Descriptive Essay of Nelson Mandela

For this essay you will write a 500-700 word (not including the heading and title) descriptive essay over a famous person from the 20th century. Try to describe their physical characteristics so that even though I have never met them, I can Google them to compare them to your descriptions. I must get a vivid picture of them in my head through your writing. Personality traits are fine, but you need to focus more on their physical traits.

For example the introduction and conclusion can be biography but the body of the essay (paragraphs 2-4) must focus on the physical traits. The goal is for me to see them from your descriptions–like a police sketch artist.

Often times when I grade these essays I will look at a picture of this person as I read to see how well you describe your person. Many times students will leave off key parts of the face that should be not only been listed, but also described in great detail. Remember all of the parts to a person’s head alone: head, hair, eyes, eye lashes, eye brows, nose, nostrils, cheeks, chin, lips, teeth, ears, earlobes etc. Some of you focused on the clothes your person wears rather than what they look like. When I grade these essays I will draw a picture based on your descriptions as I read so I can see what is left out of your descriptions.

Do NOT include their clothing or attire in your description. What they wear is not important or relevant in this essay.

As always, ALL assignments must be done in APA style, double-spaced, size 12 Times New Roman font. See the sample APA essay at this link and make yours look like it:

hello i want write about Nelson Mandela

17 hours ago

here is the information provided on book about writing

Sometimes description alone fulfills the purpose of an essay. In most cases, however, you will use description in essays that mainly rely on a different mode. For instance, in a narrative essay, description helps readers experience events, reconstruct scenes, and visualize action. Although most of your college essays will not be primarily descriptive, you can use description in essays that explain the causes or effects of a phenomenon, compare or contrast animal species, or illustrate defensive behavior in children, for example.

The essay “Underground Lair: Inside a Chicken Processing Plant” later in this chapter (pp. 289–93) uses multiple patterns of development to convey the author’s ideas.

Here are a few suggestions for combining description effectively with other patterns of development.

Include only relevant details.Whether you describe an event, a person, or a scene, the sensory details you choose should enhance the reader’s understanding of your subject.
Keep the description focused.Select enough details to make your essential points and dominant impression clear. Readers may become impatient if you include too many descriptive details.
Make sure the description fits the essay’s tone and point of view.A personal description, for example, is not appropriate in an essay explaining a technical process.

Your Essay Assignment Write a descriptive essay about something you can picture clearly or that you can readily observe. Choose one of the following to describe in detail. an unusual, striking, or surprising object a place that has significance to you, your family, or your cultural group a person who influenced you (for good or ill) Examples: A robot you built from a kit; a playground you hung around in as a child; a teacher who changed your expectations about school or learning.

PREWRITING

1 Select a topic from the list on the previous page, or create your own. Use one or more of the following suggestions to choose a subject to describe. List one or more broad topics, such as An Unusual Object, A Place with Personal Significance, or An Influential Person. Then alone or with another student, brainstorm a list of objects, activities, or people that fit the assignment. Other prewriting strategies, like freewriting or questioning, may also help you generate topic ideas. (Rational, pragmatic, and concrete learners may prefer listing. Creative, emotional, and abstract learners may prefer freewriting or questioning.) Picture the objects in your room or on your desk and ask yourself questions, such as, “Who gave me that object?” or “Why did I buy [or make] it?” (Spatial, creative, or emotional learners may prefer picturing.) Work backward: Think about the most influential people or most important values in your life, and then think about a place or object that represents them in your mind. (Abstract and independent learners may prefer working backward.)

2 Consider your purpose and audience, and choose a perspective and point of view. Ask yourself these questions. Will my essay’s purpose be to express myself, inform, or persuade? Who is my audience? Will readers need any background information to understand my essay? Have I chosen a person, place, or thing that I can write about honestly for this audience? What point of view best suits my purpose and audience? The first person (I, we) will work best if describing an object with personal significance or if your purpose is expressive; third person (it, they, he/she) will be most appropriate if describing something objectively, of if your purpose is informative.

3 Choose an aspect of your subject to emphasize, and collect sensory details. Choose one trait or aspect of your subject to focus on. If it’s a . . . try focusing on . . . person a character trait thing its usefulness, value, or beauty Then record details that support the slant you have chosen. Describe your subject to a friend, concentrating on the slant you have chosen, and make notes on your comments and your friend’s response. Draw a quick sketch of your subject and label the parts. Make a table and label each section with one of the senses. Then list the sensory details associated with your subject. Generate comparisons. Think of appropriate comparisons — similes, metaphors, personifications — for as many details in your list as possible. Then select the one or two strongest comparisons and try to use them in your essay. Use at least two prewriting strategies to generate details. (More prewriting strategies appear in Chapter 4, pp. 107–17.)

