CHARACTERISTICS OF DESCRIPTIVE ESSAYSfrom Seeing the Pattern 146-150

Notes adapted from Seeing the Pattern

What is description?• Appeals to one or more of the five senses (sensory

details)

• Tries to create a specific impression or feeling

• Works to help audience vividly experience what you are writing about

Planning your essay• Introduction

• Provide background on your subject

• Place us in the setting of your description

• Provide the dominant impression that you want to convey in your essay (this is the thesis of the descriptive piece)

Dominant Impression• Overall attitude, mood, or feeling about the subject• Implied thesis of the descriptive essay• This is your point—define it clearly (write what you know!)

Dominant Impression?

Dominant Impression?

Dominant Impression?

Planning your essay cont’d• Body

• Describe your subject using sensory details and/or comparisons.

• Conclusion• Revisit your dominant impression• Logically wrap up the ideas in your essay – don’t leave loose ends.

**Have a clear vantage point**

Vantage Point• Do you want a fixed or moving vantage point for

describing your object? • Fixed: from one position• Moving: various positions

• What vantage point(s) will give your reader the most useful information?

• From which vantage point(s) can you provide the most revealing or striking details?

• The vantage point is like your perspective in the piece. Think of it as a camera for the reader.

Sensory Details

• Sight• Sound• Smell• Taste• Touch

Make a chart to track your details.

Sentences Come Alive

Active Verbs

Use active verbs rather than adverbs to create “striking and lasting impressions” (148).

What is the effect of the revision on the reader’s understanding of the event?

Examples

The team captain proudly accepted the award.

The team captain marched to the podium, grasped the trophy, and gestured toward his teammates.

Connotative Language• Words have subtle variations in meaning

• Select words that strengthen your dominant impression.

Skinny Svelte Slim Scrawny

Cellar Basement

Uses Comparison

Simile

Biting into a tabasco pepper is like aiming a flame-thrower at your parted lips

Metaphor

Eating chili peppers is a descent into a fiery hell.

Uses Comparison

Personification

The television screen stared back at me.

Methods of Organization

Spatial

Front Back Middle

Behind Between To the left

Next to Above Below

Near Far away North

South East West

Chronological

First Next Then

Before After Later

Describe a subject from top to bottom, inside to outside, near to far away, from a central focal point outward.

Methods of Organization

Least to Most Most to Least

“Eating Chili Peppers” pp. 144-146

Read the sample carefully.• What is the dominant impression?• What is the vantage point?• What method of organization does the author use? • What language appears to be particularly effective?

Brainstorm• Look at each of the prompts for your descriptive essay.• For each prompt, brainstorm as many topics as you can

think of.• You will use this list to help you come up with an idea for

your descriptive essay.

Your turn• Take your list of topics and narrow down to one.

• What attitude, mood, or feeling do you want to create about your subject?

• List sensory details that would help you to create this dominant impression.

• Use the scaffold to help you outline your topic.

Next Class• Complete the scaffold to help you outline the body of your

essay.• Draft the introduction of your essay.