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What's that difference between 'telling' and 'showing'? I'd like to understand that.
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Allow me to demonstrate:-
1. Telling.
Ben was a sheepdog. His thick, soft fur was black and white, but was usually covered in mud. He had a red and white spotted kerchief knotted around his neck. He was fun-loving and liked to play. His favourite trick was jumping into puddles. He was obedient and would do virtually anything for garlic sausage.
Like all sheepdogs, he was pretty intelligent, but as well as being a working dog, he was also a much loved family pet. He lived in a kennel at High Edge Farm with his owner, John Armstrong, a local sheep farmer. John had two young children who adored Ben as much as he adored them. John liked Ben as well, but being a farmer always pretended that Ben was really just there to work.
Ben was three years old and had been the runt of his litter. He had nearly died on the day he was born, but now he was one of John's best sheepdogs.
2. Showing.
John Armstrong walked out into the yard of High Edge Farm, a piece of garlic sausage in his hand, and whistled loudly. He heard a clatter and a rustle and Ben suddenly appeared on the top of the muck-spreader, head cocked to one side and ears pricked up. His tail was wagging slowly, but when he saw the children coming out of the house behind thier dad, the wagging increased to such an speed that it looked like he might just take off like a helicopter.
Ben leapt straight off the muck spreader and into the huge, muddy puddle below, sending up a shower of filthy water. Most of it landed on him, rendering the red and white of the kerchief that the children had given him even more black. The children squealed with delight.
Ben ran up to John, sat down in front of him and waved a paw at his master. John threw him the piece of sauasge, which Ben tossed into the air for good measure before wolfing it down in one. John tried not to smile, but he couldn't help it. Ben had come a long way from that first night three years ago, when they'd had to put him in a shoebox in the warming oven to try and keep him alive.
"Come on, lad"!, commanded John. "No time for your larks. We've the yearlings to get down off the tops. Time for work!"
"And you two," John continued, turning to the children. "Back in an' get ready for school. You'll catch your deaths running about the yard wi' no shoes on."
A bit of a twee example, but I'm sure you get the idea.
Regards,
Peter