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GEAR UP FOR LIFE |
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Description Compositions Description is one way of organizing writing. The purpose of description is to show something like you felt it. You need to remember two things in order to write a good description. First, decide on the feeling you want to create. Will this description be sad? Happy? Frightening? All the details in your writing will help create this feeling Look at the following short descriptions. You are told what the effect is. Which details do not fit in with this feeling? Description One Effect: Peaceful It was a beautiful night. The moonlight made the trees and rocks across the canyon look like calm giants. The light breeze turned the rustling of the leaves into a quiet song. The night was as quiet and peaceful as an empty church. A wolf howled across the canyon raising the hairs on my arms in fear. I walked slowly back home enjoying this sense of peace. Description Two Effect: Frightening The wind howled crazily. The moonlight made the trees and rocks across the canyon sway over her threateningly. Everywhere she turned shadows waved angrily, branches cracked noisily, small trees crashed around her. Everything felt uprooted. Then the quiet song of the dove came gently through the night. She hurried home fighting the whipping branches. The wind tried to blow her down into the angry river at the bottom of the canyon.
Second, to write a good description, put the details in order. The two descriptions above don’t look like there is an order in them. But the description moves from far away across the canyon to the person going home. Sometimes, order is more obvious. Look at the following paragraphs. There are a few choices after each one. Pick the word that best describes the order of the details for each paragraph. Description Three Jack gave the impression of complete roundness. His bald head looked exactly like a pink bowling ball. His two little round eyes and his fat, round mouth even looked like the bowling ball’s finger grips. His upper body disappeared behind a huge belly. Even his feet which were very small seemed like two tiny marbles moving a giant ball along. The order of the descriptions in the paragraph is a. side to side b. zig-zag c. top to bottom
Description Four What a strange room this was! Nothing seemed to fit correctly into it. To the left, a large window was set strangely. It didn’t look like a square or a diamond. Moving right, a tiny door was lost in the high wall. Next to it, instead of a corner, there was a round space, wider at the bottom than at the top. The wall in front of him was filled by a huge rock fireplace. The wall to the right leaned in towards the hotel room’s door. He didn’t know if he wanted to come in! The order of the descriptions is a. top to bottom b. side to side c. zig-zag
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