Learning Goal: I’m working on a management writing question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.Descriptive Essay
Write a 500-750 word essay using description as the chief method of development.
Use your own thoughts, observations, and/or experiences as the sources for this essay. Research is NOT required or expected for this essay.
Your essay should be in MLA format. See the attached Word Formatting document or visit the Purdue OWL MLA website for more details: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/m…
Writing AssignmentPurpose: to informMethod of Development: descriptionChoose your own topic, but make sure that the topic allows you to be able to describe it. You can choose to describe a place, your favorite piece of clothing, an event, your cell phone, a friend, or something else totally different. If you have something in mind but you are unsure if it will work as a descriptive essay, please send me a message through the Messages link for assistance. RemindersBrainstorm for topics.
Accumulate as many details as you can about your topic, and then sift through them, discarding those that are irrelevant, weak, or unrelated to the impression you would like to convey.
Organize your ideas.
Use vivid language and varied sentence structure.
Remember this is not a narrative. This essay is based on painting a picture for the audience.
Check the syllabus for due dates.
Writing ApproachIn this essay assignment, description will be the dominant technique used to develop a distinct impression of your topic. Remember that description must appeal to the senses: taste, touch, sound, sight, smell. While you need not appeal to every sense in your essay, be sure to give the reader enough description so that he/she can be a part of your topic’s development. You may certainly use figurative language in your descriptions – simile, metaphor, personification, etc. In any case, be aware of your audience (your classmates) and your tone. Your choice of words may greatly influence your reader’s impression of your topic. Be careful to present your topic as you would like it to be interpreted.Important: Your paper will be checked for plagiarism using SafeAssign or similar third parties to review and evaluate for originality and intellectual integrity. Plagiarized papers, whether intentional or simply due to ignorance will receive a total grade of zero. Read the following information on plagiarism.Submission Instructions:Complete your assignment using word-processing software such as MS Word 365 (download free software at https://products.office.com/en-us/student?ms.offic…), LibreOffice (download free software at https://www.libreoffice.org/download), or other per course requirements.
Submit your assignment by selecting the “Descriptive Essay” title link above, browsing to, and attaching your saved file. Make sure to select SUBMIT. You may view your posting both on this page and under My Grade (available under Tools).
Review the material from Successful College Composition: Chapter 3 – 3.2 Description
Read the following descriptive readings:Angelou, Maya – Mrs. Flowers
McDonald, Cherokee Paul – A View From The Bridge
Select the following links to enhance your knowledge:Writing to Describe – using the senses / literary devices (video)
How to write descriptively – Nalo Hopkinson (video)
Visit the Writing Lab for:An example of a descriptive essay.
Additional assistance and feedback during any stage of your writing process.
Select “Helpful Resources” on the course menu to view the Modern Language Association (MLA) resources and a sample of the MLA format.
Review the material in the folder “Notes on Writing a Descriptive Essay.”
Submit your Descriptive Essay.
Note: Before writing your own descriptive essay, note one thing about all the above descriptive essays: they do more than just describe. They come to some sort of point about their topics or make some sort of commentary indirectly. Make sure your essay has a point, too, that it is not just three pages of drivel about how gorgeous your cat Fluffy is. Ask yourself questions before you write your essay: Why is it important to you to write about Fluffy? What have you learned from owning Fluffy? What could someone learn from your experiences with Fluffy? Then try to incorporate the answer to one of those questions, either throughout your essay or in a powerful conclusion.“Notes on writing a descriptive essay”or your descriptive essay, choose a subject (a person, a place, an object, etc.) that you know well, for you will need to include many specific details and this can be difficult with a subject with which you are largely unfamiliar. It also helps to choose a subject for which you feel something (positive or negative) as it is difficult to write with interest (or to inspire interest in your readers) about a subject for which you feel nothing.Give your description a sense of life by using multi-sensory details. Sight is the easiest of the five senses to use; perhaps because they are used less frequently, the other senses can have a stronger impact. The more senses you appeal to in your description, the stronger your description will be and the more completely your reader will understand your subject. Think of describing your subject to a blind person—in some ways you are. In your essay, you will be showing to your reader a subject with which s/he is unfamiliar and in all likelihood unable to ever see.Your text is provided as a resource to you; it gives you tips as to organizing and writing each essay. It also gives you examples of those kinds of essays. Keep in mind, though, that your instructor may ask you to do things a bit differently from the sample writings you are given. For instance, you will note that almost every essay provided is written in first person (using I). While that is not a bad way to write an essay, you may encounter situations in the future in which using I is either banned or does not make sense. If you go into the business field, for example, you may be asked to write a proposal for the adoption of a new piece of technology for your business. The boss may