Descriptive Writing

1. Descriptive Writing Mervat Mousli

2. Today’s Plan • We’ll get to know what the meaning of descriptive writing is. • We’ll learn how to write a descriptive paragraph. • We’ll examine examples. • Try to write a few descriptive sentences.

3. Descriptive writing uses sensory details to paint a mental picture of a person, place, thing, or event. What is descriptive writing? Copying permitted

4. What are sensory details? • They are details that appeal to the five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling. • They help descriptions come alive in the reader’s mind. Copying permitted

5. How to write Steps are important

6. Find and Explore a Topic Before you can write an effective descriptive paragraph, you need to do two things: • find a good topic; • study the topic carefully (a strategy that we call probing).

7. Draft a Descriptive Paragraph Once you have settled on a topic for your descriptive paragraph and collected some details, you're ready to assemble those details in a rough draft that begins with a topic sentence.

8. While Writing • Describe particular smells and tastes in the paragraph. Use the most descriptive words possible to allow the reader to smell or taste what you are describing. For example: "The homemade cookies filled the air with the scent of warm chocolate, and the chocolate morsels filled your mouth with the taste of cocoa."

9. While Writing • Add the senses of touch and hearing to your paragraph wherever possible. Describe certain textures and sounds. For example: "The silk garment felt smooth and fluid over my skin, and it had the sound of a gentle breeze."

10. While Writing • Use similes and metaphors when you write your descriptive paragraph. These literary devices strengthen your paragraph if used properly. • Example of a simile: "Without warning, Lionel gave one of his tight little sneezes: it sounded like a bullet fired through a silencer."

11. While Writing • Insert descriptive adjectives to modify your nouns. Don't just say "blue ocean." Describe the actual colors you see in the ocean. Use more descriptive words such as aquamarine or indigo to describe the shade.

12. While Writing • Try personification to give human characteristics to inanimate objects. For example: "The tree stood proudly with her arms stretching toward the sky."

13. While Writing • Be sure to make your paragraph long enough to give an adequate description. Describe the scene or object in as many ways as you can, but check that your paragraph is coherent.

14. Revise a Descriptive Paragraph Now you will revise your descriptive paragraph, concentrating on its organization. That is, you will check to see that your sentences follow a clear and logical order, each detail related to the one that came before and leading to the one that follows.

15. Revise, Edit, and Proofread Sleep on your writing. Read it now as if written by someone else, trying to locate errors in: • Meaning • Grammar • Pronunciation • Punctuation

16. http://grammar.about.comwww.greatsource.comhttp://www.ehow.comhttp://grammar.about.comwww.greatsource.comhttp://www.ehow.com References

17. Examples? Descriptive paragraph

18. My Grandmother My grandma’s name is Wanda, but I call her “Nana.” She has short, white hair. Her hair was blonde when she was younger. She likes to wear green and blue dresses. She has a fun, loud laugh. She makes Thanksgiving dinner for us every year. She has strong arms and likes to give big hugs. Nana is the greatest. Copying permitted

19. A Friendly Clown On one corner of my dresser sits a smiling toy clown on a tiny unicycle--a gift I received last Christmas from a close friend. The clown's short yellow hair, made of yarn, covers its ears but is parted above the eyes. The blue eyes are outlined in black with thin, dark lashes flowing from the brows. It has cherry-red cheeks, nose, and lips, and its broad grin disappears into the wide, white ruffle around its neck. The clown wears a fluffy, two-tone nylon costume. The left side of the outfit is light blue, and the right side is red. The two colors merge in a dark line that runs down the center of the small outfit. Surrounding its ankles and disguising its long black shoes are big pink bows. The white spokes on the wheels of the unicycle gather in the center and expand to the black tire so that the wheel somewhat resembles the inner half of a grapefruit. The clown and unicycle together stand about a foot high. As a cherished gift from my good friend Tran, this colorful figure greets me with a smile every time I enter my room.

20. Invitation to Write • List three people you know well. • Choose one to write about. • List details of what he or she looks like, sounds like, and likes to do. • Use these details to write a descriptive paragraph about your person. Copying permitted

21. HINT Our assignment is about an appointment. Do not forget to describe the place in details, the other applicants, the ones with the most interesting looks or actions, the interviewer, etc. Describe how you felt all the time.

22. That’s all for today! Take care! Remember to read this before writing!