Description of a Place
In this 3-4 page essay you will describe a place or “space” that has significant meaning or memories for you. Try to avoid large and vague places such as Disney World, the beach, the mountains, etc. Narrow your focus to one specific and particular setting. Your specific place may be as simple as your grandparent’s old dining room table, a rock/log where you would pause on a trail, an empty locker room after a game, a favorite chair, etc. Your place may currently exist, or it may be a memory of a place that no longer exists. You may not create an “imagined place” for this assignment.
Your essay should do all of the following:
Your essay should do all of the following:
- Describe the place using vivid and concrete details. Use imagery to capture the sights, sounds, smells, touch, and tastes of the place.
- Briefly describe the people and interactions of this place but connect them back to the specific objects.
- Example: You might examine your grandparent’s living room and explain the significance of a blanket that your grandmother made; however, avoid giving long descriptions of your grandmother. The objects and the place should be the focus of the essay. If you give enough description of the items, they will automatically create the significance of the people, events, memories, etc. that they represent.
- Contain a reflection of the place based upon your interpretation of its literal and symbolic meaning.
- Contain a thesis either at the beginning or end of your essay in which you state in one statement the impact or significant of this place.
Prewriting: Asking Questions about Your Place
Use these pre-writing questions to help you focus on a topic and generate ideas.
What places come to mind when someone asks you about your favorite or worst memories?
What places come to mind when someone asks you about your favorite or worst memories?
- What places come to mind when you think of comfort, relaxation, home, safety, love, acceptance, pride, joy, friendship, etc.?
- If you were granted the ability to invisibly go to one place for five minutes before you died, where would you go? Why would you choose this place?
- What sights, sounds, smells, tactile objects (touch), and tastes come to mind with this setting?
- Reflection/Thesis:
- Why is this place significant?
- How has this place impacted you?
- Would you be a different person without this place?
- Does this place symbolize anything in your life or your family’s life?
- Why is this place significant?
Prewriting: Generating sensory imagery
- Select a prewriting technique and use it to generate sensory imagery about the location you are going to describe. Begin by picturing the location in your mind's eye - put your self there.
Imagery Chart - Create a five column/row a chart, one for each sense (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell). Brainstorm as many sensory details as you can.
Word Web - Write your location in the center shape. Branch off of the center shape with related ideas. Continue to branch off as your ideas become more and more focused.
Illustration - Make a detailed drawing of your location. Use color; label elements
Drafting Your Essay
Write an introductory paragraph in the present tense that accurately describes what motivated you to select this particular place for your descriptive essay. The paragraph must explicitly mention the full name of the location.
Your introduction should include
- Hook – engages reader
- Background/Context – prepares reader for the thesis by establishing the writer’s motivation for selecting this place to describe
- Tense – introduction is written in the present tense
- Location – the location is explicitly mentioned.
End with a thesis statement which identifies the specific location (focus) and the significance/meaning of the location to you (purpose)
Compose an essay body of three to four paragraphs that conveys the sights, sounds, smells, feeling and tastes of the subject place. Choose clear adjectives that describe these various aspects of a place so they are recognizable to readers who have been there and are understandable to readers who have not.
Keep in mind as you write the body of your essay
- Topic sentences – Begin each body paragraph with a topic sentence that establishes the aspect of the location developed in that paragraph
- Point of View – Maintain a consistent 3rd person point of view. Describe the scene as a camera might see it.
- Sensory Details – Develop the description using a variety of sensory details (see, hear, taste, touch, smell) to create a clear picture of the location in the reader’s mind.
- Focus on Description – Focus the body paragraphs on description of the location, not narration of the events that occur there.
- Concluding sentence – End body paragraph with a concluding sentence that connects to the location and transitions to the next paragraph.
- Organization – Try to make your paragraphing logical and effective. Arrange paragraphs and development within paragraphs in a logical, spatial order that supports the thesis/topic sentence. Start a new paragraph with each new perspective.
- Transitions – Use a variety of transitional words and phrases that show how ideas are connected.
Include a concluding paragraph that briefly restates the inspiration for the essay and details any personal feelings, memories or visitor recommendations about the place. This section is your chance to clearly spell out your overall impression of the location.
- Restates thesis
- Summarizes significance of location
- Memorable closing