Self-Assessment Sheet for Description

1. What is my overall impression of the subject that I am describing in this draft? Identify the thesis by writing it below. _______________________________________________________________
2. Do I have proper paragraphing with introduction, body, and conclusion?
3. Do I make an attempt to engage my readers’ interest in introduction?
4. Do I have enough details to support my overall impression of the subject?
5. Are these details vivid and interesting?
6. Have I created a picture for the reader about this subject?
7. Have I fully utilized words and expressions that appeal to readers’ senses?
8. Is each paragraph sufficiently supported with details? Hint: Three or four-sentence paragraphs are too short, insufficient, and immature for college writing. You need to go beyond this.

9. Do ideas flow logically and smoothly?
10. Are my sentences constructed well without major grammatical errors and usage problems? Hint: Get rid of run-ons, sentence fragments, verb and pronoun misuses.

11. Have I punctuated my sentences correctly? Hint: Fix comma splices.
12. Does my paper end abruptly or do I have a proper conclusion?
13. Does the conclusion create a positive final impression?
14. What questions do I have for the instructor as well as my classmates about this paper? Write it down so I will remember to ask during class.

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Description Writing Topic:

“Description in an Image” from p. 150 of The Student Writer.

Write a descriptive essay in which you depict the advertisement as accurately and vividly as possible, present your sense impressions of the ad, and express your feelings toward it. You may use dominant impression or spatial pattern to organize your paragraph. You may also consider strategies for writing description on p. 152 to help you out, discussing the purpose the description serves, the dominant impression conveyed, picture and words, and the kind of audience the advertisement is targeting.
Description as a Rhetorical Mode in Writing
(Word Version of the lecture)

? As it pertains to composition, description is a way of picturing images in writing and a way of arranging those images in some kind of logical or associational pattern (e.g. spatial pattern/order).
? One uses description whenever one wants to convey to readers the physical characteristics of a person, place, or thing.
? Description deals with its subject as a whole and in its parts.
? It deals with its subject concretely and vividly, relying heavily on sense impressions—the sight, the sound, the taste, the touch, and the smell.

? Description can be objective and subjective.
? Objective descriptions rely on precise, factual language and details that present a writer’s observations without conveying his or her attitude toward the subject.
? Subjective description generally reveals the writer’s personal impression, evaluation, and reaction toward the subject. It is more emotional and value loaded. For example,
? If you objectively describe a fire, you might describe its temperature, its duration, and its scope. You may also describe the fire’s color, movement, and intensity.
? If you describe the fire subjectively, you would include more than these unbiased observations about it. Through your choice of words and phrasing, you would try to recreate for your audience a sense of how the fire made you feel: your reactions to the crackling noise, to the sense of smoke, to the sudden destruction.
? Neither objective nor subjective description exists independently.
? Objective descriptions almost always contain some subjective elements, and subjective descriptions need some objective elements to convey a sense of reality.
? A skillful writer adjusts the balance between the both to suit the topic, thesis, audience, purpose, and occasion of an essay.

? In getting ideas for writing a description, you must be a careful observer.
? Whether you are looking at a landscape, a person, or an object, you might ask yourself certain questions that would help you get ideas to write:
? What does the object look like? Is the object linear, angular, or circular?
? What does a certain food taste like?
? What does your favorite perfume smell like?
? What does the music (your favorite band) sound like?
? How does your body feel like after you’ve exercised?
? How would you group the details logically or artistically?
? Would you follow the natural lines of the object or scene to be described?
? In describing the object or scene, would you begin from left to right, from right to left, from bottom to top or from top to bottom?
? What is your point of view?
? What is your dominant impression of the object or scene?
? Does the scene evoke a mood or stir your feelings?
? How best can you convey sense impression?
By asking these questions, you will get ideas about what to write.

? When you start to describe a person, an object or a scene, you have to decide what details you are going to include and the way you are going to arrange the details
? Follow the logical order when arranging details
? The general arrangements of description:
? The chronological pattern—the arrangement of details according to the time sequence in which they are observed.
? The spatial pattern– the arrangement of details according to physical shape and position.
? The most noticeable (eye-catching) feature can be the basis for a more selective arrangement, and then give the rest of the details in relation to the outstanding feature.
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