DESCRIPTIVE WRITING PUT NOTES IN LINK SPIRAL (next page)

DESCRIPTIVE WRITING: Vividly portrays a person, place, or thing in such a way that the reader can visualize the topic. Creates a vivid experience for the reader.

CHARACTERISTICS Elaborate use of sensory language Rich, vivid, and lively detail Figurative language such as simile, hyperbole, metaphor, symbolism and personification Showing, rather than telling through the use of active verbs and interesting modifiers

SHOW DON’T TELL ”I felt tired at work today.” ‘As the day wore on at work, I felt a cramp beginning to form at the nape of my neck, my eyes began to feel droopy, and the computer screen in front of me began blurring.” –While the first sentence merely tells your reader directly that you felt tired at work today, the second one shows the reader how you grew tired. –Effective descriptive writing is full of such ‘showing sentences’ because they allow readers to experience or imagine what the writer felt for himself or herself.

STEPS Identify exactly what you are setting out to describe. –a place, a person, a pet, an object, an experience, or a memory. Identify the specific reason for writing whatever you have set out to describe. –Tapping into this reason can help you to keep the description focused and infuse your language with a particular emotion or perspective.

STEP 2 Brainstorm, before you actually begin writing. For instance, if you are going to be writing about a flower arrangement, you could jot down a few ideas before you start describing it, like: vase, color, types of flowers, leaves, stem, style, shape, fresh, etc. Once you have the basic words, you could start writing descriptive sentences for each one.

SENSORY DETAILS Use the five senses: –smell, sight, sound, taste, and touch. –When the descriptions are focused on the senses, you provide specific and vivid details in such a way that it shows your reader what you are describing.

MAKE THE LANGUAGE AS DESCRIPTIVE AS YOU CAN! instead of using merely ‘horse’, why not choose to use ‘mare’, ‘foal’ or ‘stallion’? Instead of bland ‘happy’, why not ‘joyous’, ‘glad’, or ‘delighted’?

FOR EXAMPLE Pretend you are writing a descriptive essay about your pet dog. You may have chosen to write about how your dog looks and the way he interacts with you. Instead of merely giving a general description of these features, you could convey how you love your dog’s intelligence and lovingness. In order to achieve this, one of your paragraphs could focus on describing how your dog’s eyes light up in pure joy whenever he sees you after an absence. You could also tell about how he will nuzzle up close to you, nudging you gently with his cold nose, thumping his tail on the floor, when you don’t pay attention to him because of being occupied with something else.

BEWARE Don’t just use descriptive words merely for the sake of filling the page up. The writing must be able to draw in the reader, so the writer should say things that the reader can relate to.

TRY IT! Observe, and then describe an event. Think of a person or object that stands out in your memory. Write a description of that subject. Find an example of descriptive writing; explain the elements that make this a good example.

INTERNET SITES Descriptive Writing with Virginia Hamilton Maintained on Scholastic's website, this online tutorial includes a teacher's guide and student resources for teaching this genre. Descriptive Writing Resources Visit this list for additional resources gathered by the Web English Teacher.Descriptive Writing with Virginia HamiltonDescriptive Writing Resources

WRITING PROMPTS A Magical Photograph (6-8 suggested grade level) You are holding a family photograph. As you look at the photograph you are suddenly transported back into the time and setting of the picture. Describe the picture and explain the interesting things that happened on the day the picture was taken. Far and Away (6-8 suggested grade level) You have just arrived in a distant place far away, and everyone "back home" can't wait to hear what it is like! Write a clear description of this place--whether real or imaginary---to give your readers a vivid picture of what it is like in this far-away land. In Science (6-8 suggested grade level) Encourage students to write a complete description of the parts of a cell, the water cycle or other scientific process as a quiz to check their understanding of a topic presented in a recent lesson. The Perfect Vacation Place (6-8 suggested grade level) You are on a family vacation. In your writing, describe your surroundings: what you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Where are you? Who is with you? What do you feel? Successful People (6-8 suggested grade level) Think about someone you know who is successful. In what ways is this person successful? How much of this person's success is due to luck, and how much is due to hard work? Write an essay to present to your class in which you describe a successful person. This person could be someone you know or may have never met. It could be a person who may or may not be famous. Explain whether you think luck, talent, or hard work is most important to success. Use details that support your ideas.