Essay 1 Directions and Topic Options
Goal: Study and practice effective desсrіptive essay writing strategies.
Format: Modern Language Association (MLA) style
Length: 500- to 750-word, five-paragraph essay
Directions: Prepare and compose a desсrіptive essay about your personal
experience with (and/or observation of) a manageable topic.
GUIDELINES:
1. Do not conduct research or use outside sources for this assignment.
2. Choose a desсrіptive topic, and use one or more prewriting techniques
(listing, freewriting, and/or clustering) to generate ideas.
3. Avoid second person (“you”) references, and use first person (“I”) references sparingly.
4. Plan a 3-point/divided thesis statement which includes:
1) A manageable, sufficiently limited/narrowed topic
2) a clear controlling idea (your attitude or opinion toward the topic)
3) a parallel list of three distinct thesis points which support your controlling idea directly.
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6. Write a broad-to-narrow introduction which includes the following order of information:
1) A hook sentence at the very beginning that serves to grab your reader′s interest
2) Transitions that move the reader from broad beginning to specific thesis
3) A 3-part/divided thesis sentence at the end of the paragraph (last sentence).
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7. Write three body paragraphs that provide clear direction in the first sentence and include
desсrіptive elements, concrete details, and fully developed explanations and/or examples.
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8. Write a concluding paragraph that includes the following information and nothing more:
• A paraphrased thesis restatement that does not need to list your three discussion points
• A transition sentence that moves the reader from your thesis restatement to your clincher
• A final thought/clincher.
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9. Come up with a catchy, relevant subtitle and type it next to the assignment title—for example:
Essay 1: A Garden of Temptation. Also, use the MLA feature at CapitalizeMyTitle.com
to capitalize your titles and subtitles according to MLA style guidelines.
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10. Revise and proofread as necessary for clear, concise, well-expressed writing.
OTHER STIPULATIONS: Your essay may be graded as long as…
• It is submitted on schedule or at least in keeping with the course makeup policy.
• It is uploaded in the correct drop box as a Word (.doc or .docx) document.
• It is submitted using one of the “Browse” options in the dropbox.
• It corresponds with all of these directions and related materials.
• It avoids plagiarism in any form or to any degree.
ENGL 1101—Prior
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Topic Options
Choose one of the following topics to describe, and limit/narrow it to suit a 500- to 750-word
(five-paragraph) essay that supports your thesis with a variety of concrete sensory images.
1. Describe three favorite photographs.
2. Describe your first (or worst) something (car, apartment, etc.)
3. If your home were on fire and there were no people there, what three items
would you try to rescue?
4. Describe three pieces of equipment important to a particular hobby or favorite activity.
5. Describe three specific places that are important to you. Why are they important?
Do they offer you solitude, beauty, energy, recreation, etc.?
Just make sure you narrow your topic to suit the length requirements of this assignment.
For example, broad places like a city in general, an amusement park, and even a
supermarket (like Walmart) are unmanageable for a five-paragraph essay. You could,
however, use concrete sensory images to describe what you see, hear, smell, and/or taste
while sitting on a particular beach, at a love one’s home, etc.
6. Describe three brief moments you felt afraid or moments you felt embarrassed.
You may choose events from when your childhood, teenage years, and adulthood.
Note: A moment that took place, say, in less than a minute’s time can be supported
with specifics in a 100- to 200-word body paragraph. Writing a paragraph of that
length about a day or even a few hours, however, will often result in a vague, overlygeneral desсrіption.
7. Discuss three times you have achieved a hard-won victory—in sports, school, your
personal life, or elsewhere. How did you prepare for each victory? What did the
success of each victory mean to you then, and what does it mean to you now?
8. Based on the Desсrіptive Paragraph assignment, you may choose to expound on the
topic that you chose and create a five-paragraph essay using your topic or one of the
five topics on the Desсrіptive Paragraph directions sheet. For example, if you chose
to write on an annoying neighbor, you may write an essay describing three separate
encounters with the neighbor, or you could focus on writing one, single narrative
explaining an encounter with that neighbor.
*If you prefer to write your essay on a different topic, first get your instructor′s approval.
