Personification in Science Writing for Effect

Start with the poetry lines sheet so students can spot the device, then move to the city scene to connect it with mood. Finish with the two writing sheets.

Rewrite eight science facts, from glaciers to tides, as personification that keeps each fact true. Science writers use personification to make a process vivid, but the human actions they choose must not change the fact. The directions on the page read: Rewrite each science sentence on the 2 lines using personification. Keep the science fact true. Then write the fact your sentence keeps on the last line. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 8th grade comprehension exercises, and it works the same at home or at school. At home, a student can work through it alone and then go over it with you, which shows quickly what is solid and what needs another look. In class it works as independent practice, homework or a warm-up, and you can print one copy or a full set.

Personification gives a human action, feeling or trait to something that is not human. The tide comes back and steals our footprints is one example from the poetry lines sheet.

The human actions a writer chooses carry feelings. Traffic lights standing on duty for no one and a truck that yawns make a city at night feel tired and lonely.

Yes, if the human action does not change the fact. Personification in Science Writing for Effect has students rewrite facts about glaciers, cells and tides and then name the fact each sentence keeps.