Descriptive Purposeful Writing

							                        DO NOW
• Do Now
• Spend 10-20 minutes writing about one day within the last
  week when something memorable happened to you.
   – Isolate that incident so it’s clear in your mind
   – Create a list of words that remind you of the event
   – Think of all the details that happened during the day – from
     the time you opened your eyes in the morning to the time
     they closed at night.
       • These are the bits of information you can discard
   – What you should be left with is that memorable thing that
     occurred and a few details directly related to it, some
     details that preceded it, and a few details that followed.
•
• GOAL: The reader of your description would be able to
  experience at a distance what you experienced firsthand.
   Descriptive
Purposeful Writing
              Identifying Purpose
• Why would you want to tell a joke?
• Why would you want to compare one car to
  another?
• That “why” is your purpose
• An effective description of a giant feedlot will
  explain
   –   Its smell
   –   Its looks
   –   Its sounds
   –   How the author feels about the place
                    Drafts
• Knowing what you want to write and
  organizing it requires drafts
• The last page of Hemingway’s Farewell to
  Arms was written 39 times
• Anne Porter spent 20 years writing and
  rewriting Ship of Fools
• “What is written without effort is in general
  read without pleasure.”
                       - Samuel Johnson
             Descriptive Writing
• To write “descriptively” is to re-create it – so that
  the reader can see and understand it
• Personal narratives depend heavily on description
• Descriptive essays are characterized by:
   – Use of detail that appeals to the senses
• Example: “…a small green tree frog, no bigger
  than a penny whose round salmon-colored toes
  stuck out like tiny soupspoons” allows us to see
  what the writer sees. It’s visual!
• Example: “when buckeye leaves hissed n the
  wind they sounded like rattlesnakes” calls to
  mind our sense hearing
• Description that appeals to the senses bring
  scenes – your scenes to life so the reader can
  hear, see, smell, touch , and even taste.
                 Homework
• Rewrite your Do Now using what you now
  know about descriptive writing.
• Your rewrite and draft are due at the start of
  class tomorrow