Using Detail |
||
| You work for a national magazine (maybe Time or Newsweek?). Your editor has sent you to the George Mason University campus to write a reflective, interview-based feature on technology-mediated learning. | ||
|
After interviewing faculty, students, computer lab. assistants and administrators, you sit down to write your piece. You decide to begin with a scene-setting lead (see pp. 117-118 of WAM) and the scene you choose is Robinson A101, just after 8-00pm on a Thursday night. |
||
| But it's tough to begin your article, and you decide to make one more visit to Robinson A101 to immerse yourself in the location. Using all five senses, list in precise language as many specific details about the room, its inhabitants and the work going on that you can. Think beyond what you see, although that is critical. What are the sounds you hear (both inside and outside the room)? What do you feel? Is the room hot or cold? What kind of heat is it? What might you touch in the room? How might you touch it? | ||
| Whenever you write down an evocative detail, ask yourself what detail about the detail might you add? Will an incisive adjective or a probing adverb sharpen your focus? Will you talk about the 'white polystyrene ceiling tiles" or will you talk about the 'chipped polystyrene tiles peeling halfheartedly from the ceiling."? | ||
| If you need some help to focus on what you might be describing, look at the list of questions the editor fired at Frank Trippett in WAM, pp. 19 - 20. | ||
<Syllabus> <Weekly Schedule> <Assignments> <Resources> <Main Site> Lesley Smith New Century College |