Unit 2.Descriptive Essays

Part 1.

What is Descriptive Essay?

• Describe (v.) to give an account or representation of in words

• Descriptive (adj.) serving to describe or inform or characterized by description

• In a descriptive essay, a writer uses details to tell how a subject looks, sounds, smells, tastes, or feels.

• A descriptive essay should make the reader feel as if he/she is present in the scene.

• (p.29) Anthony Bourdain, a famous NY chef, describes a childhood experience with an oyster during a family vacation in France.

• (p.30) • How did he describe Monsieur Saint-Jour? On

which line(s)? • How did he feel about the trip first in the

beginning? How did his feelings change?• How do you think Bourdain would describe the

oyster trip when he returned home?

Writing example

Writing Task for Today

• Choose one of the following topics. Write a three-to-four-paragraph descriptive essay (200-250 words).

• Topic 1. Please describe a kind of food that you like/dislike. Describe its characteristics, and explain reasons why you like/dislike it.

• Topic 2. Please describe a "good person". From your viewpoints, provide the detailed qualities and examples of being a good person.

1 2

Prewriting: Stimulate Ideas

• Descriptive writing uses words to build images for the readers.

• These images may come from your “sensory perceptions”, such as sights, smells, sounds, touches, tastes, or feelings.

• HOW??

Tools for Brainstorming

• Graphic organizer– Star/Web– Chart/Matrix– Tree/Map– Chain– Sketch– Synectics

Web

• Analyzing Attributes / Brainstorming

• Use to list facts, definitions, attributes, or examples related to a single topic, concept, or theme.

Chart

• Generate ideas• Use to quickly amass

information or elements, stimulate creative thinking, develop new ideas, in an unrestrained and spontaneous manner.

Tree (Network)

• Use to show a system of ideas/things ranked one above another, left to right

• Use to visually arrange interrelated and sequentially ordered sections within the whole

• It is similar to an outline

Sketch

• Visualize events and scenes• Use to recall or form mental images or pictures.• To make perceptible to the mind or imagination

Brainstorming example

• (p.32) Word web• Think of a food you really like or dislike: Fried

chicken.

• Choose a topic you are going to write about. In 10 minutes, Draw a graphic organizer to develop your ideas.

Prewriting: Outlining

• What do you want to describe?• What is your reason for writing your description?• What are the particular qualities that you want to

focus on?– sight – sound – smell – touch – taste

Rhetorical focus

• (p.33)• Introduction: the thesis statement tells why

the object or event of description is important to the writer.

• Body paragraphs: most of the description is in the body paragraph. Use adjectives and adverbs to make the experience more vivid.

• Conclusion: it gives the writer’s final opinion about the description.

Outline example

• (p.33) The Best Pizza in Town and Maybe the World

• (p.34)

• Based on the topic you choose and the brainstorming results, create an outline for your essay in 10 minutes.

Writing: First Draft

• Writing topic: Descriptive writing can portray people, places, objects, memories and experiences with enough vivid detail to help the reader create a mental picture of what is being written about.

• Remember that you are “showing”, not “telling”.

• I grew tired after dinner.– Telling

• As I leaned back and rested my head against the top of the chair, my eyelids began to feel heavy, and the edges of the empty plate in front of me blurred with the white tablecloth.– Showing• The most effective descriptive essays are

loaded with such showing because they enable readers to imagine or experience something for themselves.

Writing Task for Today

• Write a three-to-four-paragraph descriptive essay (200-250 words).

• Topic 1. Please describe a kind of food that you like/dislike. Describe its characteristics, and explain reasons why you like/dislike it.

• Topic 2. Please describe a "good person". From your viewpoints, provide the detailed qualities and examples of being a good person.