3703 DescriptiveAssignments.

General guidelines.

Submissions are to be between 250 and 350 words for the descriptive assignments. You may submit up to 500 words for assignment two, the close reading. Please do not go over the word limits. Write and rewrite; make every word count. Avoid passive verbs and lazy forms of the verb “to be”: “there is,” there was,” or “there were,” and similarly, “it is,” “it was.” Think about the experience of reading great description and imagine an audience.

Assignment One: Due Sept 27

Describe an observed scene or an object. Consider this an exercise in observation as good description depends on one’s powers of observation as much as it does on one’s ability to describe. At the same time, you must convey the significance of the object or the event that you describe. Why bother to describe it? This piece is not about you. For now, I want you to mimic the best descriptions we have read so far.

Here are some good examples:

Assignment Two: Due October 18  (500 words)

Choose a short passage from any text we have read so far this year. (Please reproduce it in the body or as an appendix of your submission.) Describe how the description works using any insight you have gained from writing your own descriptions and any literary devices that you can identify.

Assignment Three: Due November 8

Do assignment one again, on a different subject. I am looking for edvidence of close observation.

Things to avoid: narrative--think still-life; overwriting--use adjectives and emotion judiciously.