Pre-University: Writing Fairy Tales

Resources on fairy tales:

Elements of a Fairy Tale

Examples of fairy tales:

• Grimm’s
• Hans Christian Andersen’s

Assignment:

• Think of something that happened in your life. (If you want to make up an event, that is okay.) You should be able to tell about this story as a series of chronological events.
• Look at the elements of a fairy tale. Decide how you can turn your story into a fairy tale.
• The fairy tale should have YOU as the main (good) character. It should also have an evil character/force, a magical element, and a traditional beginning and ending for a fairy tale.
• Write your fairy tale in 3rd person (he/she, not “I”) in the past tense, using time markers and appropriate verbs for chronologies (as soon as, while, after that, etc.). Your fairy tale should be at least three paragraphs long.
• Find or make some art to illustrate your fairy tale. This can be (non-copyrighted) photographs or pictures, or you can draw something yourself. If you draw, give me the drawing so I can scan it for you.
• Post your fairy tale and art on the class Wiki page Wiki Work > Fairy Tales – Summer 2008.
• There is an example here: The Princess and the Bicycle.

Grammar: Adjective order

In class we talked about the order in which adjectives usually appear in a list. This order is instinctive for most native English speakers but can be trouble for learners. There are also different opinions on exactly what order should be used, because it is more of a guideline than a “hard” rule.

Here is one example of the adjective order ranking:

1. Article or determiner (a, an, the)
2. Opinion / quality
3. Size
4. Age
5. Shape / dimensions
6. Color
7. Origin / nationality
8. Material
9. Noun used as an adjective
10. Noun

Lessons, examples, and quizzes:

• Learn4Good’s explanation and quiz
• Adjective order game from LearnEnglish.org
• Centre for Independent Language Learning’s tips and quiz