often times offer nuanced meanings H u m a n i t i e s

Descriptive Essay – Comfort Food

DUE Wednesday, October 28, 2020

A descriptive essay is a formal essay that asks you to describe something—object, person, place, experience, emotion, situation, etc. This genre encourages your ability to create a written account of a particular experience.

Here is an example of descriptive language Descriptive Essay Example.pdf

Take time to brainstorm How would you describe your favorite food? Make sure that you jot down some ideas before you begin describing it. For instance, if you choose pizza, you might start by writing down a few words: sauce, cheese, crust, pepperoni, sausage, spices, hot, melted, etc. Once you have written down some words, you can begin by compiling descriptive lists for each one. Use at least three types of imagery.

Use clear and concise language. This means that words are chosen carefully, particularly for their relevancy in relation to that which you are intending to describe.

Choose vivid language. Why use horse when you can choose stallion? Why not use tempestuous instead of violent? Or why not miserly in place of cheap? Such choices form a firmer image in the mind of the reader and often times offer nuanced meanings that serve better one’s purpose.

Use your senses! Remember, if you are describing something, you need to be appealing to the senses of the reader. Explain how the thing smelled, felt, sounded, tasted, or looked. Embellish the moment with senses.

What were you thinking?! If you can describe emotions or feelings related to your topic, you will connect with the reader on a deeper level. Many have felt crushing loss in their lives, or ecstatic joy, or mild complacency. Tap into this emotional reservoir in order to achieve your full descriptive potential.

Leave the reader with a clear impression. One of your goals is to evoke a strong sense of familiarity and appreciation in the reader. If your reader can walk away from the essay craving the very pizza you just described, you are on your way to writing effective descriptive essays.

Be organized! It is easy to fall into an incoherent rambling of emotions and senses when writing a descriptive essay. However, you must strive to present an organized and logical description if the reader is to come away from the essay with a cogent sense of what it is you are attempting to describe.

Assignment

This time, write a 400-500-word formal essay that is primarily descriptive in nature (5 paragraph essay) explaining your comfort food. What makes this particular dish special to you? How does it make you feel? What does it taste like? When you think of this dish, where are you, who are you with and what are you feeling?

This is an academic essay, so you must include an introductory paragraph stating what your comfort food is, there must be coherent and unified body paragraphs describing the dish and a concluding paragraph that sums everything up and says something about the significance of what you have shown in your essay.

Your essay will be graded based on the following criteria:

• Does it include the thesis or topic statement in the introductory paragraph that captures the reader’s attention?
• Does it stay focused on developing that thesis or topic in the body paragraphs?
• How well does it explain the issues for the reader, with clear ideas and details that make the topic easy to understand?
• Are its sentences well-constructed and varied in structure?
• Does each paragraph focus on one main idea?
• Are your paragraphs ordered in a logical way and with clear transitions between them?
• Is it free of grammatical, spelling, capitalization, or punctuation errors?