Contrasting Descriptions of the Same Place

I sit in my dorm room slaving over seemingly endless work. One math problem is consistently followed by another until the very end when the dreaded finale is a study session of music which could be better described as torture. The sound of my tone-def roommate butchering his favorite songs as loud as he can drowns my ears. This is interrupted by the door repeatedly opening with the arrival of nuisances mooching one thing or another. My phone rings which can mean only one thing: a dreadful conversation with someone I don’t really even want to talk to. All of this is with the slow, steady rumble of a dribbling basketball heard from the room next door. My patience is wearing thin.

After a relatively easy day I returned to my room to finish a few math problems and study for a music test. I’m greeted by my lively roommate whose infectious spirit can’t help but be imitated. My hall-mates continually visit my room to joke and talk about the game last night. They occasionally ask to borrow certain things, but I don’t hesitate to oblige them because I’ve probably borrowed twice as much from them as they have me. One of my friends from home calls and we catch up. My friend next door is dribbling a basketball which means he must be about to go to UREC. He’ll probably invite me and I’ll happily tag along because I’m better at basketball than he is anyway. Today is one of those days where you really see how lucky you are.

With this assignment I was purposefully exaggerative. I was melodramatic in the first paragraph and too rosy in the second. This was done, however, to show how I can change how I can change my angle of vision even while describing the same events. By using different adjectives and a different attitude I can change how my writing is perceived. By using words like slaving, endless, dreaded, and torture I paint my experience as horrible. In the second paragraph I am much more hopeful with words like easy, lively, and joke. My first paragraph is almost melancholy with one dreadful thing happening after another. This changes in the second because everything is much more positive.