Unit 2. Descriptive Essays

1. Unit 2.Descriptive Essays

2. Review • What is a descriptive essay? • Use words to describe details about how a subject looks, sounds, smells, tastes, or feels. • Make the reader feel as if he/she is present in the scene. • What to write about? • Sensory perceptions (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste) • Feel

3. Rhetoric Focus • Prewriting: Brainstorming / Outlining • Writing: Describe something/someone • Introduction: to tell why the object or event of description is meaningful to the writer. • Body paragraphs: to describe (most details are in the body paragraphs.) • Conclusion: to give the writer’s final opinion about the description.

4. Language Focus • In body paragraphs, use words to build images for the readers. • Nouns • Adjectives • Adverbs • Verbs: series of actions, story • Prepositional phrases: location, place

5. Add details to sentences • Details tell what sth looks like, or how it sounds, feels, tastes, or smells.  “sensory perspectives” • The more specific the details are, the more effective and interesting the writing will be. • (p.39) General sentence  Sentence with specific details

6. Writing Model Sample essay • (p.37) Food from the sea • Thesis statement? / Final opinion? • What does the place look like? • What did he see? • What did he smell? • What did he hear? • What did he taste? • How did he feel? Sensory details

7. Verb • (p.37) • Mark verbs used to describe crab’s actions. • Crawled, walk, • Mark verbs used to describe the author’s actions of eating crabs. • Cracked • Mark verbs used to describe the tide. • Come in, push and pull

8. Prepositional phrases • Prepositional phrase = a preposition + a noun / noun phrase / pronoun • The boat slowly sank with the water level until it rested on the bay floor. • PPs show the position, location, or direction of objects in space and time. • PPs can also show manner or attitude. • (p.38)

9. Exercise • (p.37) • Underline the prepositional phrases. • (p.39) • What does each prepositional phrase show? • Location and position • Direction • Time • Manner or attitude

10. Adjective & Adverb • (p.43) • Adjectives are words that describe nouns—people, places, and things. • Adj. usually come after an article and before a Noun. • Adj. can occur after some stative verbs. • Adv., on the contrary, come after dynamic V.

11. Stative verb: • Refer to a state or condition which is quite static or unchanging. • verbs of perception or cognition (which refer to things in the mind) e.g. have, believe • verbs of relation (which describe the relationships between things) e.g. contain, own • CANNOT use these verbs in the continuous (progressive) forms • Dynamic verb: • Describe activities or events which can begin and finish. e.g. play, go, melt • CAN be used in the simple and perfect forms as well as the continuous or progressive forms

12. Formation of Adj. • Verb + -ing • Past participle • Noun modifier • Describe feelings • Adj-ed describe how people feel about sth. • Adj-ing describe the noun that cause the emotion or feeling.

13. Opinion Adj. Fact Adj. • Order of Adj. (p.45)

14. Exercise • (p.45) • Rewrite the sentences placing the adjectives in the correct order.

15. Sample essay • Student sample • Circle the words used to describe images. • Adj? • Adv? • Verb? • Prepositional phrase? • What senses are described?

16. In-class Writing Practice • If you had a magic digital video that can capture scenes, sounds, fragrance, and other senses input, use this digital video to record a "sensory snapshot" of • the city in which you live • one of your family members • More detailed sensory descriptions are needed.