Making Word Pictures (1969)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] hello I'm your moderator Harvey Brooks and I hope you're ready to have fun with words because it's time to play making word pictures word pictures perhaps something like the pictures you'll see on this screen images created in people's minds by words they read and hear today we're concerned with word pictures that appear in the minds of our panelists Mike Hartman Marilyn field [Applause] and Alan Davis the pictures will be created by our contestants San Summers and Jerry Brown now Jerry and sallyanne you know the rules and you've come prepared you'll each present three short compositions to the panel an oral composition a composition written in school and brought here and a composition written here before the panel the object of the game to use language effectively to create vivid word pictures in our panelist minds we'll begin with oral compositions and with Jerry Brown Jerry if at least two out of three members of the panel think you're using language effectively to create vivid word pictures you'll be rewarded with a otherwise you'll get a so go on Jerry with your oral composition this composition is about my best friend my best friend has curly red hair she's pretty but not in the usual way she has a cute funny look and she's 10 years old but that's not important what matters most is how she likes boys and girls and how she tries to help them and when you look into her eyes you see a warm look that means she cares about you some very interesting word pictures in that composition Jerry pictures of a cute helpful redhaired 10-year-old girl now panel wait I wasn't talking about a girl I was talking about Princess my cocker [Music] spaniel what a shame it seemed to be a pretty good composition but there weren't enough of the right word pictures to give us the true story that Jerry's dog was his best friend so be sure you use the right word pictures to make your compositions clear and Vivid and now it's Sally Anne Summer's turn to present her oral composition Sally Anne I want to tell you about my room my room has all the things that make me happy there are my toys and books and there are my clothes and then there are my dlls I collect foreign DS the one I like best is a French doll my Aunt Judy gave me Sally Ann's or composition panelists what do you think well don't be surprised sallyanne remember the word pictures were supposed to be of your room but the things you described didn't give us a picture of a room but of what panelists just toys and books clothes and Dolls we know there's more to your room than that the trouble is sallyanne you didn't give us an overall picture of the room for example is the room rather empty or is it crowded with your things and are the walls painted or are they papered in some interesting pattern but perhaps details were missed because these were oral compositions now for our next round our contestants have brought compositions written in school we'll Begin Again with Jerry my dad is not a mechanic and last week I watched him work he was taking a car engine apart he turned hard on the wrench and the bolt went snap and out it came snap snap bolt after bolt came out then he tapped on the engine with the hammer Clank Clank Clank Clank there was a cracking sliding sound and he lifted the top part off the engine this was the head it was dirty on the outside but there was the design of lines and circles on the inside where it fit the other parts of the engine Jerry's composition about his father's work panelists good word pictures Jerry they helped us to see a lot of little things and even let us hear some interesting sounds like Snap crack and Clank what's more you've noticed interesting details that help us understand what your father does and now it's Sally Anne's turn to present a composition written in school sallyanne I had a wonderful spring vacation because my mother and father and I took a plane trip to Chicago the airport in Chicago was not just crowded it was packed with people in the same way the roads were jammed with cars and the downtown streets were busy with people on aund different errands how colorful the store windows in Chicago are how freshly green the parks are and the buildings at night with their thousands of Lights seem to float lazily over the water of the lake word pictures of Chicago are they good ones [Music] they are and I'd like to let our audience know why first sallyanne used good verbs and adverbs for example when she told us how the buildings seem to float lazily over the water and she used an adjective and adverb well when she let us know the parks are freshly green she used synonyms describing the city as crowded packed jammed and busy and she used descriptive phrases for example to describe buildings with their thousands of lights so we have good word pictures from both sallyanne and Jerry and a good introduction to our final round in which our contestants will write their compositions here before our panel now this will call for skill in making word pictures because we're asking for compositions about imaginary people living imaginary lives in imaginary places Jerry if you'll begin writing I'll read your composition to the audience while the jury judges your word [Music] pictures on a cold dark planet far from Earth lives grar he looks a little like Earth people but he is different his head is like ours but it is blank with no eyes nose or mouth gr does not talk but he sends his thoughts through the air crawling like a spider he moves across the planet gr sends out thought waves to people people like himself but no one ever answers the others are gone and gr is alone we cannot hear his thought waves but if we could we would think they were very sad and [Music] lonely very good and the reason is that Jerry did not copy anyone else's images he used his imagination and incidentally did you notice the similes in Jerry's composition for example he looks a little like Earth people telling us what gr was like brought this imaginary person to life for us now can San do as well [Music] laughing deer was a little Indian girl her father Great Bear was a brave chief one day as Laughing dear was playing an arrow whizzed and flashed out of the trees a strange Warrior stood there and fast as a rabbit laughing deer ran to tell her father he talked to the other men they knew it was the enemy tribe over the hill that night there was a war dance in the village the huge fire leaped to the sky and the Warriors ran and jumped like Ang Ang Ry demons next morning the women and children were alone in the village their quick hands weaving cloth and grinding corn for food they looked over the plains but no one was there then after a long time White Eagle laughing Bear's cousin saw someone coming it was great bear and the other Chiefs the other Warriors would not be far behind laughing deer was happy everything was all [Music] right complete word pictures yes word pictures that told us something about sizes colors and sounds yes again detailed word pictures that didn't copy anyone else's images that made Vivid clear comparisons Yes again and what interesting simile sallyanne used laughing deer ran fast as a rabbit the Warriors jumped like Angry demons so our game ends in a tie with two good rounds for both sallyanne and Jerry of course it's likely that neither of them has made the best word pictures in the world but in this game everyone is a contestant you and everyone else in our audience you all make word pictures when you speak and when you write whenever you speak to someone or write a letter or a composition you're playing the game of making word pictures a game whose winnings are measured in satisfaction and fun [Applause] [Music] [Applause]