For 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. For ideas of what you could describe, see the list at the end of Chapter 3, Description, in The Longman Reader. Choose one, or notify me through Messages if you have a topic of your own that you would prefer to use. Your best best is to choose a person, place, or thing. An experience can work too, but make sure it’s just “one moment in time” rather than an experience that takes place over an extended period of time. In other words, be sure that you are writing a descriptive essay, not a narrative. As your text points out, “Description can be a supportive technique that develops part of an essay, or it can be the dominant technique used throughout an essay†(72). In 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. When you use multi-sensory details, your description comes to life. 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. 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 should use figurative language in your descriptions – simile, metaphor, personification, etc. For more on using sensory details and figurative language, carefully read Chapter 3 in your Reader. Think of this essay as an extremely thorough description of a photograph. That is, imagine that you’ve taken a picture of whatever person, place, or thing that you’re describing, and then describe everything in JUST that picture in as much detail as you can. If you’re describing an experience, then freeze-frame one moment in time in your mind and describe that. It’s easy to do too little with too much with this assignment. Your job is to do MORE with less rather than less with more. Another way to think of your task is this: Imagine that you are describing your subject to a blind person—in some ways you are because the reader can’t “see” your subject; he/she has only the picture your words paint to go on. 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: I. Introduction, ending with the paper’s thesis statement: I don’t know what I’d do without my dear cat Tigger, a sweet soul who can best be understood through her physical characteristics, personality, and habits. II. Body Paragraphs A. Body Paragraph 1: Physical Characteristics •Small, 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. B. Body Paragraph 2: Personality •Alternately playful, cuddly, and antisocial •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 C. Body Paragraph 3: Habits •Is 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. III. Conclusion 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 essay’s thesis statement must be the introduction’s last sentence. 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 car, your thesis might say that you learned responsibility and hard work through owning this car. Writing about an animal, you might say that owning a dog taught you about true selflessness. 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. Your essay’s thesis statement must be the last sentence of the introduction. The thesis statement guides the essay’s organization. The reader uses the thesis statement as a mini outline. Thesis: I don’t know what I’d do without my dear cat Tigger, a sweet soul who can best be understood through her physical characteristics, personality, and habits. This thesis provides a mini outline of the essay. Here’s the more detailed outline: I. Intro/Thesis II. Body Paragraphs A. Body Paragraph 1: Physical Characteristics •Small, 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. B. Body Paragraph 2: Personality •Alternately playful, cuddly, and antisocial •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 C. Body Paragraph 3: Habits •Is 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. III. Conclusion Note how each body paragraph in the outline corresponds to one of the points from the thesis.
