Unit 2.

Descriptive Essays

Review

• • What is a descriptive essay?

– Use words to describe details about how a subject looks, sounds, smells, tastes, or feels.

– Make the reader feel as if he/she is present in the scene.

What to write about? – Sensory perceptions (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste) – Feeling

Rhetoric Focus

• • Prewriting: Brainstorming / Outlining Writing: Describe something/someone • Introduction : to tell why the object or event of description is meaningful to the writer and worth writing about. Thesis Statement • Body paragraphs : to describe (most details are in the body paragraphs.) • Conclusion : to give the writer’s final opinion about the description.

Add details to sentences

• • Details tell what sth looks like, or how it sounds, feels, tastes, or smells.

Sensory perceptions The more specific the details are, the more effective and interesting the writing will be.

• (p.39) General sentence  specific details Sentence with

Language Focus

• In body paragraphs, use words to build images for the readers. – Nouns – Adjectives – Adverbs – Verbs : series of actions, story – Prepositional phrases : location, place

Writing Model

• (p.37) Food from the sea • • • • • • • Thesis statement? / Final opinion?

What does the place look like?

What did he see ?

What did he smell ?

What did he hear ?

What did he taste ?

How did he feel ? Sensory details

Verb

• • • • (p.37) Mark verbs used to describe crab’s actions .

– Crawled, walk, Mark verbs used to describe the author’s actions of eating crabs .

– Cracked Mark verbs used to describe the tide . – Come in, push and pull

Prepositional phrases

• • • • • Prepositional phrase = a preposition + a noun / noun phrase / pronoun

The boat slowly sank with the water level until it rested on the bay floor

.

(p.38) PPs show the position , location , or direction objects in space and time.

of PPs can also show manner or attitude .

Exercise

• • • (p.37) Underline the prepositional phrases.

What does each prepositional phrase show? – Location and position – Direction – Time – Manner or attitude

Adjective & Adverb

• • • • • (p.43) Adjectives are words that describe nouns— people, places, and things.

Adj. usually come after an article and before a Noun.

Adj. can occur after some stative verbs .

Adv., on the contrary, come after dynamic V .

• • •

Stative verb

– Refer to a state or condition which is quite static or unchanging. • verbs of perception or cognition (which refer to things in the mind) e.g.

have

,

believe

• verbs of relation (which describe the relationships between things) e.g.

contain

,

own

– CANNOT use these verbs in the continuous forms.

Dynamic verb

– Describe activities or events which can begin and finish. e.g.

play

,

go

,

melt

– CAN be used in the simple and perfect forms as well as the continuous or progressive forms Some verbs have both functions:

look

,

become

• • • (p.44) Formation of Adj.

– Verb + -ing – Past participle – Noun modifier Describe feelings – Adj-ed describe how people feel about sth.

– Adj-ing describe the noun that cause the emotion or feeling.

• Order of Adj. (p.45) Opinion Adj.

Fact Adj.

Exercise

• • (p.45) Rewrite the sentences placing the adjectives in the correct order.

• • (p.46) Editing a paragraph.

Writing Model

• Student sample 1 & 2 • • Circle the words used to describe images.

– Adj. Adv. Verb. Prepositional phrase.

Which senses are described? – Sight. Sound. Smell. Touch. Taste. Feel…etc.

Descriptive topics

• • • Object (e.g. food) Place (e.g. farm) Person

• • • Appearance (sight, smell, sound) Characteristics (feel) When describing people, we use the dominant impression, the main effect a person has on our feelings or senses. –

shy

,

beautiful

,

ambitious

,

generous

, …etc.