Jason Reynolds: Inventing Synonyms

Ready, writers?

Jason Reynolds, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, has a new writing exercise that involves more thinking than actual writing. There’s no story to tell in this one. Instead, it’s about thinking up new synonyms for words we already use. One example he uses: turn “jump,” which everyone knows, into “updown.”

It’s a way of making you think of slightly new ways to approach the world all know — and, like all of his exercises, that’s just what writers and artists do. You can check out all of his exercises on our Engage and Families pages.

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