English 101. Essay#2.

Your second Essay is a researched Descriptive Essay.

You will need to research a fascinating event or occurrence. You will need to write about it with enough detail that after reading your essay I will feel like I was there for the event. It will be like a new memory for me.

Remember all of the kinds of description you have at your disposal, how things are received by the 5 senses (how they look, sound, etc.) your personal reactions, events that take place, what things are like or similar to (“the bird was strutting and pecking at the smaller ones like a police officer nudging protesters with a baton”).

Your essay will be graded according to the depth of your descriptions, and this depth comes from CONCRETE and SPECIFIC DETAILS, as well as for being at least 3 pages and using correct format.

Again, you won’t have to tell a reader what they should get from it, just give us an account of what you researched. The more interesting event you choose to describe the easier it will be to write well, and it will also be easier for me to read.

Prompt 1: Always Begin with Interest. Always.

Interest

Prompt 2: From Interest, follow one of these paths:

a) “Something Went Wrong” b) “Something Bizarre” c) “Something Amazing”

Prompt 3: Something that went wrong that was bizarre and amazing.

Obviously the easiest way to write about something like this is to write about something interesting; just going outside and writing about a random, bland tree will not inspire the interest to either write or read that paper.

Remember that you can use first-hand accounts if they are a part of a greater story about something you’ve researched.

Let me give you an example:

Let’s say that I’m writing about Social Alienation or Bizarre Mating Rituals in the 21st century, and I use the following true account.

“I’m out to dinner with my wife at a seafood restaurant in Bellevue. The restaurant sits on a dock over the water, there are dark wood panels and supports everywhere, as well as large paned windows. There is soft music playing and very little conversation around us, except for one particularly loud diner.

“She looks to be around 45, has blonde hair styled big and wavy, and a brand new green dress with a clip from the price tag still attached to a zipper by her neck. She is reading questions from an app on her phone to a man in a grey sweater sitting across from her, and the man looks miserable. He keeps looking around and shrugging, muttering “I don’t know” over and over again.

“The man’s hands are very busy, he folds his fingers and scratches the backs of his hands and rubs his nose and throws them up in the air, and then repeats, cycling through these same motions with amazing frequency. The woman does not move, she is frozen in place with her legs crossed and leaning at an angle against the table with one arm as she holds the cellphone up proudly with the other, and she has a maniacal grin permanently fixed to her face.

“She only moves when she asks another question, without breaking her grin, and from the question I see she is using an app for first dates that provides questions to ask a partner to invite discussion, and the questions she is asking are not motivating the man across from her. He shakes his head and sighs and then looks at me pleadingly for help, and while I want to stay and watch this social accident in slow motion, my wife can’t take the awkwardness and asks a waitress to seat us on the other side of the restaurant.”

This incredible experience in social awkwardness is burned into my memory, and I can remember and relate so many of the details that when I tell you about it, if I do a good job, you will be able to picture it in your mind, and it can almost become a memory of yours. If it was a part of a larger story, I could use these descriptions.

INCLUDE AT LEAST 3 CITATIONS.

Bring 3 copies of your Rough Draft to the Peer Review.

Grading Rubric

Strong Narrative or well researched topic: 10 Points

Excellent Descriptions:10 Points

Format and Requirements: 10 Points

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