Descriptive Essays

1. Descriptive Essays

2. Pretend you are a real estate agent and you must write a description of the piece of land above. Currently, you have the following information: This 1000 acre mostly wooded lot is for sale. Near the mountains. Some cleared land. Asking $100,000. Make this more appealing to your clients.

3. What is Description? • Information presented that appeals to the five senses. • Lets others know what the experience of the author was • Nurse: What the burn looked like • Art: How the artist used line and color • Chemistry: what a reaction looked or smelled like

4. How? • Start with Research • Your experiences • Something you learned about • List the senses involved • Find fantastic words for those senses • Be sure to use those words in your essay

5. Why? • Description is what the reader will remember • Makes something more or less appealing • Creates the emotional response • Remember people are motivated by what they feel • We learn about what we care about. Make your reader care.

6. Deciding on the Topic • First- Do you want to write about something you know about? Or something you want to learn about?

7. Something you know about Pros Cons • You should be familiar with this already • Your background is solid • You may know where to find research • Paper is likely to seem “expert” • “Easier” • Not much new to learn • May be hard to find research that supports what you “know” • May be hard not to let your own feelings dominate • Easy to not explain enough

8. Something New Pros Cons • Learn something interesting • Ideas will be guided by your research instead of “feelings” • More research (but this might be good) • You may not learn enough to seem like an “expert”

9. Research • Regardless of known or new, you must have solid research • Minimum of 2 database resources

10. Choose the Vantage Point • Who is the narrator? • What relationship does he/she have with the subject? • Why does this matter enough to explain?

11. Choose the Audience • Who is listening? • How much background do they have? • Where are they from? • Where will they read this? • Why would they read it? • Whatever you choose- keep the audience consistent

12. Organize the Essay • Spatial Order • Make the journey sensible (inside out; top to bottom; focal point outward) • Stay consistent • Chronological • Beginning to end or end to beginning • Most to least or Least to most • A Graphic Organizer or Outline is advisable

13. The Rough Draft • Read all of your information • Think • Consider your organization • Decide on the Controlling Idea or thesis • Following your organization- write

14. Connotation • For each of the following give 5 words with essentially the same meaning • Small child • Woman • Car • Wealthy • Farmer

15. Revision before Peer or Class Editing • Clear focus • Sentence variety • Use connotation to your advantage • Action Verbs • Sensory words • Fix Grammar and Spelling errors • You want this to be as perfect as you can before others help you. Bring your best to the plate!

16. Submit your best Rough Draft • Submit to turnitin.com

17. Peer/ Class Editing • Constructive Comments • Help everybody get an A • Hints for what would help • Take it seriously • Do not take it personally- they are just words- your ideas are not the problem- we are only trying to make you more effective

18. Final Draft • Not a “neat” copy versus the “sloppy” copy • Look at all of the comments from everybody. Are there themes? Fix the common problems. • Errors in logistics, organization, or facts hold much more weight than grammar mistakes or typos • Perfect the wording • Clean up mechanical errors

19. Feedback • Read the feedback • Recognize the errors • Notice the strengths • What to improve • I will look for this in particular in the following paper. • It is the next step to being a better writer