1. ASManager2.zip Driver
2. F_HIDDEN.txt File Contents

F_HIDDEN.txt Driver File Contents (ASManager2.zip)

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Hidden Sentences

Mimicking an author's writing style will help you recognize some of his or her techniques, ones which you may wish to use in your own writing.

In this activity, you will read several passages written by well-known and successful authors. Your assignment is to add as many sentences as you can to the passage, "mimicking" the author's style and keeping to the flow and intent of the passage. When you finish, have a friend or writing partner try to find your hidden sentences. Then reverse roles. Let your partner add hidden sentences to another passage for you to find.

Suggestion! If you are really successful, you may have trouble finding the hidden sentences yourself. So keep notes on paper, or save the original passages under another file name.

Have the person looking for the hidden sentences enclose them in brackets [ ] as they find them.

Excerpt from "The Pit and the Pendulum"
By Edgar Allan Poe

A fearful idea now suddenly drove the blood in torrents upon my heart, and for a brief period, I once more relapsed into insensibility. Upon recovering, I at once started to my feet, trembling convulsively in every fiber. I thrust my arms wildly above and around me in all directions. I felt nothing; yet dreaded to move a step, lest I should be impeded by the walls of a tomb. Perspiration burst from every pore, and stood in cold big beads upon my forehead. The agony of suspense grew at length intolerable, and I cautiously moved forward, with my arms extended, and my eyes straining from their sockets, in the hope of catching some faint ray of light. I proceeded for many paces; but still all was blackness and vacancy. I breathed more freely. It seemed evident that mine was not, at least, the most hideous of fates.


Name and save this file now. (Press ctrl+S, type a name for the file, and press enter.)

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Excerpt from "The Devil and Daniel Webster"
By Stephen Vincent Benet

"Foreign?" said the stranger. "And who calls me a foreigner?"

"Well, I never yet heard of the dev -- of your claiming American Citizenship." said Dan'l Webster with surprise.

"And who with better right?" said the stranger, with one of his terrible smiles. "When the first wrong was done to the first Indian, I was there. When the first slaver put out for the Congo, I stood on her deck. Am I not in your books and stories and beliefs, from the first settlements on? Am I not spoken of, still, in every church in New England? 'Tis true the North claims me for a Southerner and the South for a Northerner, but I am neither. I am merely an honest American like yourself -- and of the best descent -- for, to tell the truth, Mr. Webster, though I don't like to boast of it, my name is older in this country than yours."

"Aha!" said Dan'l Webster, with the veins standing out in his forehead. "Then I stand on the Constitution! I demand a trial for my client!"

"The case is hardly one for an ordinary court," said the stranger, his eyes flickering. "And, indeed, the lateness of the hour--"

"Let it be any court you choose, so it is an American judge and an American jury!" said Dan'l Webster in his pride. "Let it be the quick or the dead; I'll abide the issue!"


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Excerpt from "The Metamorphosis"
By Franz Kafka

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was lying on his back, as it was armor-plated, and when he lifted his head a little he could see his dome-like brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes.


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Excerpt from" Once There Was a War"
By John Steinbeck

The great troopship sneaks past the city and the tugs leave her, a dark thing steaming into the dark. On the decks and in the passages and in the bunks the thousands of men are collapsed in sleep. Only their faces show under the dim blue blackout lights -- faces and an impression of tangled hands and feet and legs and equipment. Officers and military police stand guard over this great sleep, a sleep multiplied, the sleep of thousands. An odor rises from the men, the characteristic odor of an army. It is the smell of wool and the bitter smell of fatigue and the smell of gun oil and leather. Troops always have this odor. The men lie sprawled, some with their mouths open, but they do not snore. Perhaps they are too tired to snore but their breathing is a pulsing, audible thing.


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Now type a passage from a book you are reading or have read. Choose a passage by an author whose style you admire and would enjoy imitating. Then expand upon the passage and see if your classmates can tell which sentences are from the original and which are added by you.

Passage of My Choice

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If you haven't done so already, name and save this file now. (Press ctrl+S, type a name for the file, and press enter.)

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end of activity
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