4 Evaluate your details. Reread your notes, highlighting the vivid, concrete details that will create pictures in your reader’s mind. Cross out the following. vague details irrelevant details details that do not support your slant Then copy and paste the remaining details into a new document for easy access when drafting. In small groups, share your ideas and details. Have each writer explain her or his slant on the subject and provide a list of details. As a group, evaluate each writer’s details in terms of her or his slant and suggest improvements. ORGANIZING & DRAFTING

5 Create a dominant impression. Your dominant impression should: appeal to your audience offer an unusual perspective provide new insights on your subject Description often includes an element of surprise; a description with an unexpected slant and new insights is more likely to engage the readers’ imagination. Think of the dominant impression as: a thesis that conveys your main point and pulls your details together. a mood or feeling about the subject, which all the details in your essay explain or support. Team up with a classmate to evaluate each other’s dominant impression. Underline or highlight any problematic wording and give feedback.

6 Choose a method of organization. Select the method of organization that will best support your dominant impression. For example: If you are focusing on a person’s slovenly appearance, then a spatial (top to bottom, left to right) organization may be effective. If using spatial organization, also consider what vantage point(s) will provide the most useful information or from which vantage point(s) you can provide the most revealing or striking details. If you are describing a visit to a wildlife preserve, chronological order might be a useful method of organization. A most-to-least or least-to-most arrangement might work best for a description of the symptoms of pneumonia. If you are describing a chocolate chip cookie, you may want to organize by the five senses, clustering details about how it looks, smells, tastes, and feels in your mouth.

7 Write a first draft of your descriptive essay. Use the following guidelines to keep your narrative on track. The introduction should set up your dominant impression, which you may choose to state in a thesis. The body paragraphs should include striking sensory details that support your dominant impression. Be sure to include enough details that readers can picture your subject but not so many that readers will get bored. Try to work your one or two strongest comparisons into your draft. Organize each body paragraph so that it focuses on a single topic, and use transitions (first, next, above, below, before, after) to make relationships among details clear. You may want to include a photograph (or video or audio file if presenting your description online), but remember that an illustration cannot substitute for a detailed, sensory description. The conclusion should revisit your dominant impression. You may also want to refer to the beginning of your essay or make a final observation about the significance of your subject. REVISING

8 Evaluate your draft and revise as necessary. Use Figure 12.1, “Flowchart for Revising a Descriptive Essay,” to help you discover the strengths and weaknesses of your descriptive essay. FIGURE 12.1 Flowchart for Revising a Descriptive Essay The information provided is as follows: Question 1: Without looking at your essay, state the dominant impression in a sentence. Then highlight the sentences in the essay that express the dominant impression. Do they successfully convey the impression? If yes, proceed to Question 2. If no, use these revision strategies: • Reread your essay. Make a list of the different impressions it conveys. • Choose one impression that you have the most to say about, and brainstorm to develop additional details that support it. Question 2: Place a checkmark by each sensory detail. Does each detail support your dominant impression? If yes, proceed to Question 3. If no, use this revision strategy: • Eliminate irrelevant sensory details. Question 3: Highlight your sensory details. Is your language vivid enough to help readers visualize the topic? Are the connotations of your language appropriate? If yes, proceed to Question 4. If no, use these revision strategies: • Brainstorm additional sensory details. • Replace passive verbs with active ones. • Vary your sentences. • Replace vague or inappropriate words with words that better support your dominant impression. Question 4: [Bracket] each comparison—simile, metaphor, and analogy. Is each fresh and effective? If yes, proceed to Question 5. If no, use these revision strategies: • Eliminate clichés. • Brainstorm fresh comparisons or discuss with a friend. Question 5: Outline your details and examine your organization. Is it clear from your essay how the details are organized? If yes, proceed to Question 6. If no, use these revision strategies: • Rearrange your details. Experiment to see which order works best. • Add transitions to connect your ideas. Question 6: Underline each paragraph’s topic sentence. Check (tick-mark sign) the sensory details against the topic sentence. Does the topic sentence make clear what the paragraph is describing? If yes, proceed to Question 7. If no, use this revision strategy: • Revise so that each paragraph has a clear topic sentence and supporting details clearly relate to the topic sentence. Question 7: Reread your introduction and conclusion. Is each effective? If no, use this revision strategy: • Revise your introduction and conclusion so that they meet the guidelines in Chapter 7. EDITING & PROOFREADING

9 Edit and proofread your essay. Refer to Chapter 9 for help with: editing sentences to avoid wordiness, making your verb choices strong and active, and making your sentences clear, varied, and parallel editing words for tone and diction, connotation, and concrete and specific language Pay particular attention to the punctuation of adjectives. Use a comma between coordinate adjectives that are not joined by and. – Singh was a confident, skilled pianist. Coordinate adjectives are a series of adjectives whose order can be changed (skilled, confident pianist or confident, skilled pianist). Do not use commas between cumulative adjectives whose order cannot be changed. – Two frightened brown eyes peered at us from under the sofa. You would not write frightened two brown eyes. Use a hyphen to connect two words that work together as an adjective before a noun unless the first word is an adverb ending in -ly. – well-used book – foil-wrapped pizza – perfectly thrown

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Descriptive Essay of Nelson Mandela

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