For Monday:
- submit 2 rough drafts of descriptive paragraphs
- Par. 1 - describe a busy place, for example an airport, circus, sporting event, etc. or something of your choice.
- Par. 2 - us an image to inspire a paragraph.
- If you got peer feedback, submit the peer feedback form.
- 1 Good Copy of an edited, powerful, shocking, and risky descriptive essay!
Descriptive
Paragraph
You
are going to write and submit a powerful and vivid descriptive
paragraph. Push yourself to be surprising; take risks. Use the
elements of your poetry writing in prose and paragraph structure.
Think about this as part of a short story: the story will not be the
focus, but a strong descriptive paragraph will evoke feelings,
themes, character, events etc. without telling them outright.
Remember, show; don't tell.
For
example, imagine writing about a kitchen owned by a 94 year old lady
who just lost her husband of 70 years, whom she had actually come to
hate, but you describe only the kitchen without mentioning death or
the husband. How would you show
this?
This
must be typed and printed and at least 200-250 words (keep going if
you feel it needs to!)
Your
peer feedback will also be handed in with each author's paragraph and
included in your mark, so be sure to provide useful and relevant
feedback for your peer.
|
Criteria |
Out of |
|
Style: - Makes new
and surprising connections in order to describe (no cliches) - Shows, not tells |
10 |
|
Content: - Vivid
imagery of the senses (sights, smells, sounds, tastes,
feelings/textures) - Is clear and understandable - Depth: provides hints of a story behind the description |
10 |
|
Structure: - Uses
correct paragraph structure, sentence structure, grammar, and
spelling
-
Is edited for mistakes
|
5 |
|
Peer Feedback: -
provides your peer with useful and relevant feedback |
5 |
|
|
|
DUE
Monday, May 5th
Descriptive
Writing Sample
Excerpt from John
Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, 1937
A few
miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the
hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it
has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before
reaching the narrow pool. On one side of the river the golden
foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan Mountains,
but on the valley side the water is lined with trees- willows fresh
and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures
the debris of the winter's flooding; and sycamores with mottled,
white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool. On the
sandy bank under the trees the leaves lie deep and so crisp that a
lizard makes a great skittering if he runs among them. Rabbits come
out of the brush to sit on the sand in the evening, and the damp
flats are covered with the night tracks of 'coons, and with the
spread pads of dogs from the ranches, and with the split-wedge tracks
of deer that come to drink in the dark.
There
is a path through the willows and among the sycamores, a path beaten
hard by boys coming down from the ranches to swim in the deep pool,
and beaten hard by tramps who come wearily down from the highway in
the evening to jungle-up near water. In front of the low horizontal
limb of a giant sycamore there is an ash pile made by many fires; the
limb is worn smooth by men who have sat on it.
Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the
leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand
banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray sculptured stones.
And
then
from the direction of the state highway came the sound of footsteps
on crisp sycamore leaves. The rabbits hurried noiselessly for cover.
A stilted heron labored up into the air and pounded down river. For a
moment the place was lifeless, and then two men emerged from the path
and came into the opening by the green pool.
