "Don’t wait for it." But waiting is all you can do.
Task 4
Choose one of the settings below and write a short dialogue-based scene where a character’s words and actions establish the environment.
Setting: A small, cozy café packed with customers hiding from the rain. The windows are fogged, the hum of quiet chatter and clinking cups fills the air, and rain taps steadily on the roof.
Characters:
Lena – A college student trying to study.
Mark – A stranger who asks to share her table.
Mark (dripping, holding a tray with coffee and a muffin):
Uh… excuse me? Is this seat taken?
Lena (glancing up from her laptop, earbuds half in):
Oh—uh, no. Go ahead.
Mark (gratefully sits, shaking rain off his jacket):
Thanks. This place is packed like a lifeboat. I think the whole city ran in here when the sky cracked open.
Lena (smiling faintly):
Yeah, it’s louder than usual. And warmer. My glasses fogged the second I walked in.
Mark (chuckles, rubbing hands together):
You can’t even see out the windows. Just steam and people. Feels like a greenhouse in here.
Lena (tapping her laptop, sighing):
Tell me about it. I’ve been trying to write this paper, but someone near the counter’s been explaining the plot of a movie for ten minutes.
Mark (grinning):
Loud guy in the green hoodie?
Lena:
That’s the one.
Mark (takes a bite of muffin):
Well, sorry in advance if I spill anything. I’m not usually this clumsy, but rain makes me slippery.
Lena (amused):
Noted. Keep the coffee upright and we’ll get along just fine.
Mark (raises his cup in mock salute):
Deal. Survival rules of the rainy-day café.
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