Essay #2: Descriptive Essay

Due: October 15, 2009
Length: 5 paragraphs

For the second essay assignment, I want you to focus your efforts on description. You will still have five paragraphs, a thesis, intro, body, and conclusion, but I will be looking for vivid descriptions in the writing. Choose one of the following options:

1. Write an essay about a particular time you faced an obstacle (in school or elsewhere). In your intro, give us some background about yourself or other relevant elements, but do not begin the story until the second paragraph. Your thesis, at the end of the first paragraph, should describe how you overcame the obstacle. Your conclusion should explain what you learned from your experience. In the middle paragraphs, you are describing the obstacle and how you overcame it.

2. Choose a place to describe. This can be your favorite place, your least favorite place, a place you go often, a place where you spend a lot of your time, a place that you have only seen once, a place that you never want to return to again, a place that holds happy or sad memories for you, or a place that you dream about. It can be your bedroom, your house, your classroom, a street corner, a beach, a library, a grocery store, a park, a museum, a city, or any other place you can think of. Again, your intro should give us some background on the place, and your thesis should describe what is distinctive about it or why you chose it (e.g. "The Bellagio is my favorite place because of the Italian marble, the people, and the fountains.")

3. Chose a person to describe. (see above)

Sources:
1. Portfolios, Fifth Ed., by John Langan.
2. click