Multicultural Literature A. Crafting Description/Types of Writing II

Free-Write

A great way to find out what you want to write about is to just start writing. Write nonstop for five minutes. Then, review your writing, and look for repeated ideas or interesting ideas. Choose one to use as the topic for your description.

Revising Your Sentences

Add Descriptive Details to Your Sentences Read through the sentences in your description, and add descriptive details, where necessary, to further explain, identify, or describe your topic. Descriptive details may include vivid nouns and verbs, adjectives and adverbs, quotations, and figurative language.

Crafting Description

Appositives and appositive phrases rename, identify, or explain the nouns or pronouns they are near. The additional information in an appositive phrase is very useful. Imagine that you are being seated at a formal party. How do the following statements differ? Juan Rodriguez will be at your table. Juan Rodriguez, the famous writer, will be at your table. An appositive phrase is a noun or pronoun with modifiers, placed next to another noun or pronoun, in order to add information and details.

Adding Details With Appositives

Appositives, which are nouns or pronouns that identify or rename other nouns or pronouns, are a good way to offer more detail about the person, place, or object being described. Examine your draft, and add appositives where more detail is necessary. Original Sentence Dale finally finished the climb.Sentence With an Appositive Phrase Dale, my best friend, finally finished the climb.

Which sentence is in the third-person omniscient point of view?

As the band took the field, Krista thought about tomorrow's party, and Kyle hoped he wouldn't mess up his drum solo.

Crafting Description 2

As you proofread, check to be sure that you have used commas correctly. Pay particular attention to appositives and appositive phrases to be sure you've correctly punctuated them. To punctuate appositives and appositive phrases correctly, apply the following rules: An essential appositive is one that is necessary to the meaning of the sentence. It does not need commas. A nonessential appositive or appositive phrase is one that can be removed without changing the sentence's meaning. It must always be set off with commas. Example: Essential appositive The movie star Cary Grant is one of my favorites. Since the sentence does not make sense without the words Cary Grant, you don't need commas around the appositive. Example: Nonessential appositive phrase The real name of Cary Grant, one of my favorite stars, was Archibald Leach. The appositive phrase one of my favorite stars can be removed without changing the meaning.

Drafting: Shaping Your Writing

Choose a Point of View—Choose a point of view from which to write your description. Different points of view will give you access to different kinds of details and create different emotional effects. Choosing to write in the first person, using the pronoun I, may bring your readers closer to your experience. The third-person limited point of view gives your writing less of a personal feel. The third-person omniscient point of view allows you to show the same event or person from many different angles.

Circling Details to Identify the Function

Circle in red pencil the details in your draft that contribute to your description's dominant impression. Circle in blue pencil any details that do not directly convey that main impression. Consider replacing or deleting passages circled in blue to give your description a specific focus and to strengthen the dominant impression you'd like to make.

Revising Your Overall Structure

Create a Dominant Impression The details in your description should work together to shape a dominant impression—the main idea or overall impact you want to form in the minds of your readers. For example, Laura wanted to create a harmonious dominant impression. In her writing, she rewrote passages that did not add to the piece's sense of harmony. She changed the first sentence. Original Sentence The red team and white team sit across from each other, and yet there is such a sense of unity that is stifling. Revised Sentence The red team and white team sit across from each other, and yet there is such a powerful sense of togetherness.

Revise Word Choice to Create a Tone

Different words evoke different moods and emotions, allowing writers to create various tones, or attitudes, toward their writing subjects. You may have heard this word joke: I am strong-minded. (admiring tone)You are stubborn. (neutral tone) He is pig-headed. (critical tone) Although strong-minded, stubborn, and pig-headed all mean more or less the same thing, each word conveys a different tone, or attitude, the writer has toward I, you, and he.

Prewriting: Narrowing Your Topic

Draw to Narrow a Topic Make a sketch of the person, place, or event you're describing to help you bring details into focus. Don't worry about how well you draw, since you never have to show your sketch to anyone else. Just think about the details that you'd like to include when you paint a picture in words.

Editing and Proofreading: Focusing on Mechanics

Errors in your description might mean that your audience will pay more attention to your mistakes than to the topic about which you're writing. Fix errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar before you create your final draft.Proofreading requires more than one review. Read your work several times, looking for a different type of error each time. Good writing is a reflection of the care that a writer has taken to be understood.

Did you write down the three points of view that were discussed?

First-person point of view—uses the pronoun I Third-person limited point of view—has a less personal feel Third-person omniscient point of view—shows the same event from different angles

How does the placement of the topic sentence at the beginning or the end of the example paragraphs change the impression that each paragraph creates?

Having the topic sentence at the beginning alerts the reader to the information to come. Having the topic sentence at the end brings the previous details into a central focus.

Publishing and Presenting: Building Your Portfolio

Illustration of Your Description Illustrate your description with a drawing, sketch, photograph, or painting. Then, protect your work with a binder, and display it in the class library. Local Publication Look through local publications to see whether your profile of a resident or your description of the county fair might find a home. Call or write to the editor for information on how to submit your work.

