Mom

People age and their looks change, but we often remember them as they used to be. When I think of my
mother, I see her as she was when I was a boy. She was a beauty.

Hair styles changed many times while I was growing up, and my mother’s did, too, but I usually think of
her with her hair done up in a beehive. She had wavy, dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Her face was a
slightly rectangular oval, which made her look both gentle and strong. She had high, arching eyebrows
and a triangular, slightly turned up nose. Her chin was smooth and feminine. She was not very tall, about
five feet six inches, but she was slim and graceful, so I never thought of her as short compared to other
adults. She was proud to be a woman and always wore feminine clothing. Her eyes and smile also
radiated pride in who and what she was.

Like many North American women, she has become overweight and age has blurred the clean lines of
youth, but whenever I look at my mother, I still see the young, attractive woman I grew up adoring.
(197)

Teacher Mark

My cram school English teacher is very different from all my other teachers. He does not look or sounds
like them. He is a foreigner.

He speaks English with a North American accent. He speaks Chinese with a foreign accent. He has a big
nose and blue eyes. He has wavy, dark brown hair and white skin.

Teacher Mark does not look or sound Chinese. He is a European from Canada. (71)

Garbage Trucks

Garbage trucks are important. Every day, they collect the city’s garbage. Garbage trucks are easy to
recognize.

We can hear a garbage truck coming, because it plays a special song. We can see when it is coming,
because it is bright yellow. We can smell when it has come, because it smells like rotten garbage. The
back of the garbage truck is round at the top, because of a machine called a crusher that squeezes all
the garbage together to make it fit in the truck.

No other truck sounds, looks or smells like a garbage truck. People are happy when it come and happy
when it goes. (108)
A selection of descriptive essay ideas
 A poignant childhood memory
 An exhilarating experience
 A sunset
 A frightening place
 Your first case
 A particularly pleasant tasting food
 A particularly unpleasant tasting food
 Your idea of the ideal house
 A scary graveyard
 A desert island
 A friend
 A relative
 A hero
 A fictional character
 A sports match or event
 A road trip
 Learning to drive
 A snowy day
 The birth of a child
 A life changing event
 The future
 Traveling
 Your favorite book/movie/television show
 Your first memory growing up
 Living in another country
 A major achievement
 A spider in your room
 A beautiful house
 Walking down a quiet street
 Revisiting places from childhood
 What you want to be when you grow up
 A hobby
 A funny memory
 A paranormal experience
 Starting a new career
 Starting over
 A day at school
 Sitting in traffic
 Meeting a famous person

NARRATIVE ESSAY

 5 Things I Can't Live Without

 7 Things I Would Give Up
 A brush with death
 A dangerous experience
 A day when everything went right (or wrong)
 A disastrous date
 A frightening experience
 A Hard Lesson Learned
 A historic event
 A Job I Hate to Do
 A memorable encounter with someone in authority
 A memorable journey
 A memorable wedding or funeral
 A moment of failure or success
 A Place I'd Like to Live
 A rebellious act
 A Secret Place
 A significant misunderstanding
 A strange job interview
 A time that you took a stand on an important issue
 A traffic accident
 A trip that you would like to take
 A TV Show I Would Make Up
 A vacation trip from your childhood
 An account of a difficult decision that you had to make
 An account of a visit to a fictional place
 An act of heroism or cowardice
 An Animal I Would Be
 An embarrassing experience
 An encounter that changed your life
 An encounter with someone or something you were afraid of
 An event that marked a turning point in your life
 An experience that altered your view of someone
 An experience that demonstrated how labor-saving devices can be more trouble than
they're worth
 An experience that helped you grow up
 An experience that led to renewed faith
 An experience that left you disillusioned
 An experience that made you laugh until you cried
 An experience that showed how appearances can be deceiving
 An experience that showed how we should be careful of what we wish for
 An experience that taught you a lesson
 An eyewitness account of an important event
 An imaginary encounter with a real person
 An occasion when you experienced rejection
 An unexpected encounter
 How Embarrassing!
 I Saw the Weirdest Thing
 If I Could Be Somebody Else for a Day
 If I Could Change One Thing About Me
 If I Could Go Back in Time
 If I Could Have Any Pet
 If I Could Invent a Holiday
 If I Could Live in Another Century
 If I Could Make School Rules
 If I Could Only See One Color
 If I Were Invisible
 If I Were President
 Most Interesting Animal Encounter
 Most Memorable Trip
 My Earliest Memory
 My Favorite Gadget
 My Favorite Meal
 My Favorite Superpower
 My Favorite Toy Ever
 My Favorite Weather Story
 My Greatest Accomplishment
 My Hero
 My Lucky Charm
 My Parents Were Right
 My Secret Place
 My Secret Talent
 One minute of a football game (or other sporting event)
 Something I Wish I Had
 Something Nobody Knows About Me
 Something That Disappeared
 Surviving a hurricane or a tornado (or other natural disaster)
 The Best News I Ever Received
 The breakup of a friendship
 The day you decided to change your life
 The experience of being lost
 The Greatest Invention
 The Hardest Thing I Ever Had to Do
 The Most Beautiful Thing in the World
 Two different versions of the same event
 When I Was a Little Kid
 Your first day at a new school or college