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Descriptive Writing

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Descriptive Writing Some Notes By Brian Yablon Overall Purpose You want to create an image or series of images in the reader s mind. If done well, your reader ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Descriptive Writing


1
Descriptive Writing
  • Some Notes
  • By Brian Yablon

2
Overall Purpose
  • You want to create an image or series of images
    in the readers mind.
  • If done well, your reader should feel as though
    he/she is experiencing the world through your
    senses -- as though he/she were transposed onto
    you.

3
A Basic Skill
  • Descriptive writing is a threshold skill. It
    is the basic building block of all other forms of
    writing.
  • In order to write all types of essays well, you
    must write well descriptively.

4
Some Specific Uses
  • To entertain
  • Such as an amusing description of a teenagers
    room.
  • To relate an experience.
  • Such as a description of your childhood home to
    convey a sense of wealth or poverty you grew up
    in.

5
More Specific Uses
  • To express feelings
  • Such as a description of your favorite outdoor
    spot so that your reader clearly understands why
    you enjoy that place so very much.
  • To inform (for a reader unfamiliar with a
    subject).
  • Such as a description of a newborn calf for a
    reader who has never seen one.

6
Still More Specific Uses
  • To persuade, to convince readers that some music
    videos degrade women.
  • Such as a description of a degrading music video.
  • To clarify, to clear up a misconception.
  • Such as the descriptions of two people, objects,
    places, or ideas.

7
Where Can Descriptive Writing Be Found?
  • By itself
  • Narratives
  • Exemplifications
  • Comparison-contrasts
  • Arguments
  • Definitions
  • Division-classifications
  • Cause-effect

8
How Do You Begin?
  • First, figure out two things
  • Your purpose -- what are you trying to achieve
    with this description?
  • Your audience -- who are you directing your
    description toward.
  • Your purpose and audience determine WHAT you say
    and HOW you say it.

9
Then What?
  • Generate as many ideas, details, examples, and
    images as you can -- more than you think youll
    need.
  • Select which of those you want to use.
  • You cannot use everything its too much -- and
    you want to avoid sounding like a laundry list.

10
Focus on a Dominant Impression
  • Support the dominant impression with specific,
    vivid, precise details that all lead toward that
    overall image.

11
Getting Organized
  • There are three ways to organize a descriptive
    essay.
  • Keep in mind that organization patterns tend to
    overlap.

12
Spatial Organization
  • This is organizing your images in physical space
  • Top to bottom
  • Front to back
  • Left to right
  • Near to far
  • Head to toe
  • Bumper to bumper

13
Chronological Organization
  • Sequential order
  • First to last
  • Morning-noon-night
  • First, second, third
  • Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
  • September, October, November
  • 1999, 2000, 2001

14
Emphatic Organization
  • Order of importance
  • Least to most
  • Most to least

15
Then What?
  • Express and explain your details in length and in
    depth.
  • Avoid creating a laundry list of characteristics.
  • Use sensory language. We are sensory creatures
    and experience our world with our senses.
  • Hearing
  • Taste
  • Touch
  • Sight
  • Smell

16
Be Aware of
  • The power of words.
  • Denotation (literal, dictionary definitions)
  • Connotation (associations we make with words)
  • They are often not the same -- and sometimes
    opposite!

17
You Gotta Be Smooth, Baby!
  • Be aware of transitions they help your reader
    move between ideas.
  • Theyre connectors between sentences and between
    paragraphs.

18
Do You Feel Like I Do?
  • Use sensory language
  • Hearing
  • Tasting
  • Touching
  • Smelling
  • Seeing
  • Be aware that sensory language enlivens your
    writing but also slows it down.
  • Use it well but sparingly.

19
Precision, Precision
  • Always be vivid, specific, and precise with
    details.
  • Use concrete details instead of amorphous, vague
    ideas.

20
Figurative Language
  • Try to use
  • Metaphors
  • Similes
  • Personification

21
Sentences
  • Vary sentence
  • Length
  • Short
  • Medium
  • long
  • Structure
  • Simple
  • Complex
  • Compound
  • Compound-Complex

22
Focus
  • Remember that descriptive writing is focused on
    images NOT EVENTS.
  • Think of it as flipping through a photo album.
    Each image is static yet tells a story.
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