Descriptive Paragraph Writing for Bac Students

MADRASATI

FOR BACALAUREATE STUDENTS

By

Mubarak Abdessalami

Academic Year  2011 - 2012

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Abstract “He who thinks writing is easy, has just to fix its mechanics”

For For the the majo majori rity ty of st stud uden ents ts,, writi riting ng is a horrific nightmare. This is due to the fact that it is actually a hard task. Besides this, the students don’t practise it so often and this, also, is the result of not knowing how to start doing it. When it comes to writing assignments, almost all the students are reluctant. They are terrified to take risks because they only lack self-confidence. self-confidence. This will no longer be the case if they decided to be audacious enough to engage into training themselves to write on practical and purposeful bases. Descri Descripti ptive ve paragr paragraph aphs, s, on the other other hand, hand, are quite tougher for average students to write because they are based essentially on personal obse observ rvat atio ion. n. Ac Acco cord rdin ingl gly y they hey nece necess ssit itat ate e a bunch of colourful vocabulary so as to draw the image perfectly well for the reader to “see” what or who you are describing. Moreover description requ requir ires es a lo lott of arti artist stry ry and and deta detail ils, s, most mostly ly sensory, to help the reader create a vivid mental picture. For this reason, students need to own a relat relative ively ly large large repe reperto rtoire ire of qualit quality y adject adjective ives s and a certain level of originality. In addition to that, the students must also master the description techniques. They have to picture their subject in such a bright way that no confusion is probable. Every detail is important to depict with care so that for the paragraph to be clear, impressive and almost alive. You may prob probabl ably y know know that that desc descrip riptio tion n is what what makes makes most novels and stories motivating, understandable and enjoyable.

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Introduction

In this this paper, paper, I’ll simply simply try to lead lead you to the most appropri appropriate ate econo eco nomic mical al way to write write a co conci ncise se paragraph descr describi ibing ng a person person through indicating the steps to follow so as to manage the paragraph the easiest and the most effective way.

Describing a person

To describe a person needs an attitude otherwise the result is not inspiring at all. The person you intend to describe must have something particular that makes him, or her, your focus and makes your paragraph worth reading. To describe a person is to imagine him or her first. This person has to be a little little partic particula ularr or should should own someth something ing partic particula ularr notice noticeabl able e enou enough gh to ampl amplif ify. y. This This will will allo allow w yo you u to buil build d yo your ur para paragr grap aph h on a motivating basis for both the reader and you in the first place. In other words, words, the person person described described should should be a famous one or a very particular particular man with special characteristics. He or she may also be so funny that your paragr paragraph aph depicts depicts them them as a carica caricatur ture. e. You can also also descri describe be a very very common man, but this won’t be impressive, I’m afraid unless you have something original to illustrate about him or her. You normally need to stimulate or excite the readers by giving them enough solid reasons to urge them to go on reading your paragraph.

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Action! First, decide about the person you want to describe and put his or her name or nickname within a circle and start building a spider gram. Visualize him or her and start jotting down any idea or word that crosses your mind so as not to interrupt interrupt your brain storming. storming. Let your mind give all that it has without censure. Later on you can discard most of what your mind mind propos proposes, es, but first first don’t don’t break break off the proces process s flow. flow. Marsha Marshalli lling ng comes on a second position after having exhausted your vocabulary and ideas connected to the person you intend to describe. At sc scho hool ol yo you u migh mightt be as aske ked d to desc descri ribe be yo your ur best best frie friend nd for for instance. Certainly you have one. So think of one with a particular quality and put his or her name in the circle and start writing down any word that comes through your mind about him or her in the way it comes: (profile, appearance, hair, eyes, clothes, qualities etc). Don’t just start thinking if a word or an idea is appropriate for your subject or not. Leave this action for a next stage of your writing process. Am I clear enough? The most important questions which need answers in a descriptive paragraph are generally in the following order ☺

Who and why exactly him or her? (genius, funny,

freak etc) What does he/she look like? (Physical form) What clothes does he/she wear? (formal, casual, shabby, etc) and Why? ☺ What What is he/she he/she like? like? (chara (characte cter, r, person personali ality ty or qualities) What impression do you have about him/her? ☺ ☺ ☺

You may want to mention his or her job, hobbies and so on but only if you are sure they serve your purpose excitingly well. Your judgement whether what you write might interest your readers or not, can have an impact on your yo ur co comp mpos osit itio ion. n. So yo you u have have to be ca caut utio ious us.. Ho Howe weve ver, r, the the most most impo import rtan antt thin thing g is to find find a stro strong ng reas reason on why why yo you u have have chos chosen en this this person in particular. For example, if you are asked to describe your best friend or the most amiable member of your family, you have to think about what make them “best” and “amiable”. This would help a lot in creating a stimulus for you to write well and for the readers to enjoy reading your product.

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1. Brain storming Before all, don’t just forget that description is based essentially on senses senses.. What What you see and and feel feel shoul should d be transl translate ated d into into words. words. This This should go from total to part but first things first. Now let’s go brain storming.

This is just a quickly formulated sample of how your final spider gram might look like. ( For more vocabular vocabulary, y, see below) Once you have gone through this stage successfully, you move to the next step. You start gather gathering ing your your ideas ideas into into groups groups of common common features features just just like like in the example below.

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In this stage, only relevant ideas and words are to be kept. It is not necessary to use all the ideas on the spider-gram. Likewise, it is not obligatory to stick to the spider-gram. You must be at the same time sele se lect ctiv ive e and and reso resour urce cefu ful. l. You You shou should ld ca cast st away away the the unre unrela late ted, d, the the irrelevant or the weak ideas so as to ovoid repetition or redundancy. You still can do more omitting, replacing or rectifying in your editing stage but for the time being, be careful about your material and the diversity and richness of your vocabulary. This method has an additional benefit that is it makes your list a basis on which you can generate more words and build a backup list. This is for advanced levels but as for now; let’s keep up with our simple approach. The following example will give you an idea about how you get rid of  unwanted or irrelevant material.

