Visualizing
Ø Visualizing is the ability to create mental images from words.
Ø Visualize details to help you understand what you read.
Ø In descriptions, the author gives many exact details that help the reader create a mental picture of what is described.
Ø In some stories, you can almost feel as if you are present as the characters talk and act.
Read the following passage about Bilbo Baggins who, using a glowing sword, finds his way around a dark tunnel. Pay special attention to the details that help you picture what you read. Underline the key words that shows the picture.
Suddenly without any warning he trotted splash into water! Ugh! It was icy cold. That pulled him up sharp and short. He did not know whether it was just a pool in the path, or the edge of an underground stream that crossed the passage, or the brink of a deep, dark subterranean lake. The sword was hardly shining at all. He stopped, and he could hear, when he listened hard, drops drip-drip-dripping from an unseen roof into the water below; but there seemed to be no other sort of sound.
“So it is a pool or a lake, and not an underground river,” he thought,. Still he did not dare to wade out into the darkness. He could not swim; and he thought, too, of nasty slimy things, with big bulging blind eyes, wriggling in the water. There are strange things living in the pools and lakes in the hearts of mountains: fish whose fathers swam in, goodness only knows how many years ago, and never swam out again, while their eyes grew bigger and bigger and bigger from trying to see in the blackness; also there are other things more slimy than fish.
from The Hobbit
by J.R.R. Tolkien
Practice: Underline the words in the sentence that help you visualize what is described.
1. As we entered the house I heard the oven timer’s shrill ring.
2. The warm, yeasty aroma of baking bread filled the entryway.
3. I felt the hot, smoothly textured loaves with awe.
4. The crunchy banana tasted delicious.
5. The house by the sea had been painted a glossy yellow.
6. Inside the cupboard were some tart apples.
Read the following description of a mysterious figure walking on a lonely beach. Try to visualize the scene. Then using the second description, fill in the blanks with words that help the reader more completely visualize the scene.
1.
The figure strolled up and down the beach. The gulls and ducks circled in the sky, honking and hooting. As we approached, the figure became clearer. It was a woman, wearing a cloak with a hood. She turned around and greeted us.
2.
The ______figure strolled ______up and down the______beach. The ______gulls and ducks circled ______in the sky, honking and hooting. As we ______approached, the figure became clearer. It was a ______woman, wearing a ______cloak with a ______hood. She turned around and greeted us______.