Assignment: Descriptive paragraph
Write a descriptive paragraph using one of the below topics or a topic of your own.
Document must follow MLA formatting guidelines.
Suggested topics:
A famous person
A favorite place
An unusual person
A friend or family member
A work of art
Your room
Your favorite article of clothing
A building or statue
Your car, truck, or bike
Something you would like to have
An accident scene
(more topics on pg 125)
Description paragraph checklist:
___Does your topic sentence state the paragraph’s main idea?
___Do all of your details support your topic sentence?
___Are your details specific enough to give readers a picture of your subject?
___Have you used appropriate transitional words and phrases?
___Have you proofread for spelling, grammar, and punctuation?
1Description
paragraph guidelines
A description paragraph creates a vivid impression of what you have heard, seen,
smelled, tasted, or touched. When you write description, you focus on appealing to the
reader’s five senses. The more specific details you include, the better your description
will be. A descriptive paragraph contains the following elements:
•
•
•
•
A topic sentence that states the main idea of your paragraph.
The topic sentence is followed by details that support the topic sentence.
Details are arranged in spatial order, the order in which you observed the scene
you are describing—for example, from near to far.
The paragraph ends with a concluding statement that sums up the paragraph’s
main idea.
Vague, overused words -- such as good, bad, nice, awesome, and beautiful – do not
help readers see what you are describing. When you write a descriptive paragraph, use
specific words and phrases that make your writing come alive.
Also, be careful not to overdo it: overly descriptive writing can be a turn-off to readers.
Prepositions—words that signal a space or time relationship—figure prominently in
descriptive writing. Below list of the most common prepositions can be used as
transitions in descriptive writing.
aboard
about
above
across
after
against
along
amid
among
anti
around
as
at
before
1
behind
below
beneath
beside
besides
between
beyond
but
by
concerning
considering
despite
down
during
except
excepting
excluding
following
for
from
in
inside
into
like
minus
near
of
off
on
onto
opposite
outside
over
past
per
plus
regarding
round
save
since
than
through
to
toward
towards
under
underneath
unlike
until
up
upon
versus
via
with
within
without
Kirszner, Laurie, and Stephen Mandell. Foundations First with Readings, 4th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,
2012. Print.
Model Descriptive Paragraphs
By Richard Nordquist,
In the following paragraph, observe how the writer moves clearly from a description of the head
of the clown (in sentences two, three, and four), to the body (sentences five, six, seven, and
eight), to the unicycle underneath (sentence nine). Notice also how the concluding sentence
helps to tie the paragraph together by emphasizing the personal value of this gift.
1) A Friendly Clown
On one corner of my dresser sits a smiling toy clown on a tiny unicycle--a gift I received
last Christmas from a close friend. The clown's short yellow hair, made of yarn, covers its ears
but is parted above the eyes. The blue eyes are outlined in black with thin, dark lashes flowing
from the brows. It has cherry-red cheeks, nose, and lips, and its broad grin disappears into the
wide, white ruffle around its neck. The clown wears a fluffy, two-tone nylon costume. The left
side of the outfit is light blue, and the right side is red. The two colors merge in a dark line that
runs down the center of the small outfit. Surrounding its ankles and disguising its long black
shoes are big pink bows. The white spokes on the wheels of the unicycle gather in the center
and expand to the black tire so that the wheel somewhat resembles the inner half of a
grapefruit. The clown and unicycle together stand about a foot high. As a cherished gift from
my good friend Tran, this colorful figure greets me with a smile every time I enter my room.
2) The Blond Guitar
by Jeremy Burden
My most valuable possession is an old, slightly warped blond guitar--the first instrument
I taught myself how to play. It's nothing fancy, just a Madeira folk guitar, all scuffed and
scratched and finger-printed. At the top is a bramble of copper-wound strings, each one
hooked through the eye of a silver tuning key. The strings are stretched down a long, slim neck,
its frets tarnished, the wood worn by years of fingers pressing chords and picking notes. The
body of the Madeira is shaped like an enormous yellow pear, one that was slightly damaged in
shipping. The blond wood has been chipped and gouged to gray, particularly where the pick
guard fell off years ago. No, it's not a beautiful instrument, but it still lets me make music, and
for that I will always treasure it.
3) Gregory
by Barbara Carter
Gregory is my beautiful gray Persian cat. He walks with pride and grace, performing a
dance of disdain as he slowly lifts and lowers each paw with the delicacy of a ballet dancer. His
pride, however, does not extend to his appearance, for he spends most of his time indoors
watching television and growing fat. He enjoys TV commercials, especially those for Meow Mix
and 9 Lives. His familiarity with cat food commercials has led him to reject generic brands of cat
food in favor of only the most expensive brands. Gregory is as finicky about visitors as he is
about what he eats, befriending some and repelling others. He may snuggle up against your
ankle, begging to be petted, or he may imitate a skunk and stain your favorite trousers. Gregory
does not do this to establish his territory, as many cat experts think, but to humiliate me
because he is jealous of my friends. After my guests have fled, I look at the old fleabag snoozing
and smiling to himself in front of the television set, and I have to forgive him for his obnoxious,
but endearing, habits.
The following paragraph opens the third chapter of Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman
Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (Knopf, 1976), a lyrical account of a ChineseAmerican girl growing up in California. Notice how Kingston integrates informative and
descriptive details in this account of "the metal tube" that holds her mother's diploma from
medical school.
4) The Magic Metal Tube
by Maxine Hong Kingston
Once in a long while, four times so far for me, my mother brings out the metal tube that holds
her medical diploma. On the tube are gold circles crossed with seven red lines each--"joy"
ideographs in abstract. There are also little flowers that look like gears for a gold machine.
According to the scraps of labels with Chinese and American addresses, stamps, and postmarks,
the family airmailed the can from Hong Kong in 1950. It got crushed in the middle, and whoever
tried to peel the labels off stopped because the red and gold paint come off too, leaving silver
scratches that rust. Somebody tried to pry the end off before discovering that the tube falls
apart. When I open it, the smell of China flies out, a thousand-year-old bat flying heavy-headed
out of the Chinese caverns where bats are as white as dust, a smell that comes from long ago,
far back in the brain.
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