Sample Description Assignments for FS 101
These assignments are modified versions of assignments originally written by Professors Bensel, Carr, Jamison and Schilt.
Description Sample 1: Significant Places
Paper Assignment
Write a three-page paper about a place where you spent a significant amount of time when you were growing up, and of which you have strong memories. For many of you, this could mean your immediate "neighborhood." For others it could be a place where you spent your summers, a series of baseball or soccer fields where you spent long hours practicing and playing, a shopping mall, or some other "space" where you and your friends spent time hanging out. (e.g. I probably spent the equivalent of a year of my life in a drainage pipe alongside the railroad tracks by the Hackensack River, but that's another story.) Your paper does not have to include every detail of the place, but it should provide the reader with a strong sense of what the place looked like, sounded like, or even smelled like. It should also convey to the reader some of the significance that the place held for you, and explain why it stands out in your memory as a "growing up" place. Write in a way that enables the reader to draw on multiple senses in trying to imagine what the place is like. Your paper should be:
- Typed, double-spaced, in reasonable font size, with one-inch margins on all sides.
- Checked for spelling and grammatical errors.
- Well-organized, with a clear introduction, conclusion and logical transitions between sections.
Speaking Assignment
Present a summary of your paper to the class. Your speech should be between four and five minutes in length. Speeches will be presented in reverse alphabetical order beginning on Monday, September 6 and continuing in to Wednesday. Some points to keep in mind in preparing for your speech:
- Focus on a few key points. You will not be able to cover everything in your paper, so identify those things that will be most effective at conveying a "sense of place" to your audience.
- Avoid a trivial speech that simply recites a few facts or details, and instead present information that is both informative and interesting.
I will make a "sample speech" to the class this Wednesday to give you some ideas and pointers to consider. Feel free to e-mail or call me if you have questions or concerns.
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Description Sample 2: Creating a Sense of Place
For this assignment, each of you will be asked to contribute a short (3-5 pg.) essay to a "zine" about Allegheny College and the surrounding community. Our main concerns will be creating a sense of place and appealing effectively to our audience. Thus, successful essays will exhibit the following characteristics:
- detailed observation and descriptive language
- an awareness of the values and emotions of the chosen audience
- an appropriate and credible authorial voice
- a thoughtful and coherent overall structure
- a clear purpose
- well-constructed paragraphs
- careful proofreading
You'll all receive a copy of the entire collection that you may copy and distribute to friends and/or family.
Paper Topics (Choose one)
- In "No Place Like Home," David Guterson notes that no one seems to use the Green Valley Civic Center Plaza. He describes it as "deserted, useless, and irrelevant"(89). Identify a broad open area on the Allegheny campus or in Meadville. You may want to sketch its layout, chart its use at different times of day, or interview visitors. From this information, write a detailed essay that describes the site and identifies two or three reasons for the success or failure of this public space.
Alternate concept for topic 1. Guterson and Welty describe very different shopping environments in very different terms. Choose a commercial site in Meadville (the markethouse, the downtown mall, Walmart, etc.) and evaluate its success or failure as a public space.
Please note: In order to respond effectively to these topics, you will first need to decide what constitutes a successful public space. You may want to begin by analyzing Guterson's assumptions about successful public spaces and then considering whether your own criteria would be similar or different.
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"Walls are everywhere in Green Valley too," Guterson writes; "they're the first thing a visitor notices. Their message is subliminal and at the same time explicit; controlled access is as much metaphor as reality" (92). Choose a wall, fence, or some other physical divider in your neighborhood or on campus. What purposes does it serve? What does it keep in or out? Write an essay in which you characterize the literal and metaphorical functions of the wall you have chosen.
You might use this topic to consider relations between students and other citizens of Meadville, or as a way of thinking about how race and/or social class are organized on campus or in town.
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In his essay "Growing Up Old," Richard Rodriguez creates verbal "snapshots" of teenagers and their parents as a means of exploring the identity of Los Angeles. Imagine that you are a photographer charged with capturing the identity of Meadville or the Allegheny campus in only three photographs. What people, places, or objects would you choose to photograph? How would you frame them? Write an essay in which you describe your chosen images. Explain why these particular images are representative of the identity of the place you are trying to portray. In the process of arguing for the relevance of these images, you will need to develop some hypotheses about the identity of the town or the college.
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In her essay "Seeing," Annie Dillard often distinguishes between what the expert and the lay-person see when they look at the same thing. If you are new to Meadville or to Allegheny, write an essay in which you describe how what you notice differs from what a long-term resident might notice. Are there objects, practices, or spaces that seem strange to you, but which others take for granted? Think carefully about your own geographic and cultural background and explore how it affects what you see or don't see in your new environment.
Due Dates:
- Monday, September 25th: You will have an individual conference with me. Bring to the conference a clustering, brainstorming list, or outline about your paper. Although it doesn't have to be typed it should be legible! By this point you should have a clear idea of what you're planning on writing about as well as some thoughts on images and observations you intend to include.
- Friday, September 29th: Post a full draft of paper in WebCT by class time and bring one hard copy to class (can't be turned in late!).
- Monday, October 2nd or Wednesday, October 4th: Meet with your small group in my office for a workshop. Come to the session with copies of all of the papers and completed peer review sheets. By the workshop time, read all of the papers in your small group carefully and complete thoughtful peer reviews of their papers.
- Friday, October 6th: Final draft of the paper due. Turn in a hard copy of the final paper stapled to the draft version, all peer review sheets, rough drafts and outlines. Email me the final paper as well.
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Description Sample 3: Monthly Review of a College Event
Select an event that you have not been asked to write on for class, and write a brief review of it. Although you are free to structure your comments as you see fit, remember that this paper should include two components:
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A description of the event under review, including a title, individuals or groups involved, date and place seen. Assume that your reader was not present at the event and will need to understand what happened. For example, if this is a lecture, summarize the speaker's topic briefly; if it is an art show, you might characterize one or two works seen that are typical of what the exhibit contained.
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Your reaction to the event. One of the general purposes of FS 101 is to emphasize description and expression. Try to use language that recreates the event or objects in the mind of the reader. In this section of your review, it would also be appropriate to describe your feelings about the event. The best reviews will indicate what factor or elements of the performance caused you to react as you did. If you feel qualified, you might also venture an evaluation of the performance.
Remember, that of the three Monthly Reviews required for this class, one must be on a musical event, and one must report on a lecture.
Papers should be 700 to1000 words, typed, double-spaced, and stapled.
Due dates:
- Reviewing an event for September, due Thursday, September 28th in class.
- Reviewing an event that took place in October, due on Thursday, November 2nd in class.
- Reviewing an event that took place in November or December, due with your final portfolio during finals week.
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Description Sample 4: Listenings
Write your musical reactions to the listening assignment for today's class. Describe in musical vocabulary what you notice in the portion you are hearing. What musical elements are in play here? Which ones are dominant? Which moments in the music are most noticeable, and how do you describe them so as clearly to identify them for a reader? What makes them noticeable? Does the piece gain meaning or significance from repetition or rather from contrast? What questions about the music does your listening raise?
This should be first person writing, yet grammatically correct and formal as opposed to "stream of consciousness." This should not be as though someone tape recorded the "conversation in your head" while you were listening. That conversation is the proper subject of this assignment, but in a slightly edited version, "cleaned up" a little so that it reads better on paper than a literal conversational transcript. There are no external sources; your opinions and observations are the content. I am your audience. You need not write more than one full page.
This is an ongoing assignment that should reflect your awareness of changes in your musical perception and reactions over the course of the semester.
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