1. Writing Workshop Writing a Descriptive Essay Assignment Prewriting Choose a Character Consider Audience and Purpose Gather, Evaluate, and Organize Support Write Your Thesis Statement Practice and Apply Feature Menu

2. Assignment: Write an essay in which you describe a character from literature. Your character can come from a novel, epic poem or play. Build on the description of your character in the poem by visualizing him or her in action, as if in a movie. Then, add layers of your own description— speech, thoughts, feelings, and actions — until the character comes to life as a real person. Writing a Descriptive Essay [End of Section]

3. Choose a character from a narrative poem or an epic poem that creates a distinctive impression on you.narrative poem epic poem A major character appears throughout poem. A minor character appears briefly at important point in poem. Writing a Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Choose a Character BeowulfGilgameshHector Hector’s wife in the Iliad Grendel’s mother

4. Beowulf’s fate is sealed at his final encounter with the dragon. Focus on one scene or action that is important to the character. Writing a Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Choose a Character Grendel’s mother fights savagely with Beowulf but is finally slain. [End of Section]

5. Your audience: Writing a Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Consider Audience and Purpose Think about: what your audience already knows about your character what you want them to learn from your essay teachers classmates [End of Section] which character would be most interesting to you and your audience

6. Writing a Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Consider Audience and Purpose Your purpose: To expand exact words and phrases from a narrative poem into a descriptive essay Think about: what makes this character especially interesting or deserving of a detailed description any insights you gain from your detailed description of this character [End of Section]

7. Writing a Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Gather, Evaluate, and Organize Support Write down exact words and phrases from the poem that describe how your character looks, speaks, thinks, acts, and feels. “Then he drew himself up beside his shield. / The fabled warrior in his warshirt and helmet” (297–298) Beowulf These specific details from the poem will be the basis for your essay—its skeleton.

8. “Then he drew himself up beside his shield. / The fabled warrior in his warshirt and helmet” (297-298) Place exact words or phrases quoted from the poem within quotation marks. Place line numbers from the poem in parentheses. Show line breaks with slashes. Writing a Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Gather, Evaluate, and Organize Support

9. Use narrative details and descriptive details to expand on:narrative detailsdescriptive details the sequence of events depicted in the scene— its plot the character’s thoughts, actions, and appearance in the scene Writing a Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Gather, Evaluate, and Organize Support Add to the words and phrases you have taken from the poem.

10. Writing a Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Gather, Evaluate, and Organize Support “Then he drew himself up beside his shield. / The fabled warrior in his warshirt and helmet” (297-298) Narrative Details Beowulf felt old and tired, and he dreaded this confrontation with the dragon. (feelings) He recalled the battle with Grendel and the strength he had felt then. (thoughts) Beowulf grasped his shield and stepped forward to face the dragon. (actions)

11. Writing a Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Gather, Evaluate, and Organize Support “Then he drew himself up beside his shield. / The fabled warrior in his warshirt and helmet” (297-298) Descriptive Details Beowulf threw back his shoulders and lifted his head. (physical appearance) His warshirt weighed heavily on his shoulders and chest. (sensory detail)

12. Writing a Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Gather, Evaluate, and Organize Support Present your prose description in an order that is logical and makes sense to you. Three common ways of organizing information are Chronological Order Order of Importance Spatial Order [End of Section]

13. Writing a Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Gather, Evaluate, and Organize Support Chronological Order organizes an essay by time order, using words such as first, next, then, and finally.

14. Writing a Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Gather, Evaluate, and Organize Support Order of importance arranges ideas from least important to most important or from most important to least important.

15. Writing a Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Gather, Evaluate, and Organize Support Spatial order presents descriptive information according to direction—left, right, up, down, behind, and so on.

16. Writing a Descriptive Essay Prewriting: Write Your Thesis Statement The thesis statement sums up what you think about your character and guides the rest of your essay. As Beowulf faces the dragon for the last time, his appearance, actions, thoughts, and feelings show how this noble warrior faces what he believes is certain death. [End of Section]

17. Use the preceding instructions to select the novel, epic, or drama and a character to describe establish your purpose and tone gather and organize narrative and descriptive details Writing a Descriptive Essay [End of Section]

18. The End