Planning a Descriptive Paragraph

Steps 1~3 Limited Topic Of course this is still critical! The limited topic is the person, place or object that your paragraph describes. You must be as specific as possible: If your topic is “your favourite teacher”: My teacher My math teacher, Mr Davidson If your topic is “an imaginary person”: He is… My imaginary person is … The old wizard, Gandalf the Grey …

Steps 1~3 Audience Audience affects the choice of limited topic: The choice of audience still changes so much about your paragraph. Think about the differences between descriptions for children or adults, men or women, rich or poor, different cultures, etc. Audience affects the choice of limited topic: A detailed description of my cell phone is probably not appropriate for my two-year-old daughter, but it might be appropriate for the employees at the restaurant where I forgot it. On the other hand, a description of a fluffy bunny rabbit may be fascinating to young children but boring to teenagers If you choose children, don’t underestimate them! They are smarter than we think!

Steps 1~3 Audience The reason I haven’t let students choose “my friend”, “my mother”, etc. is simple. If I allowed it, most of you would never try to do anything different. It’s very often an easy and lazy choice. You are here to improve your choices, not just fill in the blanks as quickly and easily as you can. However, now, if the purpose matches well (if it makes sense logically and doesn’t seem lazy) I will allow “my friend”, “my mother”, etc.

Steps 1~3 Purpose This is where we start to see a big difference because descriptive paragraphs are usually part of a larger composition. Therefore, the purpose of the description is often to support the purpose of the larger composition. For example, Mr Satish Kumar is an important character in the story, so the purpose of the paragraph that describes him is: “To allow/help the reader to clearly imagine him (the topic), so that the reader can more clearly imagine the larger story” However, the paragraph about the suspect was not part of a larger composition, although it could have! There could have been more expository information about the crime, or a narrative about what happened. This wouldn’t change the purpose of the description, though, which is: “To allow/help the reader to clearly imagine him (the topic), so that the reader can identify and locate him for the police.”

Steps 1~3 “I want to describe ____ to friends …” A good start, but not enough. “I want to describe ____ to friends who don’t know about him/her.” This is no good! Why do you want them to imagine your topic? What can they gain from imagining your topic? How are you helping them? Why does it matter that they are able to imagine your topic?

Steps 4~6 Brainstorming: I put this page in the book to show how many details are possible when describing a person (and it doesn’t even have clothing on it!)

Step 4~6 I talked at length about our classroom for the same reasons (This page is in the new version of Chapter 5 which is online for you to download if you want it).

Steps 4~6 Remember, the most important part of the planning process is the outline. The other steps exist to help us get to the outline! Brainstorming = Barely controlled Chaos; A reader would not understand what these details mean or why/how they are connected Outline = The ordered, logical, sensible details that another human being can understand (or imagine). Grouping = less chaotic, more controlled possibilities for what might become a paragraph

Steps 4~6 The controlling idea is critical to creating an interesting paragraph! “I have known my friend, Bob, for 20 years.” “My sister’s name is Cheryl.” “…has a strong impression.” “____’s impression is good.” No controlling idea at all. ‘Strong’ and ‘good’ are much too general. These don’t really help the reader much!

Steps 4 ~ 6 You might have a very clear controlling idea right from steps 1~3. You should still consider more than one group, though. If you don’t have a controlling idea in mind, then the grouping stage will help you find one!

Topic Sentences and Controlling ideas http://grammar.about.com/od/developingparagraphs/a/samdescpars.htm “On one corner of my dresser sits a smiling toy clown on a tiny unicycle--a gift I received last Christmas from a close friend.” What is the controlling idea? or

Topic Sentences and Controlling ideas http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Descriptive-Paragraph “Natasha's basement was our sanctuary.” or

Paragraph Structure: Topic sentence SD1 explanation justification SD2 SD3 Conclusion sentence It doesn’t really make much sense to try to describe a person, place, or object using this structure.   Do descriptive details need explanations? Sometimes, but not always. Do we need to justify our details or explanations? Very, very rarely.

Paragraph Structure: Instead, try something like this:

Paragraph Structure: TS: English teacher – looked strange SD1 – pale face SD2 – sweaty forehead tropical fever SD3 – short stubbly hair wire brush SD4 – dull brown eyes SD5 – wrinkles SD6 – bushy black eyebrows SD7 – hooked nose SD8 – huge glasses SD9 – thin lips frowning SD10 – deep monotone voice Conclusion sentence An outline for the paragraph about my strange-looking teacher might look something like this.

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