Here are two short extracts from "The Sniper" by Liam O'Flaherty, an Irish author who died in 1984. This story is set in Ireland in 1922 during the Civil War. A gunman kills a sniper from the opposing side and discovers that the dead man is his brother.

The first extract sets the scene, and describes the sights and sounds. Notice the length of the sentences (average 16 words per sentence), and the many adjectives and nouns.

The long June twilight faded into night. Dublin lay enveloped in darkness but for the dim light of the moon that shone through fleecy clouds, casting a pale light as of approaching dawn over the streets and the dark waters of the Liffey. Around the beleaguered Four Courts the heavy guns roared. Here and there through the city, machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms. Republicans and Free Staters were waging civil war.

The next extract has far more action. The sentences are much shorter and simpler (7 words on average), and the verbs express more movement and sound.

Suddenly from the opposite roof a shot rang out and the sniper dropped his rifle with a curse. The rifle clattered to the roof. The sniper thought the noise would wake the dead. He stooped to pick the rifle up. He couldn't lift it. His forearm was dead. "I'm hit," he muttered.

Choose a picture and write two short paragraphs, one descriptive, the other expressing some dramatic action.

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