Descriptive Writing “Don’t tell me the old lady screamed. Drag her in here and let her scream!” - Mark Twain

Descriptive writing uses the five senses to help create an image for the reader – this is known as imagery. sight sound smell touch taste Strong descriptive writing manages to show what is being described rather than tell what is being described.

Example of show vs. tell “I grew tired after dinner.” “As I leaned back and rested my head against the top of the chair, my eyelids began to feel heavy, and the edges of the empty plate in front of me blurred with the white tablecloth. The first sentence tells the reader that you grew tired after dinner. The second sentence shows readers that you grew tired. The most effective descriptive writing is loaded with showing because it enables readers to imagine or experience something for themselves.

How do we do this? Use modifiers – adjectives and adverbs Use adverbs to make actions more vivid and accurate Use adjectives to describe nouns in detail BAD – “The smoke went towards the sea.” GOOD – “Acres of black and yellow smoke rolled steadily towards the sea.”

Use strong action verbs BAD – “They looked at the horizon.” GOOD – “They gazed intently at the dense blue of the horizon, as if a little silhouette might appear there at any moment.”

Use all five senses Don’t just describe what you see; instead, describe what you smell, taste, feel, and hear.

Use figurative language SIMILE – “The flames, as though they were a kind of wildlife, crept as a jaguar creeps on its belly towards a line of birch-like saplings that fledged an outcrop of the pink rock.” METAPHOR – “The sun in the west was a drop of burning gold that slid nearer and nearer the sill of the world.” PERSONIFICATION – “Small flames stirred at the bole of a tree and crawled away through leaves and brushwood.”

Practice You have 10 minutes to complete this activity before I randomly call on a few students to share their writing with the class. Go outside. Find an inspiration (tree, grasshopper, bus stop etc.) Describe it in 3 sentences. Don’t forget: modifiers, action verbs, senses, figurative language