The Assignment: Write a 3 - 4 page essay about a person who has influenced your life or an interesting person, place, or event. If the essay is about a person, you should present a vivid picture and show what his or her character is like. If the essay is about a place or an event, it should be described so that the reader can imagine being there. MLA format
Invention: Make a list of people you might
write about: friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers, etc. Think about
people who have taught you something or whose advice has influenced you.
Has anyone caused problems for you or helped you deal with a problem? Has
anyone inspired you or disappointed you? Is there a place or event you
find particularly memorable?
Examples: a professional football game / a college
bowl game
a Chinese New Year's parade
the launch of the space shuttle
New Years’ Eve in Times Square
the demolition of a casino in Las Vegas
Pink Floyd’s most recent concert tour
Describing: Try to visualize the person, place, or event. What did the person look like, sound like? How did he or she move, speak, or gesture? Do you remember tone of voice or expressions? For a place or event, think about what you saw or heard. Descriptive writing should give the reader an impression of what the person, place, or event looked and sounded like.
Basic Features of Descriptive Essays:
* An essay about a person needs to present a vivid
portrait of such aspects as the person's speech, posture, gestures, movement,
clothing, and physical appearance.
* An entertaining essay should include anecdotes
which reveal the person's character.
* The writer should include detailed descriptions
of setting and characters in the anecdotes.
* The essay should deal with a subject significant
to the writer.
* The essay should reveal how or why the subject
was influential.
* An essay about a place or event should have
a focused subject.
* The subject needs to be interesting; it's the
writer's job to make it interesting.
* The essay should reveal something surprising
or look at the subject in a new way.
* The place or event should be described in precise
detail using sensory images.
* Readers need to be entertained and they should
learn something new about the place or event.
Format: All papers are to be word processed
on 8½ x 11 inch paper. Never turn in a paper on flimsy or erasable
paper. Double space everything including block quotations and the works
cited page. Use 1 inch margins at the top, bottom, and sides of each page.
The right margin does not need to be justified. Fonts like Times New Roman
or Arial should be used. Don't try to eat up space by using 14 point or
larger; keep everything in 12 point. Indent each paragraph five spaces.
Block quotations should be indented ten spaces from the left margin.
