Describe
What is descriptive writing?
Descriptive writing can be hard to write. It is not a story and it has no plot line.
You are imagining closing your eyes and seeing a picture.
Yet, you are inside the picture and can sense smell, sounds and feelings. It is often
written in the third person.
Effective description works because it helps a reader feel a part of the scene
being described.
If you look closely at how this kind of writing is created, you’ll find many
references to one or more of the senses such as what can be seen or heard. This is
called sensory description.
This use of the senses allows the reader to enter the scene more effectively by
involving them directly and by evoking a more emotional response. It works because
it creates imagery in the mind.
Language techniques
Imagery is a very important feature of descriptive writing. The most common way
by which a writer can create imagery is through the use of figurative language,
typically through the use of metaphor, simile and personification.
A simile is the comparison of one item with another. Usually the words __‘as’ __or
__‘like’ __are used to bring the two ideas together.
For example:
The temperature was hot.
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could become,
The temperature was hot like the sun.
However, be careful. You must make your simile effective. How could you make
__‘The temperature was hot like the sun__’ effective? __
Think about when the sun is at its hottest: the desert, midday, summer etc. Now,
change the simile:
The temperature was hot like the midday, desert sun in midsummer.
A metaphor is a comparison in which something is said to be something else:
The man ____was a cheetah__ racing down the track.__
The sound drummed ____on her head.
The vultures__ tore through the school canteen.__
Why use a metaphor?
You can make the ordinary strange and interesting, making your writing more
exciting to read.
Your reader is forced to think and interpret when you show them something
through the use of imagery, rather than telling them literally.
This is when the word sounds like the word that it is representing. Sound is the
key sense that is described with onomatopoeia. Think about: ____bang, ____crash
____and ____whoosh. With each of these words, you can hear that sound.
Alliteration__ is repetition of a sound at the beginning of a group of words. An
example might be:__
The ____fierce ____fox ____fixated on the ____field mouse.
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With alliteration, you must consider the hard sounds and the soft sounds in
English. Consider the sound produced:
Lovely vs ____collided
The ‘l’ sound is soft and gentle whereas the ‘c’ sound is harsh and abrupt. You must
consider the tone that you are attempting to create.
Personification__ is providing an inanimate object with animate features.__
Consider a tree moving in the wind:
The leaves ____dancing
The trunk ____stood still__ and __upright
The flowers ____waving
All of these are characteristics of humans, rather than of trees. They provide
interesting imagery.
Exampletext
__Look at the example text. __
What language techniques can you spot within the paragraph?
The creature buzzed loudly through the air, its delicate wings fluttering in the
sparkling sun. Although feared, the contrast of the sunshine yellow and jet black
stripes over its plump body made the creature beautiful. However, its sting
hovered down, warning those who bravely dared to go near that it was dangerous.
Create your own writing and assess
Within the exam, you might be provided with a picture as a stimulus. You can use
the picture in whatever way is useful; however, do not be afraid to steer away
from the stimulus material.
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Complete one of the following questions:
Describe an important event in your life.
Describe a train journey.
Describe your favourite holiday destination.
Improving Vocabulary
Thesaurus:Dictionaries are used to find a definition.__ Thesauruses are used to find words
that mean the same thing. These words are called __synonyms. ____Thesauruses
will also inform you of any antonyms.
Use a thesaurus to look up the word underlined in each sentence:
The kind girl helped her father.
The black of the night was frightening.
The happy baby smiled.
Try to explain why your word is better than the original.
Simile
A simile is the comparison of one item with another. Usually the words __‘as’ __or
__‘like’ __are used to bring the two ideas together.
For example:
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__ __The temperature was hot.
could become,
The temperature was hot like the sun.
However, be careful. You must make your simile effective. How could you make ‘The
temperature was hot like the sun’ effective? Think about when the sun is at its
hottest: the desert, midday, summer etc. Now, change the simile:
The temperature was hot like the midday, desert sun in midsummer.
Metaphor
A metaphor is a comparison in which something is said to be something else:
The man ____was a cheetah__ racing down the track.__
The sound drummed ____on her head.
The vultures__ tore through the school canteen.__
Why use a metaphor?
You can make the ordinary strange and interesting, making your writing more
exciting to read.
Your reader is forced to think and interpret when you show them something
through the use of imagery, rather than telling them literally.
onomatopoeia
__This is when the word sounds like the word that it is representing. __
__Sound is the key sense that is described with onomatopoeia. __
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Think about: ____bang, ____crash ____and ____whoosh. With each of these
words, you can hear that sound.
Alliteration
Alliteration ____is repetition of a sound at the beginning of a group of words. An
example might be:
The ____fierce ____fox ____fixated on the ____field mouse.
With alliteration, you must consider the hard sounds and the soft sounds in
English. Consider the sound produced:
Lovely vs ____collided
The ‘l’ sound is soft and gentle whereas the ‘c’ sound is harsh and abrupt. You must
consider the tone that you are attempting to create.
Personification
Personification__ is providing an inanimate object with animate features.__
Consider a tree moving in the wind:
The leaves dancing
The trunk stood still and upright
The flowers waving
All of these are characteristics of humans, rather than of trees. They provide
interesting imagery.
Writing
Different Types of Word Classes
Noun __- an object, place or person__
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Examples: a ball, an idea, a child
Adjective__ - adds detail to the noun__
Examples: yellow, three, beautiful
Verb __- a doing word__
Examples: run, walk and eat
Adverb __- tells the reader how the verb is being done__
Examples: angrily, messily and quickly
The yellow ball rolled easily.
Look at the following sentence:
The quick rabbit ran fast.
Is this a good sentence?
How could you make it better?
The sentence does use all the major word classes. It even uses alliteration.
However, ‘quick’, ‘ran’ and ‘fast’ all have the same meaning. Think about how you
could change the sentence so that the adjective means something different to the
verb, which means something different to the adverb,
The scared rabbit sprinted hopefully.
How is this sentence better?
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This time, each word means something different and it adds a different dimension
to the sentence.
peer / selfassessment
H.W Describe a haunted house.
Write 5 sentences. In each sentence, you must add a different__ language
technique__. __Across all 5 sentences, you must use a range of __adjectives,
adverbs, nouns and verbs.
Once you have finished, you must label each technique and explain why it is
effective.
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