http://www.panoramas.dk/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_
S_ux6f1Z_U
What makes a moment important in
life?
1.
2.
3.
4.
What makes a moment important in
life?
1. Your feelings
2. The implications for the future
3. A surprise/unexpected event
These are the
kind of moments
4. Confirmation of something
WORTH
describing.
5. A change in viewpoint or perspective
6. Who you share it with
Descriptive Writing: What Ingredients
do you Already Know?
• In groups, write the opening to an answer to
this question:
From your imagination, describe a warrior or a
hero at the moment of victory.
The mark scheme for top bands
• There are many well defined, well developed
ideas and images, describing complex
atmospheres with a range of details.
• Overall structure is provided through devices
such as the movements of the persona, the
creation of a short time span, or the creation of
atmosphere or tension.
• There is no confusion with writing a story.
• Repetition is avoided and the sequence of
sentences makes the picture clear to the reader.
How Big Can you Make your Cake?
• Today you will practice:
1. Thinking of complex responses to the questions
2. Crafting your sentences and paragraphs
3. Developing your descriptions
On Thursday, you will practice:
4. Crafting using punctuation
5. Using correct comparatives and superlatives: who is
the most * * in the class?
And complete your descriptive writing past paper.
1. Complex Responses to the
Questions
• Don’t make the obvious choice!
1. If the question allows, pick an unique topic.
2. ‘You’ just has to be a persona: you can write
from anyone’s or anything’s perspective.
Describe a group of people at work.
• ‘Suddenly everything stopped moving and
there was complete silence.’ Describe what
was before your eyes and the sensations that
you experienced.
• From your imagination, describe a warrior or a
hero at the moment of victory.
• Describe the last moments before you leave a
place forever.
• Describe a restful place
• Describe an alien’s first impression of a town
centre known to you.
• Describe the surroundings and your emotions
at a time when you felt very alone.
• Imagine you are in a hot air balloon. Describe
what you see below and how the experience
makes you feel.
1. Complex Responses to the
Questions
1. If the question allows, pick an unique topic.
2. If not/Then, look at it from a unique angle.
3. (Unless it is an emotional piece) Describe it from an
object’s perspective.
Take control of your writing: it doesn’t say it’s limited
to one person/object’s perspective.
GET IN AN UNUSUAL POSITION
Describe the room.
Describe a place you feel
uncomfortable...
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7o8KuJKi
zs
• Describe a toilet.... From a sink’s perspective.
2. Crafting sentences and paragraphs
• The whole thing has to be structured via a
common thread.
• How many ways can we thread the details
together?
Describe a group of people at work
Juxtaposition
Many people are happy there. They think it’s a
wonderful wonderland of excitement and
adventure. Most people’s heart beats rise and fall in
rapid succession as their cheeks light up and their
mouths swallow heavily in anticipation.
My mouth cradles inside itself, frightened like a
hedgehog lost in the middle of a fierce highway. My
heart slows so that I can feel every microsecond of
movement as it contracts into a small ball.
This is my personal hell: this is P.E.
Juxtaposition
• Link to your viewpoint:
Look again at your description of the room.
Now get on the floor.
Write it again from the perspective of an ant.
Link it using one of the following phrases:
Below my eyes crawls an ant, experiencing an entirely
different world within these four walls...
Contrary to this perspective, an ant is over-powered by
the ....
Balanced sentences
• Her home and her housekeeping, her parish
and her poultry.
• Alliteration + same number of words either
side of a connective or ;
• (Repetition can also aid this).
Which are the antithesis words?
Prepositional and Adverb Starters:
Find Them!
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Prepositions:
Until
As
Beneath
Above
Beyond
Unless
Out of reach
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Adverbs:
Stealthily
Miserably
Melodically
Harmoniously
Roughly
Effortlessly
Contentedly
3. Developing Details
• You will be given a photograph. Describe the
photograph for 1minute.
• Your partner will then draw what they think the
photo looks like.
Cross-reference the photographs.
• If the layout of the photo is similar, you’d get a
grade C/D.
• If there are specific, minute details on both
photographs, you’d get a B.
• If the atmosphere is similar, despite the layout not
being exactly the same, you’d get a grade A.
Which is the most effective
personification?
Imagery Pecking Order
• Metaphors
1
1
• Extended
Metaphors
2
2
• Personification
• Similes
3
4
3
4
Argue your case!
• You will be given an opener to a description
for the question:
Describe a group of people at work.
Your job is to argue that your opener is better
than the rest.
Welcome to Tenby Magazines
URGENT MEMO
From: Editor Carina
To: Yr11
Subject: Descriptive Writing Needed.
Describe the last moments before you leave a place
forever.
Write the first 195-205 words to this question. Pass it to
the sub-editors, who will comment on your work and
decide which two are worthy of publication. Use your
ingredients.