100 10042 120 Sophomore Writing Workshop (ACP/SCP/GEN) 121, 122, 123 130 Writing in the Descriptive Mode 140 5-8 days 150 10 160 170 4 180 210 23.2 Language Arts - Explore and Respond to Liter 211 1.9.1 212 213 214 215 216 220 23.3 Language Arts - Communicating with Others 221 1.9.2 222 1.9.4 223 2.9.1 224 2.9.2 225 2.9.3 226 230 23.4 Language Arts - English Lang Conventions 231 1.9.2 232 2.9.1 233 2.9.2 234 3.9.1 235 3.9.2 236 3.9.3 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 300 300 What makes descriptive writing effective? 400 400 What is Description? 400 400 Much of the pleasure we take in the world around us comes to us through our senses. We observe the beauties of nature, listen to music, enjoy the feel of comfortable clothing, or the tastes and smells of our favorite food. Description is writing that uses precise details to show the way something looks, tastes, smells, sounds, or feels. Effective description re-creates a scene or an image so that readers can perceive it for themselves. 400 400 How Description Fits Into Your Life 400 400 You probably use descriptive language every day to convey your experiences to others. If a room is cold or a lemon is sour, description can help your audience form a precise mental picture. Widespread in writing, as well as speaking, description appears in everything from a postcard you send friends about a tourist attraction you've visited to a science report you write in school. Descriptive language is also likely to come up in business letters, office memos, resumes, and most other writing you do for your future business career. 400 400 (Prentice Hall. Writer' s Solution. Platinum Sourcebook, Annotated Teacher' s Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1997, 2-3) 400 400 Paper Options: 400 400 * Description of a person 400 * Description of a place 400 * Description of an object/thing 400 400 Paper Expectations: 400 400 * MLA format 400 * Beginning, middle, end, and title 400 * Sensory language (show, don' t tell; effective diction choices) 400 * Specific detail (an anecdote for description of a person) 400 * Figurative language 400 * Acceptable level of fluency 400 * Grammatical correctness 400 400 500 500 When writing in the descriptive mode students will: 500 500 -- Develop and utilize prewriting skills and strategies, 500 -- Develop and incorporate drafting skills, 500 -- Develop and implement editing skills and strategies (peer and self), 500 -- Recognize and integrate writing that appeals to the senses, 500 -- Elaborate on detail, 500 -- Improve diction, 500 -- Recognize and integrate figurative language, 500 -- Produce a final draft that meets standards of acceptability in fluency and grammatical correctness. 600 600 All students will: 600 600 -- Be instructed in the steps of the writing process, 600 -- All students will be shown models of quality writing in the descriptive mode, 600 -- Conference with his/her teacher to discuss the quality of his/her writing and to determine the steps necessary for improvement, 600 -- Receive written feedback on the quality of their descriptive writing. 700 700 Assessment of student writing in the descriptive mode includes student-teacher conferencing to determine successful completion of editing, as well as meeting standards for acceptable quality of the final draft. Each teacher will provide written feedback of the drafts and of the final paper. 820 Prentice Hall. Writer' s Solution. Platinum Sourcebook. New Jersey: 820 Prentice Hall, 1997. 820 820 Samples for description of a thing may include: 820 “Fire Ant Picnic” by Marion Bernhardt 820 “High Tide in Tucson” by Barbara Kingsolver 820 “No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch” by Ann Hodgman 820 "Bunny" by Jamie Lee Swift 820 820 Samples for description of a person may include: 820 "In Memory of a Friend" by Mitchell Schwaber 820 "She Sounded Like God" by Molly Ivins 820 “The Meanest Man I Ever Met” condensed from Leaving Home by 820 Art Buchwald 820 820 Samples for description of a place may include: 820 Excerpt from Travels with Charley in Search of America by John 820 Steinbeck 820 "Into the Terrible Night" by Barbara Kingsolver 820 “Down the River" by Edward Abbey 820 820 All sample essays can be found on the eschool website in the SWW folder at .