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2. Mapping Gather your selected material into specific clusters each connected to a part or section of the paragraph. This stage is crucial because it helps you yo u ov over erco come me all all the the pote potent ntia iall trou troubl bles es yo you u may may enco encoun unte terr as time time presses on you. Don’t worry too much; you are not supposed to write a miraculous paragraph. The most important thing is to know exactly what you want to do and to do it. In other words, try to avoid wordiness and randomness in your choice of words and expressions. Keep simple but precise. Orga Organi niza zati tion on is half half the the work work.. Not Not on only ly must must yo you u ca care re abou aboutt vocabulary and descriptive adornments, but you must care more about the design of your work. In order not to drop important details, you must plan your paragraph on a separate sheet of paper. The outcome is almost as follows.

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This organization helps a lot to clearly visualize what you’re planning to do. However, if you want to save time and effort, you can just organize your ideas this way.

Total Physical appearance appearance

☺

young tall slim frail ☺

 

☺

Specific physical appearance  face : oval hair : long, straight, dark eyes : small, blue + glasses Clothes casual handsome elegant

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☺

Personality helpful easy-going sociable extrovert optimistic smart

3. WRITING Now that you have gathered the necessary material you can start writing your paragraph based on the following plan. Remember that the whole work is based on your opening sentence (topic sentence). It must be appealing the maximum. The secret force of the paragraph lies in the reason “why?” you choose the person you are describing!!!

*/ Topic Sentence 

Who and why? why?

*/ Supporting details   

What does he/she look like? (Physical form) What clothes does he/she wear? Why? What is he/she like? (qualities)

*/ Concluding Sentence 

What impression do you have about him/her?

3. a. First Draft My best friend Dave is the most brilliant student in our school. He is a student. He is young. He is tall. He is slim. He is very frail. He has an oval skinny face. He has long straight black hair. He has small blue eyes. He  puts on glasses. He wears casual clothes. He is handsome and elegant. My  friend Dave is optimistic. He is an east-going and extroverted person but he is the smartest of us all.

3. b. Second Draft My best friend Dave is the most brilliant student in our school. He is a tall young boy. He looks slim and too frail for his age. He has an oval face with long straight black hair and small blue eyes. He puts on glasses. He always looks elegant and comfortable in his casual clothes, jeans and Tshirts. He doesn’t care much about fashion. My friend Dave is an east-going and an extroverted person still he is the smartest of us all. Descriptive Paragraph Writing - Abdessalami

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3. c. Editing This is the final stage. Before you hand in your paper, you must review your paragraph for mistakes, word-order, linking words, tense, and punctuation. Make sure that the answer is always “YES” to the entire set of the following questions. -

Are all the sentences related to the person you are describing? Are your sentences in the correct order? Are all your adjectives relevant to the topic? Does the concluding sentence echo the topic sentence? Are your spelling and grammatical mistakes corrected? Can the reader create a mental picture out of your description?

Despite all, if you cannot reach this level successfully, don’t desperate, desperate, all that you have have to do is try again and over again. Remember! Remember! Practice makes perfect. Good Luck.

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Conclusion As you see, the paragraph goes from scattered stitches and discrete detail details s to a whole whole body body which which makes makes sense. sense. Furthe Furthermo rmore re it develo develops ps tremendously as we go on with the steps of the process. Ideas generate one another. If you go on rectifying, recycling, editing and reformulating, you’ll perhaps write a paragraph with a new look though the planned work was different at the beginning. It is crucial to plan the work because it is the ou outli tline ne which which boost boosts s and improv improves es your your perfor performan mance. ce. Now if yo you u check the first step, you’ll see how far we go and how many changes have been made. I hope this paper will give you more confidence to conquer your reluctance and fear from this horrible nightmare named writing and start training. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. You can’t be perfect from the first shot. It is through practicing regularly that you can amaze yourself by how much potential you own. Stop hesitating and make the first step, but you have to be patient. At the end you’ll discover that writing a paragraph as such is only but a cakewalk… I hope!

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Adjectives for description

Physical Appearance tall

short pretty

medium

elegant

stocky

weak

well-built

slim

pale-looking

smart

handsome

frail

bold

thin

beautiful

skinny

attractive

good-looking

strong

fa t

obese

ugly

plumb

Specific physical appearance Face

Hair

Eyes

Nose

Cheeks

Clothes

oval

bald

big

flat

glowing

formal

round

wavy

emerald-green

curved

hollow

casual

wrinkled

curly

narrow

reddened

pallid

tidy

pale-looking

straight

blue

square

blushing

messy

sun-tanned

black

tiny

noble

sunken

shabby

fair-skinned

spiky

round

sharp

sunburnt

elegant

baby

thorny

brown

velvet

livid

fashionable

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Character or Personal Qualities These are not necessarily opposites Positive Qualities nice helpful modest ambitious audacious hospitable optimistic serious honest friendly imaginative sociable brave easy-going careful patient cheerful hardworking extroverted reliable polite intelligent practical quiet clever sensitive active balanced peaceful determined carefree punctual thoughtful open-minded benevolent generous exact well-organised resolute even-tempered

Negative Qualities nasty unhelpful arrogant boastful narrow-minded nervous annoying idiotic boring immature childish impolite careless pessimistic foolish impatient introverted lazy cruel shy snobbish hypocritical tense irritable anxious moody impulsive cold-blooded reserved dominant adventurous hot-blooded thoughtless sceptical talkative mean reckless stubborn obstinate greedy

These lists are not exhaustive

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