Scent Essay--or the one with the cotton balls

 You have written a few narrative essays in this class based on a variety of ideas and memories.  This assignment is also a narrative essay, but with a twist! 

Scent is a powerful memory trigger—you know the scent of crayons—does it bring back memories of kindergarten?  The innocence of childhood?  The fun times you had as a kid?  Don’t you want it all back again?  Why do you think Yankee Candles are so successful?  They tap into a prime area of our brains—memory!  For this narrative we are going to use the sense of smell as a basis for your essay.

 Pick just one scent—what does it remind you of?  What images come to mind when you smell it?  Do some pre-writing here.  Smell the scent and drift back into time—where are you?  Who else is there?  What do you see?  Use your other senses—what do you hear, taste, touch, see?  Be very descriptive—take your reader along with you. 

 Now write your narrative essay.  Tell the story/event/image that was triggered by the scent.  Your memory may not be a full-blown story, but you need to develop it into one—a very detailed description of what you recall based on this scent. 

 

Include the following:

 

• 500-800 words
• Title
• Well-developed introduction paragraph with attention grabber, setting and character intros
• Tell the story completely with lots of description and detail
• Dialogue
• Smooth transitions between paragraphs
• Conclusion with reflective
• Use all the sentence patterns
• remove the words: we/us/our/got/you in any form

 

Sentence Patterns

Use at least one of each type of sentence in your final draft of your scent narrative, descriptive essay. 

1.       Open with an adverb.  Noisily, the mosquitoes buzzed around the campers’ heads.

2.       Open with a prepositional phrase.  In a dingy basement, the robber hid out during the day.

3.       Use an appositive.  Claude Monet, a French Impressionist artist, painted many outdoor scenes in his garden, Giverney.

4.       Use at least one simile.  The tornado was like a swirling vacuum, easily sucking up trees and debris like lost Legos and Barbie shoes.

5.       Use at least one metaphor. The game between the two teams turned into a tough battle.

6.       Use one word that is onomatopoeia.  Bang!

7.       Open with a participle.  Gazing at the ballerinas, Degas planned his next painting.

8.       Use parallel structure.  Mom bought chips, soda, and cookies for the picnic.  OR  Hugh caught the baseball, checked second, then threw it home.

9.       Open with an infinitive.  To prevent a mess, the chef covered the counter with waxed paper.

10.   Use a semi-colon.  Zeus blasted a lightning bolt from the sky; a mortal had made him angry.