1st Two Rhetorical Modes: Definition & Description

      So far, we have explored 2 of the 10 rhetorical modes: definition and description. The definition essay was pretty, dare I say it, fun. I normally  hate essays but this one didn't have very strict rules and was kind of free-form. I picked the slang word "props", which is used to give someone proper recognition for something they did. I had a little 2-sentence intro and started talking about it right away, since it was only a 200 word essay. You would think it's easier to write an essay with a small amount of words but, it's actually harder; you have to get to the point and sometimes you don't feel like you got the point across the way you wanted to because of the limit. Anyway, I looked up the etymology of "props" and it came from the phrase, "proper recognition", popularized by rappers in the 1980s. I tried to put in some quality examples, to give an idea of how to use the word. If I were to go back and change it, I would talk more about the examples, explain them (AXES), even though the word count would go over 200. Overall, it was enjoyable and not too stressful.
      The description essay was a tough one for me. First of all, I put a lot of emphasis on the artwork to pick because I have to write a whole 300-500 essay on it. It look me awhile and I finally picked Irises, by Van Gogh. I kept on thinking about "the descriptions must tie to the theme" so, I tried to pick a painting that had many noticeable descriptions that I could connect to a theme. I was down to 2 choices when I narrowed it down: Irises and a painting depicting a poor family. I liked the latter because the theme was "poverty", which could easily( I thought) be tied to the description: dark, dull colors, sullen facial expressions and .....that's all I could think of. I wanted at least 3 descriptions so, I moved on to the other choice, whose theme was "the joy found in nature." I saw that Van Gogh used bright colors, put emphasis on the vivid flowers and made them free-form, having  movement; I went ahead and chose it. Writing it was difficult to me because I wanted to just talk about what I saw but, everything had to support the theme, kind of like a thesis or claim.
      I tried my best to have AXES in my body paragraphs, stating the description(A), giving an example of it(X), explaining why Van Gogh did this (E) and then for Significance, I talked about how the description tied to the theme. I hope I did well!