3 Fun Ways to Foreshadow in a Primary School Composition

Using the sign as a clue to tell the readers about what would happen later, this is how a paragraph at the earlier part of the story will look like:

Can you guess what is the problem in this story? If you are thinking along the lines of the main character swimming in the deep end or nearly drowning, you are absolutely right! In fact, this paragraph included a verbal warning from another character, the coach, on top of the warning from the physical sign and these two clues serve to give you an idea of the terrible event coming up.

If the character is exploring the forest or a nature reserve, some signs may include:

Warning: Park closes at 6pm, or…

“No loitering after 6pm”.

In this way, the reader will be able to get a hint that the character will probably disobey one of these rules and end up in trouble.

2. Use the weather to foreshadow what would happen

In certain cases, some pictures or stories allow the writer to use the weather to foreshadow. Some topics such as “A Storm”, “A Sweltering Day” or pictures like a glass of lemonade or an umbrella could possibly help the writer with foreshadowing, too. Here’s an example of using the weather to foreshadow.

Here, we foreshadow how the weather affected Angela to show that she would suffer from heatstroke later.

You can also show that a storm was coming to foreshadow that something bad was going to happen.

3. Include feelings and actions that show what will cause the horrible event to happen later

Let’s say you’re writing about sitting for a test. You could show the audience how you felt in order to foreshadow what would happen later:

Remember to use a power-up word: Anxious

Detail how you felt on the inside: Heart thumped furiously against my chest, would not be able to do the sums, mind reeled.

Detail how you felt on the outside: palms sweated; gulped tried taking in deep breaths but to no avail

These feelings show how you become more and more anxious about not having studied for the test, culminating in the temptation to cheat. You can write it like this:

Alternatively, if you have difficulties showing how the character feels on the inside, you may want to focus on the character’s actions to show how his or her actions led to the problem.

In one story that I was marking, one of the students wanted to write that Mr Tan, an office worker, had lost his wallet by leaving it at the sink. This was what she wrote:

Little did he know what would happen next. When Mr Tan left the toilet, he realised that his wallet was gone!

Here’s what she could have done instead:

Do you see how the actions that showed Mr Tan rushing contributed to what would happen in the end?

To be more effective, you can also put at least two techniques together to create a suspenseful atmosphere.

If you read the first paragraph, you’ll realise that all these techniques have been used! Let’s point them out: