DESRIPTIVE ESSAY
     In this writing exercise the teacher may wish to change the pace a little by having the student write a descriptive essay.  Since this is a fairly common writing exercise in high school, the teacher should feel free to implement those strategies and directions which have worked well in the past, but I feel a discussion of the differences between objective and subjective writing would be most helpful before beginning the assignment.

     The teacher will note a few images and pictures attached to the Overview section of this Web Site.  The student should choose one of these for the writing assignment.  After receiving instructions from the teacher, the student should construct a descriptive essay derived from that image or picture.  In the process of the student's writing the paper, I definitely would have the individual approach the task, first by using objective description, and then incorporating subjective description as he or she moves into what the the picture is really portraying.   In other words the student should interpret in full what the artist is suggesting through the image. Of course, as the student speculates about these possible meanings, he or she should incorporate objective details to reinforce subjective theories.  To create a little panache for the essay, the student should try to develop in the opening paragraph a definite sense of voice and a broader context in which to place the piece.   To achieve this, the writer might try to relate the description to some of the ideas learned from the discussion of the classical texts from which the class did its initial research.

COMPARISON and CONTRAST

     At this point the teacher should feel free to use any of the accompaning images from the Overview Page to construct other writing assignments such as comparison and contrast. Once again the teacher would use those rubrics and directions which will work best for the individual class and grade level.