Contrasting Descriptions Activity

Favorable Description

            I am sitting on the grass outside of Ikenberry, my dorm building in the village.  It is a beautiful, sunny day and there is a light and gentle breeze, making the weather very pleasant.  There are people walking by, but since I appear to be doing work, no one bothers me much.  There are trees directly in front of me and to my right, some of them with leaves, and others with pine needles.  There is also a line of bushes to my right, which blocks my view of the parking lot that is located just beyond them.  It is getting near dinner time, so there are not too many cars on the road, only a couple have passed by so far.  There are two other people sitting in the grass to my left, and they are also getting some homework done.  I think all of the bugs must realize that I am doing work, for they are not bothering me either.

 

Unfavorable Description

            I am still sitting in the grass in front of Ikenberry with my back against the brick of the building.  To my left there is a window, which leads to a boy’s dorm room.  I know this because they have been talking loudly and making profane comments to each other.  Directly in front of me is the rusted lid of a sewer, and multiple white pipes that are sticking out of the ground, which probably have to do with the sewer system as well.  There are patches of grass that are missing, and only dry dirt there to replace them.  There are a couple pieces of trash to my right, which look like they are food wrappers of some sort.   Also, there are wooden poles at the front of the field which have a metal chain connecting them all together, the purpose of which is unclear to me.  The marching band rehearsal is just about to start behind the tennis courts to my right, but since they have yet to start, they are tinkering with their instruments and making sounds that do not make musical sense.

Reflection

            I actually really enjoyed doing this assignment because it got me to think differently.  I liked that I had to describe the same scene in two different ways because I’ve never done that before, and it was a good way to help me learn how to use angle of vision.  Since I wrote the positive description first, it was hard not to contradict myself in the negative description.  I would always want to say things like the weather was bad, but I couldn’t because the weather was actually very nice and I had already mentioned that in the positive description. 

            This activity has definitely helped me to write in differing angles of vision better.  I had never really thought about doing that before, and after learning about it, I thought I might try it in a paper or something.  I’m glad we did this activity before I tried using angle of vision on my own, because it was a very straightforward and clear way to learn how to use it.  What I mean by that is just that it was a pretty easy activity, describing what was around you, but it really helped me to learn how to use angle of vision.