Task:
Exercise 1
On a separate sheet of paper, describe the following five items in a short paragraph. Use at least three of the five senses for each description.
Night
Beach
City
Dinner
Stranger
Exercise 2
On a separate sheet of paper, choose an organizing strategy and then execute it in a short paragraph for three of the following six items:
Train station
Your office
Your car
A coffee shop
Lobby of a movie theater
Mystery Option*
Choose an object to describe but do not indicate it. Describe it, but preserve the mystery
Writing a Description Essay
Choosing a subject is the first step in writing a description essay. Once you have chosen the person, place, or object you want to describe, your challenge is to write an effective thesis statement to guide your essay. The remainder of your essay describes your subject in a way that best expresses your thesis. Remember, you should have a strong sense of how you will organize your essay. Choose a strategy and stick to it. Every part of your essay should use vivid sensory details. The more you can appeal to your readers’ senses, the more they will be engaged in your essay. You can read a sample essay at the end of this section.
Exercise 3
On a separate sheet of paper, choose one of the topics that you started in Exercise 5 and expand it into a five-paragraph essay. Expanding on ideas in greater detail can be difficult. Sometimes it is helpful to look closely at each of the sentences in a summary paragraph. Those sentences can often serve as topic sentences to larger paragraphs.
Mystery Option: Here is an opportunity to collaborate. Please share with a classmate and compare your thoughts on your mystery descriptions. Did your classmate correctly guess your mystery topic? If not, how could you provide more detail to describe it and lead them to the correct conclusion?
Sample Description Essay
In the following student essay, notice how the writer uses sensory details to describe not only the visual appearance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s tomb, but also the experience of lisiting such a historically significant and emotionally moving monument. Pay particular attention to the organization of the description; how does the author move us around the monument and describe its characteristics? Is it effective?
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