Description英文写作

3. Free Tranquilizer
❖ Vancouver’s summer sunshine makes me lazy. I indulge myself under the shade of the maple trees during the summer in Central Park in order to bask in Vancouver’s sunshine. Especially when the wind waves the leaves and the sunlight slides through, it feels like velvet patting my body or like a furry cat rubbing me. I like to sit on the bench, which is on the southern shore of the lake. One day, an old Labrador dog sat beside me. Although there were many adults jogging, children giggling, and squirrels chasing around, the old Labrador was as solid as a rock; he closed his eyes and ears and made his daydream without a pause. (To be continued)
Types of description
❖ Objective description---record details without making any personal comment.
❖ Subjective description---the writer is free to interpret details for the reader/ audience.
❖ Leave out the irrelevant ones and keep those which help to bring out the dominant characteristic or outstanding quality of the person or thing described. (sample 1)
❖
--- By Xe Jiao
Comment on Smells of the Sun by Xe Jiao
❖ Comment: Xe Jiao writes of the sun's smells in a short paragraph. She illustrates for us the power of concrete imagery, dialogue, and descriptive words.
❖ a good man ❖ kind, honest, just, generous, sympathetic, warm-
hearted, selfless, brave, honorable ❖ good food ❖ tasty, delicious, nourishing, rich, wholesome, fresh,
appetizing, abundant ❖ House ❖ mansion, villa（别墅）, chateau（庄园）, cottage,
bungalow（平房）, cabin, hut, shack, shanty, barn(仓 房）
General and Specific Words for Good Description
2. Smells of the Sun
❖ I love the sun. I love the sun’s rays, light and warmth, especially the sun’s smells. When the sun comes again after the rain, I can inhale the humid air made by the sun’s heat. In a sunny garden, the scent of the grass and of plants that carry the smells of the sun waft along in the breeze. I like sunning my bedclothes if it is a nice warm, sunshiny day, then the bedclothes gain an aroma of the sun after their sunbath. I ask my son, “Can you smell the sun in your bedclothes?” He picks up a corner of his bedclothes, then bends his head close to them and breathes in deeply. He answers, “What a wonderful smell of the sun.” I enjoy the smells of the sun.
General and Specific Words for Good Description
❖ General: The room was a mess. ❖ Specific: As I walked into the room I could
barely find a clean place to step. There were clothes all over the floor, along with papers, books, and possibly what looked like an old, moldy sandwich. The stench was unbearable.
❖ Using spatial order: describing the physical layout of the place(left>right, bottom> top, clockwise/counterclockwise, inside>outside)
❖ Using chronological order ❖ Use specific words ❖ Decide on the dominant impression
❖ Read the following three descriptive paragraphs about the sunshine and give your commentsf Sun Very Much
❖ I like the smells of sun. It is sweet, which tastes like an ice-cream. It has changeable color, which turns the plain ground become bright and full. It has soft sunshine, which let my body feel warm and comfortable. It has a quiet language, which makes a gentle whisper through my body and tells me what are the secrets of the sun. It has a wonderful power, which reflects the pure and the beautiful things in the world, brightens all the dark things up, and encourages me to overcome all the difficulties in my life. I like the smells of sun very much.
General and Specific Words for Good Description
❖ General: It is often windy and dusty here in spring. Specific: In spring there is often a very strong northwest wind. It carries so much fine dust with it that sometimes the sun becomes obscure. There is no escape from the fine dust; it gets into your eyes, your ears, your nostrils, and your hair. It goes through the cracks of closed windows and covers your desks and chairs.
General and Specific Words for Good Description
❖ Specific words help to make writing clear, exact, vivid, and striking, for they are more informative and expressive than general words. Compare:
Description
Description of Places, Objects
and People
Contents
❖ Definition of description ❖ Types of description ❖ Ways to develop a description essay
❖ Description of a place ❖ Description of an object ❖ Description of a person ❖ Assignment
❖ A description essay is generally developed through sensory details, or the impressions of one’s senses---sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch,etc.
Description
❖ Description is the type of writing that helps the reader to see what someone/some place/something is like.
❖ Or we may say description is painting a picture in words of a person, place, object, or scene.
Note: Few descriptions outside of science writing, however, are completely objective.
Ways to develop a description essay
❖ Through the impressions of one’s senses--sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch
General and Specific Words for Good Description
❖ General :I love the smell of sunshine. ❖ Specific: ?Your turn
Critical Reading on Description of an Object
❖
By student
Comment on Smells of the Sun by Student
❖ Comment: The description is very imaginative but too abstract. Try to add more concrete examples to show why you like the smell of sun.
❖ Practice ❖ Eg. Laugh :smile, grin, chortle, guffaw, sneer, titter,
giggle…… ❖ Cry: sob, weep, blubber, snivel, howl, bawl, wail, moan,
❖ Animal: ❖ Flower : ❖ Wind : ❖ Rain ❖ Tree : ❖ Walk: ❖ Angry: ❖ Look at: ❖ ……