Descriptive Writing

LUO YuqingBUPT-SH

Writing Project: Campus Life

I. Focus on a dominant impression

• Read the article on page 159, and answer the following questions:

• What’s your general impression towards the person being described?

• What’s special about him that distinguishes him from others?

• How did the author successfully bring forward this impression to his readers?

Lecture• In descriptive writing, the writing purpose

often comes from a dominant impression the writer has about the object being described. He focuses his writing on this dominant impression and tries to convey it to his readers. That also makes up for the main point / thesis statement of the writing.

II. Follow a spatial order• Description of a place: read the article on

page 91, and draw a picture as your read.• Description of a person:

– Distance close– Head feet– Extraordinary thing ordinary things

III. Detailed example & specific words

• Thesis is the soul of an article; example is the body; detail, flash and blood.

• Use detailed example instead of general one.

• Descriptive details must be in proportion to the importance of the matter described. ie. Use as many as necessary details for important matter, while less details for less important ones.