1. Writing Workshop Descriptive Writing: Descriptive Essay

2. Assignment: Describe something you have observed. (Your audience is your teacher and your classmates.) Descriptive Essay: Assignment A good descriptive essay is rich in details that appeal to readers’ senses. Your goal is to suggest a mood or to create a strong impression of what you have observed.

3. Descriptive Essay: Prewriting Choosing a Subject Finding More Ideas Gathering Details Organizing Assignment Feature Menu

4. What have you seen lately that interested—or even amazed—you? Descriptive Writing Prewriting: Choosing a Subject a surprising act an odd animal a colorful sunset Your essay will recreate a subject—a person, animal, object, place, or experience—through detailed description.

5. These questions will help you decide whether you can describe a subject clearly enough to write about it. 1. Can I observe the subject directly? If not, can I recall the subject clearly enough to describe it vividly? 2. Do I find the subject interesting? Will it interest readers? 3. Does the subject involve enough sensory details for a good description? Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Choosing a Subject [End of Section]

6. Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Finding More Ideas To explore subjects you could write about, freewrite on some of these topics. What activities could I observe? What people could I observe? What animals could I observe?

7. To explore subjects you could write about, freewrite on some of these topics. What places and things could I observe? What events could I observe? Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Gathering Details

8. Once you have chosen your subject, gather details about it by observing it directly or by drawing on memories. A chart may help you think of details. Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Gathering Details Sensory Details seecoconut trees hearairplane, waves feelsun, hot air smellsalt water tastemango Events Dragonflies flutter and glide, trucks haul tons of dirt, ferries race by Impressions This is just the place for me.

9. Good descriptions use more than simple observation or recollection. Use figures of speech to add color to your essay and help your readers experience your subject. Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Gathering Details The sun left like a ship slipping behind the horizon, sails shining, carrying the warm weight of a perfect day by the river. [End of Section]

10. There are three common ways to organize a descriptive essay. 1. Spatial order. Describe details according to location—near to far, left to right, or clockwise, for example. Reeds whispered by the river, while herons stalked frogs on the far shore. Over the sounds of flowing water, I heard the distant noise of the highway. [near to far] Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Organizing

11. The river reflected the sunset’s colors, turning pink and gold and, at the last, a fiery red that made the water seem like molten metal. Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Organizing There are three common ways to organize a descriptive essay. 2. Order of importance. Put the most important details either first or last—to draw attention to them.

12. The sky’s pale blue faded to a smoky gray as the sun set, then darkened to charcoal and finally to a blue-black against which the stars began to blaze. Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Organizing There are three common ways to organize a descriptive essay. 3. In chronological order, writers arrange details in the order in which they occur.

13. You’ve chosen a subject, gathered details about it, and considered how to organize your essay. Descriptive Essay Drafting: Getting Started Now think about what interests you—or even amazes you—about your subject. Answer this question, and you’re ready to start writing!

14. Writing Workshop Descriptive Writing: Descriptive Essay The End