1. Pleasant/Unpleasant Description of the Place: Choose a place you can
observe for an extended period of time (at least 20-30 minutes). Use
all of your senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, even taste if
possible) to experience the place, and record all of the sensations that
you experience. As you record your data, you may wish to note which
details naturally seem more positive, negative, or neutral, in terms of
tone. (For instance, a stinky and overflowing trash barrel swarming with
flies in a nearby alley might seem more inherently negative than a
little white bunny rabbit hopping playfully across the lawn.) Then, you
will use this information to help your write descriptions of the place:
one positive, one negative. Both descriptions should be factually true
(same real time and real place), but you will want one description to
be positive in terms of tone and the other to be negative. In addition
to including the information and sensory details you've collected as the
basis for these descriptions, you will also use the Writer's Toolbox to
create your two contrasting impressions for this assignment. (The
Writer's Toolbox is explained in the Lecture Notes section of this
unit.) As you revise and refine your descriptions, please be sure you
are "showing" your readers your place (really putting the readers
"there" in the moment and in this scene), rather than simply "telling"
them about it. You will also want to try to eliminate unnecessary
linking verbs as much as you can, incorporating verbs that show "action"
whenever possible.
2. Rhetorical Analysis: Looking back at your
descriptions, analyze how you created these two very different
impressions of the place (one positive, one negative) without changing
any of the facts. How did you make your place seem so positive in one
paragraph and yet so negative in the other paragraph, without changing
the facts? Discuss how you incorporated each of the tools from the
Writer's Toolbox, and cite examples of this from each of your
descriptions. (This analysis should be at least 400-500 words in
length.)
3. Reflection: In one to two paragraphs, consider at
least one of the following questions: What have you learned about
writing through this assignment? How might you apply this knowledge?
Has this process of using the Writer's Toolbox affected your vision of
various information media--for instance, television and print news
sources, magazines, etc.? If so, how so?
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