require a description of the situation and the effects the new technology may have on the present situation. In this case, the boss is probably less interested in your personal opinion than he/she is interested in the facts; thus, using third person (he, she, it, one, the individual, etc.) would be more appropriate in presenting your case. Your instructor will ask you to use the third person for many of the essays in order to introduce you to this type of writing.Another thing you will notice about the essays is their . . . bending of the grammar rules—no, breaking of grammar/mechanics rules. You will see some fragments. You will see introductions that cover five, six, even seven paragraphs. You will see comma splices. Were these authors graded strictly on their grammar, some might not be published authors. Therein lies the difference between the kind of essays you are writing and the kind of essays the authors are writing. These paid authors are writing to provide entertainment; they are using those lengthy paragraphs to create an atmosphere, using those fragments to create drama or sarcasm at times. You, however, are paying to take a course that assesses your ability to convey a complete message in complete thoughts, according to the rules of Standard Written English. You will not be writing in fragments or using seven-eight paragraphs to get through your introduction (Some of these authors’ essays would run 10 to12 pages if typed in the MLA format you are required to use. Their lengthy introductions are then relative to the length of their entire essays). So do not be confused when you read the instructions for writing essays in this course and compare them with the essays provided in your reader. The readings should give you an idea of the potential your writing skills could have in the future—and more importantly, should spark your brainstorming to get to a topic you could develop for the assignment.Begin by listing as many details about your subject as you can think of. From there, you can choose the strongest details and discard the rest. If your list is complete enough, you will have too many details to fit into one essay. Then group the details into logical (themed) subgroups that you can turn into paragraphs. Were I to describe my cat, I might arrange the details like this:Body Paragraph 1: Physical CharacteristicsSmall, fine-boned—I remember that she is not still a kitten when I see the tiny bookcase opening into which she used to crawl.
Grey, with a white stripe from her nose running down her chin and then down her belly.
Medium length hair.
Body Paragraph 2: PersonalityAlternately playful, cuddly, and anti-social.
Frequently prefers to be near, but not with, a person.
Does not like to be alone.
When she thinks she is alone, she will cuddle awhile with the first person she sees.
Loves to attack people’s hands and shoes.
Body Paragraph 3: HabitsIs definitely a creature of habit.
To signal that she wishes to be taken outside or that she is not finished playing, she pounces on a person’s calf.
Once something occurs in one place, it must occur only in that place from now on.Because she was once played with underneath the living room table, she will run under the table when she sees someone take out one of her toys.
Has one specific spot in the living room where she likes to have her belly rubbed. Outside of that spot, she will bite the hand of a person who tries to rub her belly.
Possibilities for your introduction paragraph abound. Try to set your subject in context. If you are writing about a vacation to the Grand Canyon, for example, you might tell when you went or with whom you went. You could situate the location, telling where it is and a few geographical or historical details about it. Were I writing about my cat, I might begin with the Pink Panther movies, from which we took the name Kato. As a kitten, she would in similar manner attack on every occasion and without warning. From these contextual details, move into your thesis statement.
Your thesis will identify the subject of your description and should make some statement about that subject. Ideas to consider are lessons that you might have learned from your subject or a strong emotional reaction to your subject. For example, if your paper describes your first 30-mile mountain hike, your thesis might say that making this hike taught you the importance of proper preparation, or that it showed you qualities that you did not know you possessed. If your description is about your well-beloved car, you might say that this car represents your desire to have the best things in life. Writing about an animal, you might say that owning a dog taught you responsibility. Were I to write about my cat, I might say that owning such a cat requires having a sense of humor. Possibilities abound. Considering why you chose to write about your subject and what importance that subject has to you will guide you to a thesis statement.
In your conclusion, refer to your thesis, indicating again what significance your subject holds for you. If you are very careful not to move randomly through your essay, you can elect to place your thesis for this assignment at the end of your essay, in your conclusion paragraph, following the context and description paragraphs.
As you write, be careful to avoid conversational words and phrases. Do not begin sentences with “Well,…” as in, “Well, I was sure wrong about how long the hike would take.” Such an opening is informal and wrong for an academic essay—even when that essay is a less formal description. Also, avoid talking directly to readers (“As you might have guessed, I was tired and sore by the end of the hike”). Be careful also to avoid clichés. When you add in details or figurative language (similes or metaphors), use your own words rather than often used phrases. Such phrases, because they are neither unique nor original, lack life. It is much better to consider exactly what you mean by them, and then to say that.
Ultimately, the assignment calls for a little creativity as you bring to life a subject for your reader. Try to have a little fun with it!