englishbiz - DESCRIPTIVE WRITING

1 englishbiz - DESCRIPTIVE WRITINGH ereare some verypowerfullines of descriptionfrom the poem, The Tyger(spelled with a y by the poet):Tyger! Tyger! burning brightIn the forest of the night,What immortal hand or eyeCould frame thy fearful symmetry?fromTheTygerby William BlakeIn many ways description is themostimportant kind of WRITING there is despite the fact thatdescriptionisneverused as an end in itself. Description is usedtosupportotherreasons forwriting such as story-telling,explanation, persuasion or makesreadersfeelalmostasiftheyare there , experiencing the its very best, DESCRIPTIVE WRITING can seem to etch its imagesintoits reader smind.

2 Read thesefamous opening lines from a World War I poem andmaybeyou ll get a feeling for this:Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,Till on the haunting flares we turned our backsAnd towards our distant rest began to marched asleep. Many had lost their bootsBut limped on, blood-shod. All went lame all blindDrunk with fatigue deaf even to the hootsOf tired, outstripped gas bombs that dropped DESCRIPTIVE WRITING works wellwhen it refers to things that relate tothesensessuch as sounds is called sensory description.

3 Circle sensory wordsin the two poem extracts this next passage, prose not poetry this time, see how writer Bruce Chatwin achieves this in an extract fromhis travel- WRITING book, In Patagonia . Notice how he gives his reader the sense that he isshowingus thiswoman rather than merelytellingus about her this is akeydescriptive skill:show, don t tell!What does itlooklike? His ashen facelooked like he hadseen the horror ofhorrors. What does itfeellike? The soft gooeymass clung to myby nowquiveringflesh. What does ittastelike? The taste washeavenly-likesomething you dlooked forward toall your life.

4 What does itsmelllike? The smell wasindescribable;nothingthis side ofHell s gates couldcomeclose. What does itsoundlike? A sound like athousand crashingcymbals assaultedour ears .2 Notice, too, that he does three things to makethispiece ofwriting more effective: hefocuses on specific details justthoseaspectsthatsaysomethingimportan taboutthecharacter. he usesprecisevocabulary,thatiswordsthatare ,inthemselvesandwithoutextraadjectives,h ighlydescriptive. he usesvividandoriginalfigurative thepreciselanguageas well as thesimilesandmetaphorshe was waiting for me, a white face behind a dusty window.

5 She smiled, her painted mouthunfurling as a red flag caught in a sudden breeze. Her hair was dyed dark-auburn. Her legs were aMesopotamia of varicose veins. She still had the tatters of an extraordinary had been making pastry and the grey dough clung to her hands. Her blood-red nails werecracked and chipped.[ ]Now,over to you!Describea car journeyWhat might yousee,touch,smell,tasteandhear? afiery red fist, the Ferrari Testarossa punched its waypast our ageing Ford open window allowed a cool spring breeze to caress my ancient jalopy of a school bus spluttered along in front of us spewingout nauseous black clouds bitter taste of the pre-trip travel sickness pill still clung to back of my screeching siren of an ambulance forced us to pull in and wait till it , doesn t it?

6 And you can make it work for you. You ll gain a higher grade, too, so it must be s a typical exam question:Qu. Describe the scene in a large department store or shop on the first day of theJanuary sales. (2002)How to go about it?Imagine yourself to be a kind of human video camera !With your searching zoom lens you are going to record what was in the particular scene or situation theexamquestion asks you to describe: a selection of the stills from your video will provide the substance for what you describe. a good structure is crucial to a high grade.

7 This can be achieved in several ways, for example, bydescribing each of the stills from your video location bylocation: In the ; By the hot ; In the ; Over ;. other structures that work are: from inside to , from then to , from the general to the particular .. Structure provides shape to your WRITING and can gain many what yousaw,heard,tasted, thetimeframe:alwayssetyour writingin the past: saw , heard , felt ..be safe and stick to writingabout a past events using past tense verbs throughout! WRITING as if the event you describe were happening in the present ( using present tenseverbslike walks/runs/drives )can be exciting to read.

8 Sadly, and worryingly, it s far too easyto forget the time frame and flip back into using past tense verbs without realising. This willlose m-a-n-y marks! Avoidwriting your answerin the form of a short story. Avoid being a part of the action take the role ofobserveronly ( The streets / the not I / I ) Follow the advice given above: zoom in and focus the lens of your video camera on the kind ofscene asked in the questionand report what you capture on film. Help your readertofeel as if he or she were actually there, experiencing the thing * TIPT heme and Controlling IdeaWhat makes readingany piece of want to feelinterested,involved,engagedwithwhat the WRITING is telling about; most of all you needtorelatetoit in some canyour DESCRIPTIVE WRITING be made to fit the bill?

9 Most of us seem to enjoy reading about the important things in life: fear, loneliness, friendship, growing up,getting old, facing and mostpeopleenjoyreadingwhenitcreates a sense of excitement, tension,fear or wonder also,andperhaps because we are rather nosy or like to compare ourselves to others, weenjoy reading about interesting characters who succeed in overcoming the odds. WRITING that explores ideaslike thesestands a goodchance of being interesting to well, itgains the highest STEPS TOSUCCESS1. Read the question with thought and careSeems obvious.

10 As described above, decide if the topic of the question would allow you to develop anunderlying message of some kind in your WRITING . This message then becomes your controlling idea. It can helpto switch roles for a moment and become your own reader-putting on your reader s hat is always a goodthing to do when an tellinga though all storytelling depends upon description to set a scene or mood,when writingpurely todescribe , itcanbebest to avoid WRITING a ,forexample,youwon thavethe time or space towrite an effective Write about apasttime avoid WRITING about the present!