Assignment task: First, please find one example from "Crying in H Mart" and one example from "on the Rainy River" that you think shows readers something as opposed to simply telling them. Describe the example; explain what you think it shows and how and why you think the writer made that choice. Then go on to the show vs tell exercise below.
This is an opportunity for you to play a little, and to practice the art of "showing vs telling" in a piece of writing. The below is a short "portrait" of a person named "Jane." If you look at each sentence in the paragraph, you will notice that each "tells" us something about Jane but does not "show" the reader anything. For example, let's look at the first sentence: "Jane was a good looking woman." The sentence "tells" us she is good looking, but I bet each of us have a different image in our minds of what makes a person good looking. We can't really understand what the writer means about "good looking" because they haven't shown us. We could substitute this first sentence with a sentence of pure description such as: "Jane was 5'10 with light brown skin and a mop of messy but manicured curls on her heart shaped head. Her pale green eyes sparkled as she slashed her impeccable smile , etc..." you get the idea right? The second sentence(s) show readers that Jane is good looking. Your task is to take this paragraph of "telling" and to transform it into a paragraph that shows your reader a clear portrait of Jane. You should stick to the basic structure of the story below, all the telling sentences into sentences that show what is being told. best to be descriptive and have fun creating your own unique portrait of Jane!
Portrait of Jane
Jane was a great looking woman. She had a strange sense of humor. She told me something once that freaked me out. Jane has an interesting father. Her mother is even more interesting. And Jane's house is really cool. I like her dog, too; he does a trick you wouldn't believe! Jane used to take me to this amazing place, and we had a blast. I'm really bummed out since she died so horribly. I miss her. As you can tell, Jane was totally beyond unique.