Description Unit Nonfiction Essays PT=Purposeful Thought PQ=Purposeful Question Directions: Select three of the five essays to read and complete the chart for each essay. You will also craft dialectical journals on selected essays.

N S: The Miss Dennis School of Writing by A. Steinbach p. 28 PQ: How do we liberate the writer in you?

F______
I ______
D ______
D ______
S ______
T ______ / S______
O ______
A______
P______
S ______
Evidence (MLA Citation)
1. 1.Dominant Impression of Miss Dennis (12-14)
2. Abstract words? Concrete words?
a.
b.
3. Subjective Voice?

A View from the Bridge by C. McDonald p. 37 PQ: How much do we connect with the blind?

F______
I ______
D ______
D ______
S ______
T ______ / S______
O ______
A______
P______
S ______
Evidence (MLA Citation)
1. Metonymy Examples?
a.
b.
2. Figurative View vs. Literal View of Bridge?
a.
b.
3. Which of the five senses are appealed to in the description of the tarpon in (35)?

No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch by A. Hodgman p. 47 PQ: How does dog food taste?

F______
I ______
D ______
D ______
S ______
T ______ / S______
O ______
A______
P______
S ______
Evidence (MLA Citation)
1. Dominant Impression?
2. Concrete Words?
3. Jargon (technical language)

(B R) Arm Wrestling with My Father by B. Manning p. 144 PQ: Has your family relationship evolved?

F______
I ______
D ______
D ______
S ______
T ______ / S______
O ______
A______
P______
S ______
Evidence (MLA Citation)
1. Dominant Impression?
a.
2. Manning expresses conflicting feelings about his father. Cite examples.
a.
b.

Silent Dancing by J. Cofer p. 162 PQ: What memories are evoked from your childhood?

F______
I ______
D ______
D ______
S ______
T ______ / S______
O ______
A______
P______
S ______
Evidence (MLA Citation)
1. Dominant Impression?
2. How did Cofer’s mother and father contrast in their ideas of home?
3. How might “silent dancing” serve as a metaphor for memory?

Description Unit Nonfiction Notes

Description Notes

The Method

Description Purposes:

1.

2.

Concrete Language-______

Ex: humid, sticky day

Abstract Language- ______

Ex: hot day

Objective Description

Ex: Technical or scientific descriptive writing is objective (i.e. biology report).

Subjective Description

Ex: An email to a friend or a magazine advertisement for a new car.

Examples:

“Imagine the ship herself, with every pulse and artery of her huge body swollen and bursting…sworn to go on or die. Imagine the wind howling, the sea roaring, the rain beating; all in furious array against her. Picture the sky both dark and wild, and the clouds in fearful sympathy with the waves making another ocean in the air.” Charles Dickens, American Notes ______

“At 0600 hours, watch reported a wind from due north of 70 knots. Whitecaps were noticed, in height two ells above the bow. Below deck, much gear was reported adrift, and ten casks of ale were broken and the staves strewn about.” Charles Dickens, Ships Log ______

Descriptive Writing
The Process: Purpose

1.

2.

The Process: Audience

1.

2.

3.

4.

Dominant Impression

Ex: If you plan to write a subjective description of an old house, laying weight on its spooky atmosphere for readers you wish to make shiver, then you might mention its squeaking bats and its shadowy halls, leaving out any reference to its busy swimming pool and the stomping dance music that billows from its interior.

Dominant Impression=Thesis

Ex: “A number of unique features distinguish this frog from others in the order of Anura.” (Biology Report on a Species on Frogs)

Organization

1.

2.

3.

Details

1.  Vividness

2.  Images

3.  Figures of Speech

Ex: “The sound it made was as big as God. It kicked little me back to the ground like a bully, like a foe.” (Vowell, Shooting Dad)

Bland Sentence

Descriptive Sentence

Socratic Questions

1.World Connection Question:

2.Close-Ended Question:

3.Open-Ended Question:

4. Universal Theme Question:

5. Literary Analysis Question: