Student Writing Handbook Fifth+Edition

Character Sketch / 167

list of names. [See Chapter 1, Prewriting, for additional suggestions.] You may head
your list with phrases such as these:

people at work

people at my family reunion

people who live on my block

people on my athletic team

When you have a list of a dozen or so people, think about each person individually.
Ask yourself questions such as these:

• What is his or her most unusual characteristic?


• How is this person’s view of life different from that of most other people?


• How are this person’s habits, demeanor, and other characteristics different
  from most others like him or her?


• What would someone who meets him or her for the first time be most likely to
  notice—or least likely to notice?

These questions and others like them will give you a basis for choosing a subject for
your character sketch.

STEP 2: Prewriting—Determining the Focus

Now that you have selected a person about whom you can write, list all the possible
characteristics you can think of that make this person interesting or unusual. You
may have a list something like this:

called “world’s oldest hippie”

considers self a medical healer

invents “contraptions”

built own house

eats strange herbs and plants

makes violins

raises own food—garden, goats, bees

usually looks dirty

From your list, select one idea on which to build a character sketch. Put that idea in
a sentence:

My neighbor, whom we call “the world’s oldest hippie,” considers himself a

healer, using strange herbs and plants, all of which he raises himself.

In a single sentence, write the one idea on which you think you can build your char-
acter sketch.