THE LONGMAN WRITER CHAPTER 11: DESCRIPTION ESSAY
What is the textbook definition of a descriptive essay? Description can be defined as the expression, in vivid language, of what the five senses experience.
What are the two roles that description can serve in an essay? Description can be a supportive technique that develops part of an essay, or it can be the dominant technique used throughout the essay.
What are the two main factors that determine how much description you should include in an essay? First: What is your over-all purpose? Second: What are the needs of your audience?
When considering the audience, what two factors should you keep in mind concerning the amount of details you should include? First: What does your audience need to know? Second: What will they enjoy the most?
What are the two types of description and what are the purposes of those descriptions? Objective: Straightforward and literal, without revealing your attitude or feelings. Subjective: Highly personal view of your subject and you seek to elicit a strong emotional response.
What are the three factors that determine the subjective tone of description? First: What is the author s purpose? Second: What is the attitude of the author towards the subject? Third: What is the hoped for response of the audience?
What determines when you use denotative or connotative language in a descriptive essay? If your purpose is objective, then you use straightforward, precise and factual language denotative. If your purpose is to write a subjective essay in which you hope for an audience reaction similar to yours, then you use emotionally charged language connotative.
What should you recognize and understand about using objective and subjective description in an essay? Subjective and objective descriptions often overlap; sometimes a single sentence contains both elements.
What is the relationship between the thesis and the dominant impression in a subjective description? In a descriptive essay with a subjective slant, the thesis usually centers on the dominant impression you have about the subject.
What is important to remember about establishing the dominant impression? You must establish your dominant impression early in the paper; although descriptive essays often imply, rather than explicitly state, the dominant impression, that impression should be unmistakable.
What are the three factors you should remember when selecting details for your descriptive essay? First: Select details that support your dominant impression. Second: Be selective in the number of details you use. Third: Too many details dilute the essay; choosing correctly what to leave out or what to put in the essay are equally important.
What are the four organizational patterns typically used in a descriptive essay? Spatial: moving from top to bottom, front to rear, etc. Chronological: moving from beginning to end of an event. Emphatic: ending with your subject s most striking elements. Sensory Impression: first smell, then taste, then touch and etc.
What two factors should you remember about paragraphs in a descriptive essay? Descriptive essay paragraphs do not always have a topic sentence. However, each paragraph must have a single focus.
What should be vivid and varied in subjective descriptions? Why? The sensory language should be vivid and the sentence structure varied. Why? The language chosen must be richly evocative; the words you select must etch in readers minds the same picture that you have in yours.
Although effective description demands an abundance of specific sensory language, what is the danger in doing so? Your aim is for rich, sensory images, but you must avoid overloading your sentences with too many adjectives.
When writing effective description, what should you remember about verbs and adverbs? Verbs pack more of a wallop than adverbs.
What does it mean to vary sentence structure? Vary the length of the sentences and the arrangements of the subject-verb pattern.