| Welcome to the first writing workshop of the semester! During Week 2, I asked you to consider the role of sensory details in creative writing. Sensory details allow a reader to visualize the person, place, thing, or situation that is being described. They engage the sense of sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste and are best expressed with verbs of muscle and adjectives of exactitude. To get started, you should post your 300+ word piece describing your “uniform.” You should use Cheryl Strayed’s personal essay “My Uniform” (Links to an external site.) as a model for your essay. In addition, your piece should be rich in sensory details and show the reader through your descriptions what makes your “uniform” so special to you. What does this item reveal about who you are and what you value? To guide your participation in our first writing workshop of the semester, I have included a Peer Review Worksheet for the personal essay. Thorough and detailed completion of the attached worksheet for at least two of your classmates will help you earn a good grade for the first Writing Workshop of the semester. If you have any questions, please post them to the discussion board or email me. I look forward to reading your work! Personal Essay– Peer Review Worksheet Title of Paper_____________________________________________________ Author’s Name ___________________________________________________________ Reviewer’s Name _________________________________________________________ 1. Summarize the subject of the essay. What did you learn about the author from the essay? 2. Evaluate the introduction. Does it have an effective attention grabber? Does it invite the reader in? If not, how would you improve it? 3. Finish this statement: “Some things I liked best about this paper were…” 4. Where could the author use more description and/or add sensory details? 5. Does the essay have a clear beginning, middle, and end? 6. Identify at least two academic writing mistakes in the piece (run-ons, subject-verb agreement, consistency of verb tenses, etc.)? Be specific. |
