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English 120222053100 Phpapp02
English 120222053100 Phpapp02
Effective narrative essays allow readers to visualize everything that's happening, in their
minds. One way to make sure that this occurs is to use concrete, rather than abstract, details.
The word “abstract” might remind you of modern art. An abstract painting, for example, does
not normally contain recognizable objects. In other words, we can't look at the painting and
immediately say "that's a house" or "that's a bowl of fruit." To the untrained eye, abstract art
looks a bit like a child's finger-painting--just brightly colored splotches on a canvas.
Avoid
abstract language—it won’t help the reader understand what you're trying to say!
EXAMPLES!
• Examples:
• Abstract: It was a nice day.
Concrete: The sun
was shining and a slight breeze blew across my
face.
• Abstract: I liked writing poems, not
essays.
Concrete: I liked writing short,
rhythmic poems and hated rambling on about
my thoughts in those four-page essays.
• Abstract: Mr. Smith was a great teacher.
Concrete: Mr. Smith really knew how to help
us turn our thoughts into good stories and
essays.
HOW TO WRITE A DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY
Here is a list of important rules to follow as your write this essay.
• Understand the concept
• Do your research
• Outline the paper
• Write the paper
• Re-write the paper
• Edit (outside editors)
Here are some tips to remember when writing your descriptive essay:
• Actually describe something
• Use concrete and abstract images
• Use concrete and abstract ideas
• Do not go overboard with adjectives and adverbs
• Do not go overboard with similes and metaphors
• Give it to someone else to see if your essay actually describes something
What do you want to describe?
• sight
• sound
• smell
• touch
• taste
• Like his twisted feathers, his many scars, the reliable old owl
chose the gnarled, weather-beaten, but solid branch often—it
being a companion to the wise alone with the night and the last
branch to creak in the heaviest wind. He oft...
APPLE!
• The next time you get a chance, pick up an apple.
Feel the weight of it in your hand. Examine it for
blemishes. What caused that little black spot? Did
the apple tenaciously hang onto the wind-
whipped tree branch as a storm dashed it into a
neighboring twig? Did a peckish bird sample the
apple for ripeness? Look at the apple again and
feel it as it warms in your hand. Anticipate the
burst of flavor as your teeth crunch through the
rich redness of its thin skin.
The above is a sample of descriptive writing and a
hint of some of the ways you can take an ordinary
object and change it into the extraordinary using
words. Writing a descriptive essay is a chance to
explore your own creativity as you use the senses to
draw a picture in words.
• Could you feel the weight and temperature of the
apple?
• Did you see the blemish and visualize the
windstorm or the bird?
• Could you hear the crunch as you bit through the
skin?
• Could you taste the explosion of flavor?
Actually, there is more than one way to write a
descriptive essay. Some descriptive essays are written
objectively, using only the facts:
Example: The apple was fully ripe, a fact supported by its
deep red color and the ease with which its dry brown
stem separated from the tree.
• Tip: Keep your essay on topic by applying descriptive
text to your subject only. Notice above that no
description is applied to the tree.
Other descriptive writing, like the first example, is
subjective in that it intends to paint a vivid picture that
elicits sensations or arouses emotion in the reader.
However, in either form, descriptive writing adds strength
to your essay by adding interesting and specific details to
your composition.
• Although the first example is a descriptive
paragraph, be sure to follow the standard essay
writing format of introduction, body, and
conclusion when writing your descriptive essay.
Use your introduction to both present your
subject and to tell your reader why you found it
interesting.
• Choose your details carefully. In writing a
descriptive essay, your objective is to leave your
reader with just one impression.
• For instance, if the apple was grass green instead
of rosy red, you might take some “poetic license”
and leave that fact out, selecting only the details
that support your description and convey the
impression or a ripe and juicy apple.
When writing a descriptive essay, start building
your description by brainstorming the facts:
• Red Apple
• Brown Stem
• Small black blemish near the top
• Thin skin
• Juicy
• Crunchy
• Round
• Heavy and solid
• By the time you finish this process, you’ll probably have
written an objective description and only need to put it
into sentences and insert them into appropriate
paragraphs of your descriptive essay. In writing a
subjective description, you’ll want to build on the facts
by adding adjectives to some of them and using
synonyms that are more descriptive for others. (e.g.
rosy red as opposed to red or weighty as opposed to
heavy).
• Choose two or three of the descriptions you’ve built
and use them as the focal points of your descriptive
essay body, with supporting information that describes
why they are important to your overall view. (In this
example, the ripeness of the apple.)
• Conclude your descriptive essay with a summary of
your points and restate the impression you meant to
create.
PURPOSE OF DESCRIPTIVE ESSAYS
• The purpose of a descriptive essay is to describe a
person, place, or thing in such vivid detail that
the reader can easily form a precise mental
picture of what is being written about. The
author may accomplish this by using imaginative
language, interesting comparisons, and images
that appeal to the senses.
• Read this sample descriptive essay, and then read
the notes below.
1) The subject of the sample essay is fairly
ordinary—a ride on a Ferris wheel. The author
makes it interesting, however, by comparing the
Ferris wheel to a monstrous creature.
2) The author makes good use of fresh and varied
vocabulary. For example, in the first paragraph
alone, she uses verbs that create excitement like
"fascinate," "amaze," and "terrify." In the second
paragraph she uses a variety of terms to describe
the machine such as "monstrosity," "mythical
beast," "amazing dinosaur," "fire-breathing
dragon."
3) The author uses her senses to describe the scene—how the
ride looks, sounds, smells, and feels. The ride is "huge, smoky,
noisy" and its engines "drone" like the roar of a dragon. On
the ride, she gets a "rush of adrenaline" and a "lump in her
throat," she feels immobile and then weightless.
4) The essay is well organized. The introduction begins with a
general statement, "I have always been fascinated by carnival
rides," and ends with a more specific statement of what the
essay will be about, "the thrill and excitement of a carnival
ride keeps me coming back for more." The body of the essay is
composed of several paragraphs that describe the Ferris
wheel, the way it seems from the ground and the way it feels
to ride on one. The conclusion restates the main idea of the
essay, that the author continues to find carnival rides thrilling
and exciting.