Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi. I'm Sid Dobrin. In this video I'll be talking about the Essay assignment that asks
students to describe a prominent feature on their campus.
There are a couple of reasons that I really like this assignment: first is the flexibility
it offers by way of student perception. I find it interesting to see the range of campus
features my students consider prominent. Second, it also allows me to encourage students to
really explore the breadth of their descriptive writing. What I mean by this is that when
I make this assignment, I certainly want students to describe the obvious physical and visual
characteristics of the campus feature, and I want them to do so in creative, unique,
and clear ways. But, I also want them to consider how other sensory descriptions might heighten
their descriptions. Likewise, I always want students to dig a little deeper with their
descriptions beyond the important aspect of using strong descriptive language; I want
them to think about other relevant ways to describe things and how those kinds of descriptions
might connect with other rhetorical purposes. For example, when students decide to describe
specific buildings on our campus, I encourage them to consider describing the history of
the building as a way of explaining why the building might have been designed as it was.
Or, I may suggest they learn about the architectural or engineering specifics of the building.
This kind of historical or technical description and situating then lets students make connections
between their descriptions and other rhetorical purposes, like writing to inform, perhaps.
Given that this assignment specifically asks students to write a particular kind of description,
an essay, I also focus on the relationship between the genre and the possibilities for
what and how they can describe. For instance, the essay allows for longer, more detailed
descriptive expressions that can be adapted to a variety of delivery approaches, ranging
from, say, technical descriptions, to personal sensory descriptions.
Likewise, given the flexibility of academic essay writing, I also ask students to think
about what might happen to their written descriptions if they enhance them with visual components.
This allows me to talk with students about how the visuals they choose interact with
the words they write. Are their incongruences? Do the visuals dominate the essay above the
written word? Do the visuals create a balance with the written text? Is there such thing
as too many visuals in the context of the descriptive essay? And so on.
I also make sure I work with students on their writing strategies, focusing particularly
on how they move from descriptive notes and observation to clearly written sentences.
Given that some student writers have a hard time moving from what they see to explaining
what they see to others, I also like to encourage peer input to help student writers revise
toward their audiences. Of course, it's important to talk with students
about how you will assess their descriptions, and the assessment rubric I've provided with
this chapter should help you focus on the details of what you might want to look for
in student writing. For this assignment, I usually focus on the rhetorical knowledge
and the knowledge of conventions parts of the rubric.
So, that's a little bit more about the Essay project. Thanks for using Writing Situations
and thanks for watching.