The Essay, Descriptively

After our new three vocab words, we focused on how to further our descriptive paragraphs on family members. Using similes, metaphors, precise examples, and imagery, your ideal goal is to construct a writing that reflects each family member's persona. If you introduce that someone is funny, show us an example of his or her phrasing or behavior; if you introduce someone as tough, show us an example of his or her tenacity. If you want us to get to know a person, compare him or her to something we know: a tea kettle, for instance.

All of these paragraphs equate to the body section of an essay. Each body paragraph should commence with a topic sentence, the main point that will be exemplified in the paragraph. After you have crafted all the descriptive, quality details, you will wrap up the paragraph with a concluding sentence, the final thought regarding this person and what you want your reader to remember.

Moving forward, we discussed MLA format with heading (writer, professor, class, date due), page number insertion, title placement, and overall font (12 Times New Roman).

Wrapping up class, we looked at introductory paragraphs, which include a hook and a thesis statement. As noted in class, a hook can be an analogy, an anecdote, an example, or any other multi-sentence, attention-getting opening that will engage the reader. At this level, a question or a quote may limit your introduction and eventual essay, so I recommend focusing on how you can use your words to hook the audience. The thesis statement features the overall main idea of the essay. You may do this one of two ways: a thesis map, in which you list your upcoming topics 1, 2, 3; or an overall thesis that clarifies an overall idea about your topic (the family).

For tomorrow, you will need to have an introduction and your three paragraphs revised -- typed in Google (no printing needed; we will use laptops in class). We will work with reviewing these steps and then use the remainder of the time to prep for our upcoming Grammar Boot Camp.