 Contests & Activities: October 03, 2007 Issue [#1978] |
  Contests & Activities
This week: Edited by: spidey  
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| Welcome to the Contests & Activities Newsletter. I’m spidey . I’ll be your guest editor this week, and I'll be discussing Madlibs. |
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MADLIBS
Madlibs can be highly amusing, and a good way to spend some time if you're looking for something fun to do.
They're pretty easy to do, so they should also be pretty easy to create, right? Not exactly. To create a successful Madlib, you need to keep a few things in mind:
1. Know your parts of speech. This is the most important one. When you're asking someone for a noun, verb, adjective, etc., you need to be sure you're clear on what these are. Otherwise, the end result isn't going to work. Here are some quick, general definitions and examples of five basic parts of speech most often used in Madlibs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs.
Noun - a person, place, thing, or idea, (e.g. Brian, Paris, shoe, freedom) often marked by the articles, "a," "an," and "the."
The boy sang a song about love.
In this example, boy, song and love are all nouns.
Pronoun - a word that takes the place of a noun (e.g. he, she, it)
She ate an apple.
In this example, she is a pronoun.
Adjective - a word that modifies a noun or pronoun. In general, an adjective tells the reader what kind, how many or which one.
Alex rode a red bicycle.
In this example, red is an adjective (describing the noun, bicycle).
Verb - a word that expresses an action (e.g. run, jump, paint, sing) or state of being (e.g. is, become, seem).
Sarah wrote a sonnet.
In this example, wrote is a verb.
Adverb - a word that modifies a verb, adjective or another adverb, and generally answers the questions, where, when, how, why, under what circumstances, and to what extent.
Ann skipped happily.
In this example, happily is the adverb (modifying the verb, skipped).
These parts of speech are very basic and cover a broad area, so our next step in creating a successful madlib is:
2. Be specific. You know what kind of word you have in mind for each blank in your Madlib, so be sure to be specific enough to your reader, so they can choose a word that fits well. Some things to keep in mind:
Singular or Plural?
When asking for nouns, indicate whether they should be singular or plural. Let's see an example:
Singular: John threw a book across the room.
Plural: John threw a books across the room.
Singular works best here, so you should ask for a singular noun for this blank.
Being specific will clear up any confusion or inconsistencies in your Madlib.
Verb Tense
When asking for verbs, specify whether they should be present or past tense (or even future tense). An example:
Present: Yesterday, Liz dance with Roger.
Past: Yesterday, Liz danced with Roger.
Clearly, past tense works best here.
It's a good idea to be specific with all your blanks. That way, your reader knows what kind of words to fill in instead of guessing, running the risk of the Madlib sounding awkward later.
Of course, being specific works only to a certain point.
3. Don't be too specific. Asking for a number is fine, but asking for a number "between one and five" may be a little too specific. There is an element of chance involved in Madlibs. Madlibs aren't necessarily about telling a story that makes perfect sense. Sometimes a reader chooses a word that fits perfectly (which may not make the Madlib as entertaining), but let that chance be up to the reader. That's part of the fun of Madlibs.
The rest is pretty much up to you. Madlib-writing isn't an exact science. Experimenting and testing is key. Write a Madlib, and try it out yourself before you let it loose on everyone else. Try other Madlibs and find out what you think works and what you think doesn't work.
Madlibs can be lots of fun and very entertaining for the creator and for its participants.
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As a guest editor, I don't have any feedback comments to share, though I'd like to propose a question to Madlib writers and readers. What do you think makes a Madlib a success? Do you have a set of words you tend to use over and over, or do you try to come up with new ones for each Madlib?
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