"Desiderius Erasmus, a sixteenth-century humanist whose many interests included developing methods for instruction in language and writing, recommended that writers have at their disposal a plentiful supply of words. In his colloquy on copiousness (abundance), De Duplici Colpia Verborum et Rerum (1512), he encourages writers to invent different ways of saying the same thing. Such an exercise stimulates a writer's creativity; also, as his examples show, each variation creates a slightly different meaning. Erasmus chose to begin with the banal sentence "Your letter pleased me very much"; he then wrote 150 variations. Try this yourself. Take his sentence and recreate it at least 5 different ways." (The Literary Experience(compact edition) - Bruce Beiderwell & Jeffery M. Wheeler [Chapter 11])
(1) Your letter warmed my heart.
(2) I was pleased by your letter.
(3) I enjoyed your letter very much.
(4) Your letter made me feel delighted.
(5) I was enchanted by your letter.
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Authors Notes:
I hope you guys make an effort to try this relatively short exercise. It shouldn't take more than 30 minutes, less if your creativity is sparked. I actually did another one of these in my English 201 class. I didn't fare much better. I can't seem to be very eloquent lately.
By the way if anyone knows of any other really cool ideas for writing exercises tweet them to me @lylathewicked
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