AP LANG AND COMP MS. BUGASCH

DECEMBER 1, 2013

GOALS

1. TO IDENTIFY AND UNDERSTAND THE RHETORICAL MODE OF

DESCRIPTION

FFW - Collect Narrative Essays

- Answer the following question in your notebook:

- Why do you think the rhetorical mode of narration and description are almost inseparable?

- Discuss

FFWThe rhetorical mode of DESCRIPTION is closely linked, and indeed, almost inseparable from, the rhetorical mode of NARRATION.

RHETORICAL MODE: DESCRIPTION

- You use description whenever you want to tell readers about the physical characteristics of a

person, place or thing.

- Description relies on the five senses: sight,

hearing, taste, touch and smell.

- A descriptive essay tells what something

LOOKS LIKE or what it feels like, smells like,

or tastes like

- Effective descriptive writing goes BEYOND personal sense impressions and creates IMAGES, LANDSCAPES, WORD PICTURES.

- When you write description, you are using language to create a vivid impression for your readers.

- Descriptive writing is VIVID.

• Descriptions can be subjective or objective.

• OBJECTIVE: When you write an objective description, you focus on the object itself rather than on your personal reactions to it.

• Your purpose is to present a precise, literal picture of your subject.

Examples: a biologist describing what he sees

through a microscope; a historian describing a Civil War Battlefield.

RHETORICAL MODE: DESCRIPTION

• Objectivity is an ideal that writers strive for but typically do not achieve. Merely by selecting what details to include and which to leave out, a writer creates a SUBJECTIVE description instead of a purely objective one.

• Journalists, for example, are supposed to report the facts objectively; however, when you watch certain news reports and reporters, you can easily discern their slant, bias or prejudice.

RHETORICAL MODE: DESCRIPTION

EXAMPLE OF OBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION

“When James Burbage built the Theatre in 1576 he naturally designed it along the lines of inn-yards in which he had been accustomed to play. The building had two entrances, one for the audience, one in the rear for actors, musicians and the personnel of the theatre. Inside the and the personnel of the theatre. Inside the building a rectangular platform projected far out into what was called “the yard” –we know the stage of Fortune ran halfway across “the yard,” some 27 ½ feet...”

Thomas Parrott’s description

of Shakespeare’s theater

SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION• In contrast to objective description,

subjective description conveys your PERSONAL REPONSE to your subject and tries to get your readers to understand or share it.

• As in narrative, your PERSPECTIVE is not necessarily expressed directly, in a direct statement. It is often revealed INDIRECTLY, through your choice of words of phrases: this is known as DICTION.

SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION

• Subjective descriptions should convey not just a literal record of sights and sounds, but also their SIGNIFICANCE.

Fire: temperature, duration, scope, movement, color intensity = objective description

• Subjective: recreate for your audience (reader) a sense of how the fire made you feel, your reactions to the crackling noise, the dense smoke, the sudden destruction.

MARK TWAIN’S SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION OF A SUNSET ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

“...I still kept in mind a certain wonderful sunset which I witnessed when steam-boating was new to me. A broad expanse of the river was turned to blood; in the middle distance the red hue brightened into gold, through which a solitary log came floating, black and conspicuous; in one place a long, slating mark lay sparkling upon the water; in another the surface was broken by boiling, tumbling rings, that were as many tinted as opal…”

• Both types of description rely on SPECIFIC and CONCRETE words to appeal to the audience’s senses.

• Objective: precise, factual language with no revelation of the author’s bias or attitude toward the subject.

• Subjective: richer, more suggestive language.

LANGUAGE TOOLS FOR WRITING SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION

Connotation vs. denotation of words:

◦ Denotation: the dictionary definition of a word

◦Connotation: the emotional association or feeling

evoked by the word or image

Example: the words PUKE, VOMIT

DESCRIPTIVE WRITING EXEMPLAR

• Read Good Housekeeping “Toddlers in Tiaras”

• Pay attention to descriptive words

• Circle vivid words• Box objective descriptions• Underline subjective descriptions • Highlight denotation vs. connotation

HOMEWORK1. Finish reading article and annotating