ENG/COMM          MR. SAITZ      WRITING ASSIGNMENT
   
   Read the following passage, VERY CAREFULLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   
   
     At daybreak Billy Buck emerged from the bunkhouse and
   stood for a moment on the porch looking up at the sky.  He
   was a broad, bandy-legged little man with a walrus
   mustache, with square hands, puffed and muscled on the
   palms.  His eyes were a contemplative, watery grey and the
   hair which protruded from under his Stetson hat was spiky
   and weathered.  Billy was still stuffing his shirt into his
   blue jeans as he stood on the porch.  He unbuckled his belt
   and tightened it again.  The belt showed, by the worn shiny
   places opposite each hole, the gradual increase in Billy's
   middle over a period of years.  When he had seen to the
   weather, Billy cleared each nostril by holding its mate
   closed with his forefinger and blowing fiercely.  Then he
   walked down to the barn, rubbing his hands together.  He
   curried and brushed two saddle horses in the stalls,
   talking quietly to them all the time;  and he had hardly
   finished when the iron triangle started ringing at the
   ranch house.  Billy stuck the brush and currycomb together
   and laid them on the rail, and went up to breakfast.  His
   action had been so deliberate and yet so wasteless of time
   that he came to the house while Mrs. Tiflin was still
   ringing the triangle.  She nodded her grey head to him and
   withdrew into the kitchen.  Billy Buck sat down on the
   steps, because he was a cow-hand, and it wouldn't be
   fitting that he should go first into the dining room.  He
   heard Mr. Tiflin in the house, stamping his feet into his
   boots.
   
   (270 words)  From The Red Pony by John Steinbeck  (a novel
   everyone should read)
                         *******************
   
   Examine EVERY word of this description.  Steinbeck is a
   masterful writer and his 270 words are filled with not only
   Billy's physical description but also his personality,
   philosophy, occupation, rank in society, attitudes to life
   and work, competence at his job, among other things.  If
   you try, you can list at least 35 separate aspects that
   relate to Billy Buck.
   
   YOUR ASSIGNMENT   
     In about as many words, write a description of a
   person, real or fictional.  You will ideally have the
   person either finishing or beginning something, such as
   getting ready to go to work or leaving  work at the end of
   the day. Be sure to use a short time frame to enclose your
   description and give it an ending and a beginning.  Use
   vivid words and let me (the reader)know everything about
   the person.
     HOWEVER, do not tell me everything-- imply as many
   things as Steinbeck does about Billy.  For instance, why
   are Billy's eyes a "contemplative, watery grey" and his
   hair "spiky and weathered"?
   When do you find out Billy's occupation?  When did you know
   what it is?  Hint at the person's occupation and let me,
   the reader, discover your character's occupation.  
   
   You must include ALL of your planning notes and ROUGH WORK. 
   
   (This page has 506 words on it.)