WSC2: Composition Literature
Professor R. McDonough // Hofstra University
Essay #1: Descriptive Re-telling // Evaluation Draft: 2/18
Overview:
The ability to describe a story convincingly will serve a writer well in any kind of essay situation. The most important thing to remember is that your job as writer is to show, not tell. If you say that the tree is beautiful, your readers are put on the defensive: “Wait a minute,” they think. “We’ll be the judge of that! Show us a beautiful tree and we’ll believe.” Do not rely, then, on adjectives that attempt to characterize a thing’s attributes. Lovely, exciting, interesting – these are all useful adjectives in casual speech or when we’re pointing to something that is lovely, etc., but in careful writing they don’t do much for us; in fact, they sound hollow.
Prompts:
- Select a fairy tale that you remember from your youth (Cinderella, the Little Mermaid, Snow White, etc.) and write a revision through a feminist lens. Think of what we have discussed in class that fascinates feminist writers (the female body, power dynamics and sexuality, etc.) and create a story that reflects feminist ideologies. This story must have a feminist moral to it just as Carter’s and Block’s work conveys the power of female sexuality and the ability to overcome obstacles. You have freedom to select the tone you wish to write in – but this should still be an ACADEMIC essay.
This essay will be graded based on: writing style, use of literary elements (simile, metaphor, personification, etc.), use of descriptive language, and the overall story. Remember to focus on small details that will really benefit your readers understanding of the text. It isn’t enough to say something is red how can you select a more poignant variation of red that will convey a message to the author?
Format:
UNIQUE Title, MLA Format, 12-pt. font of your choice, standard 1-inch margins, Double-spaced text, cover page with an image that symbolizes your story, Pages numbered according to MLA format, 1,000 words total.