Compare the sample sentences. How does the addition of the words "my best friend" change the sentence?

It highlights the writer's relationship with the subject and involves him or her more closely with the action.

Blue Print

Memories associated with places can be especially strong and vivid. Sketch a building or place that holds a special meaning for you. Label each area, and then jot down ideas that spring to mind when you remember that place. Choose your topic from among your notes. meant to evoke memories. You shouldn't worry about accuracy and precision.

Which sentence contains an essential appositive?

My cousin Trey is the coolest of all my cousins.

Circling and Replacing Words to Create a Tone

Read through your description, and circle words or passages that don't adequately convey your attitude. Use a dictionary, thesaurus, or your own memory to locate two or three synonyms or equivalent phrases. Then, make the choice that best projects the tone you intend.

Color-Coding Topic Sentences and Support

Read through your draft, and use a highlighter to call out topic sentences. Then, examine the placement of the topic sentences to be sure they are in the most logical, effective positions. Then, in another color, highlight the details that support the topic sentence. Delete or move to another paragraph any details that do not support the topic sentence.

How does this peer conference compare to ones with which you've been involved?

Regardless of the arrangement or number of people present, peer editing involves classmates working together to help one another.

Revising Your Paragraphs

Revise for Impact and Unity Read through your description, and locate topical paragraphs Check to be sure that your topic sentence is placed effectively within the paragraph. Also, check to be sure that each sentence in your paragraph supports its topic sentence. A topic sentence may appear anywhere in the paragraph: at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end. The topic sentence may create different effects on the reader, depending on its position within the paragraph.

Revising: Peer Review

Share Responses Show your revised work to a group of peers, asking them to read your description carefully with an open mind. Then, ask them the following questions: Did I use enough sensory language and descriptive details to describe my subject fully? Explain. Was my point of view consistent and appropriate? Explain. What dominant impression did the description leave?

Choose an Unusual Point of View

Sometimes, it's fun to describe something from a new perspective. What would the ocean look like to a high-flying gull or to a crab burrowing in the sand? Make a list of familiar people, places, and experiences—and then, imagine two or three new perspectives from which you might view each one. Choose the most interesting one as the topic for your description.

Topic Sentence as Closer

The advent of the radio, television, fax machine, business and personal computers, and the Internet all serve to share information and speed its transmission. Via television satellites, we watch wars unfold before our eyes, and vast stores of knowledge are a mouse click away on the Internet. In fact, the twentieth century will be known as the Information Age.

Topic Sentence as Opener

The twentieth century will be known as the Information Age. The advent of the radio, television, fax machine, business and personal computers, and the Internet all serve to share information and speed its transmission. Via television satellites, we watch wars unfold before our eyes, and vast stores of knowledge are a mouse click away on the Internet.

Prewriting: Considering Your Audience and Purpose

Think about who will read your description and your purpose for writing it. What do you want your audience to feel, think, or understand when they have finished reading your description? Choose words and details that will appeal to your audience and help you to achieve your purpose for writing.

Prewriting: Choosing Your Topic

Through the power of description, you can amaze, horrify, or gladden your listeners. The best topics for description are those that are especially vivid or those with which you have a personal connection. strategies will help you choose a topic choose an unusual point of view create a blueprint free-write

Prewriting: Gathering Details

Use All Five Senses Sometimes, we rely so much on our eyes that we forget about our other senses. Think of what you're describing. Then, shut your eyes. What do you hear, smell, taste, and feel? Sit inside the experience for a few minutes. Next, list the other four senses, and jot down at least two details relating to each.

Crafting Description: Third-Person Omniscient Point of View

a narrator who sees and knows everything. This point of view is usually used in fiction. The concert at the park was a record-breaking event. Stephanie Othaller and her children felt very lucky to have tickets. Her neighbor, however, was extremely envious, although she tried to hide her feelings

Drafting: Providing Elaboration

a way to provide such depth in your writing Use Depth-Charging— When you use depth-charging, you provide explanations and examples that develop or support your observations or ideas. This strategy also helps ensure that your writing will be unified—that the details given all flow together in a logical way. To use the depth-charging strategy: Write a sentence about your topic. Identify a word or idea within that sentence to further develop, and write a sentence that does so. Identify a word or idea within the second sentence that you would like to further develop, and write a sentence that does so. Repeat the process until the paragraph is complete.

What are the three strategies previously mentioned that will help you generate a topic?

choosing an unusual point of view, blueprinting, and free-writing

If you're describing a person

for example, your best friend—you might write from the first-person point of view: I was glad to be able to attend the concert, which was sure to be a record-breaking event. As I watched, thousands upon thousands of people streamed into the park, lugging hampers. . . . If you were to write the same passage from the third-person limited point of view, you would adhere to a single point of view, but avoid the use of the pronoun I. The concert at the park was a record-breaking event. Thousands upon thousands of concert-goers streamed into the park at six o'clock, lugging hampers and chairs. . . .

Topical Paragraph

paragraphs that are organized around a topic sentence

To which sense do the descriptions in the passage mainly appeal?

touch