Nothing Surpasses the Sweetness of HOME



Nothing Surpasses the Sweetness of HOME

The importance of home or the journey home is a theme in The Odyssey. To explore this concept more closely, ask yourself where is your home?

The common denotation for home is the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household. According to English Oxford Living Dictionaries, home can also be defined as the “place where something flourishes, is most typically found, or from which it originates” (). However, home carries strong connotations, as well. In “The Definition of Home,” author Verlyn Klinkenborg claims that the notion of “home” has “become embedded in human consciousness” (). Klinkenborg also suggests that as well as being “a place so profoundly familiar you don’t even have to notice it,” home “is a way of organizing space in our minds. Home is home, and everything else is not-home. That’s the way the world is constructed” (). She explains that home has a magnetic property around which everything else aligns, and Klinkenborg recounts the experience of coming home from a trip to see your home through the eyes of a stranger, if only for a fraction of a second: “That, I think, is one of the most basic meanings of home—a place we can never see with a stranger’s eyes for more than a moment” ().

So where and what is home to you? Where is that place where everything is familiar, where everything aligns, and where you flourish? Review your journal entry, “Home Sweet Home.” Then determine the specific place you will write about using first person narration: it may be the house you live in, a location within that house, or another location altogether. Where do you find the most comfort and happiness, a sweetness that cannot be surpassed? Once you have identified your “home,” complete each of the steps outlined below. *HINT: You may wish to brainstorm a few possibilities for places to describe, and work through the prewriting for more than one to see which will yield the most effective descriptive writing.

Five Senses: A Descriptive Writing Exercise

Good descriptive writing uses precise nouns and verbs, vivid adjectives and adverbs, and imagery to give readers the “being there” feeling.

1. Complete one or both of the following prewriting activities: A) Generate details of imagery to describe the place you have chosen using the “This is a story about . . .” method. Focus each new snapshot on one of the five senses, generating 2 – 3 descriptive passages for each sense. OR B) Create a 5-Senses Chart, listing each of the five senses across the top of your page, and in the column below each, listing a minimum of three descriptive phrases that appeal that sense.

2. Capture and convey your attitude about your special place without stating: “I love it here.” To do this, describe what you do when you are here using descriptive details that SHOW why you consider this place your home. EX: Sprawled across the couch, the plush warmth of the fuzzy blanket enveloping me, I sigh and contentedly grab my frayed bookmark from the top, savoring the heft of the book as it flops open against my wrist and I begin to read. On that same couch, I spend hours engulfed in surround-sound, watching scenes flit across the too-big screen, not caring a bit about what we watch, just soaking up the time spent lounging and cuddling with my family.

3. Review the details of imagery and mood that you have generated through your prewriting to be sure that you have all the essential details of your home, the things that make it unique – that home rather than any other place; add anything you realize you may have left out. Then select those details that best describe your surpassingly sweet home and organize your ideas. How will you begin the description and how will you combine all of your details so that the reader gets a natural sense of the place?

4. Draft your descriptive paragraph. You may find your piece demands several paragraphs, but you should not use a separate paragraph for each sense. Your paragraph should be written using first person narration only (no “you” in the description).

5. Peer Evaluation: Have at least two classmates read your descriptive writing to offer feedback. Time for this activity will likely be provided in class.

6. Revise description of your “home” using feedback to improve ideas by adding or deleting information, as well as to improve organization and word choice. This would be a good time to use a thesaurus if you have not already so that you use precise nouns and verbs, vivid adjectives and adverbs, and imagery to give readers the “being there” feeling.

DUE DATES:

_________________ Prewriting Check

_________________ Draft

_________________ Revision

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