Describing an Important Person or Place

ENGL 1111Paper 1Descriptive EssayOverview: For this assignment you’ll write an essay describing an important person, animal, or place in your life. You will use description from all of the 5 senses to make the reader feel as though he or she is having the experience with you.In addition to sharing the experience with you, the reader should be able to understand through your description, the mood/emotional tone/dominant impression of your essay.The final draft of this essay must minimum of 4 full pages in 12 point font, double-spaced (about 1250 words).Purpose: This essay should use descriptive details to create emotion and show the reader why this object, person, moment, or place is meaningful and important to you and also to make a point about a larger issue. In other words, this is a persuasive essay that you use the descriptive details to lead your reader to understand the point you are making.To better understand how this type of writing can make a point about a larger issue, I encourage you to re-read all three descriptive essay we’ve read in class. Notice how Alice Walker’s observations and interactions with Blue which lead her to think about the ways that dominant cultures take power away from other people and animals, and eventually, lead her to think her steak tasted like “misery” (72). Also consider the way Kimberly Wozencraft’s description of the “country club” prison leads her to think about how the prison environment causes the “unnecessary trashing of lives” and “splitting of families” (69). As well as the way Judith Oritz Coffer’s description of her grandparent’s house also illustrates how and why her grandmother chose to creatively deal with the limit control she had over her body.Audience: imagine a very intelligent friend or family member. Someone who would be interested in reading and thinking about the ideas in “Am I Blue,” “Notes from the Country Club,” and “More Room.”GradingThis assignment is graded as a portfolio, meaning all your drafts, as well as the brainstorming, revision, and editing activities assigned for this paper are included in the overall grade. All parts of your portfolio need to be submitted in the Paper 1 folder (Assessments>Assignments) on the due dates posted on our weekly checklists in the announcements. The drafts and activities count for 30 points of your final grade on this assignment. 30 points is equal to 1.5 letter grades.