Descriptive Writing

1. Descriptive Writing Portraying People, Places, and Things Notes adapted from Seeing the Pattern

2. What is description? • Appeals to one or more of the five senses • Tries to create a specific impression or feeling • Works to help audience vividly experience what you are writing about

3. 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.

4. 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)

5. Planning your essay cont. • 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.

6. Vantage Point • Do you want a fixed or moving vantage point for describing your object? • 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.

7. Dominant Impression • Think of this as the thesis for your descriptive essay. • This is your main point about the subject. What do you want to leave your readers with from this piece? • Make sure you feel confident in your dominant impression—write what you know. • This should appeal to your audience—try to offer a new perspective or to provide new insights on your subject.

8. Organization • Spatial Order: Describe a subject from top to bottom, inside to outside, near to far away, from a central focal point outward. • Chronological Order: Describe changes that occur in an object, person, or place over a period of time. • Least-Most/Most-Least: Describe the object, person, or place in order from increasing to decreasing intensity or vice versa • Ex: Describe the sounds of an orchestra tuning up

9. Student Writing: “I Survived the Blackout of 2003” pp. 159-161 Read the essay carefully. • See if you can identify: • Vantage Point • Dominant Impression • How do all of the details work to support this impression? • Which sensory details are particularly effective? • Are there any missing details that would enhance this impression?

10. “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?

11. 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.

12. Next Class • Complete the scaffold to help you outline the body of your essay. • Draft the introduction of your essay. • Read “Piedra” (pp 180-181). On your own sheet of paper, answer the questions in understanding the reading, and examining the characteristics of descriptive writing.