Descriptive Writing Objectives To understand the importance of

Descriptive Writing Objectives: To understand the importance of using adverbs and adjectives when describing. To learn techniques used when writing to describe.

What is my descriptive writing for? • Descriptive writing is one of the assessments for GCSE English. • We will look at a variety of writing tasks using key ideas from the mark scheme before planning and completing your own piece.

What makes a good piece of descriptive writing? • In descriptive writing the writer should be positioned as an observer. One approach is to act like a fixed camera, recording what is seen and heard, and perhaps using the other senses too. • Another approach is to move around a particular location like a moving camera. Remember that a moving camera can zoom in close to look at specific details and individuals.

Key Features: Descriptive Writing • • • Write in sentences – (simple, compound and complex) Write in the present tense – (imagine you are filming!) Write in paragraphs – If possible these will be varied in length. (TIP TOP ) Use effective adjectives and adverbs Think about the verbs you are using Make it sound real! Use MASSIVE to help you describe. Senses • • M= A= S= S= I= V= E= See Hear Taste Smell Feel

• A narrative tells a story, while description paints a picture using words. • Think about your senses: – – – See Touch Smell Taste Feel

Make it sound real Try to include authentic details, including physical description and snatches of dialogue. This is what you would actually see and hear in a particular situation. This is simply a way of making a scene seem real and convincing. For example, in the dentist’s waiting room you would find the old magazines, or the tank full of fish or the posters about dental health, but the physical details would be different if you were describing a classroom in a school or corner shop. Snatches of dialogue can make the scene more lively, and they are a good way of showing character.

Sentences: • Here is an example of a piece of work produced in exam conditions. The student was describing a group of school children. The children all talking, waiting patiently, like a rainbow in all their different coats. The girls all standing waiting with their hair bands and flower bobbles. The boys wrestling or reminiscing over their 1 -0 win on the playground at break time. • What is wrong with it?

There are no main verbs! • It should read: The children were all talking, waiting patiently, like a rainbow in all their different coats. The girls were all standing waiting with their hair bands and flower bobbles. The boys were wrestling or reminiscing over their 1 -0 win on the playground at break time. • The words in bold are called verbs; they are needed to show the tense of verbs. What really matters is that you know how and when to use them.

Re-write the passage including main verbs: To my left sitting a young couple, anxiously feeding their toddler chicken nuggets dipped in tomato sauce. The two year old crying and whining, putting his hands up to his mouth as if to say ‘No, no more’. The group of young people to my right laughing, shouting and flirting. One of the boys stealing a girl’s milkshake and she leaning across her friends, giggling happily, to try and snatch it back. I can hear a radio playing faintly. The newest, noisiest dance track struggling to be heard in the room full of people, resembling a canteen.

Adverbs and Adjectives: • An adverb describes a verb: – She was walking slowly. – He sang loudly. • An adjective describes a noun: • The elderly couple. • The small desks.

Why are these important? • The point of descriptive writing is to create a vivid mental picture to give your readers as clear a sense as possible of a place, an event or a person. • Adverbs tell us how an action is performed. For example, you could say that someone walked across the room, but if you add the adverb ‘casually’ you will give a more precise image of someone walking in an unhurried way. • Adjectives describe nouns. For example you could say ‘ in the corner the couple were holing hands’ but if you added ‘the elderly couple’ it changes the perception.

Now over to you: • Look together at Activity 2. In pairs try to work out where the adverbs and adjectives go in the extract. These are the words you should use: Higher short Relentless serenely Pleasantly monotonously Pungent efficiently Smaller messily Steaming ceaseless Faintly stifling

Think about the verbs you use: Read the following two versions of an extract from a piece of descriptive writing. What differences are there? The mothers take a child each and escort them out of the gate into the street, one holding her child’s arm behind her, and another asking what her little boy had spent the day doing. The mothers grab a child each and frogmarch them out of the gate into the street, one yanking her child’s arm behind her, and another demanding to know what her little boy had spent the day doing.

Differences? The first paints a picture that could be seen as warm and friendly with the mothers acting pleasantly and seeming pleased to see their children. The difference between the two extracts is that four verbs have been changed in the second version. They make the action seem more aggressive and physical, suggesting that the mothers are in a hurry and in charge.

Over to you: Can you change the verbs to make the sentences stronger? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Close to the gate, one woman holds a newborn baby in her arms. A gaggle of mothers talk about the nursery teacher’s forthcoming marriage. Echoing from every speaker is an overexcited orchestra playing hysterical themes for each ride. Cheerful sounds, the musical equivalent of candyfloss, play through hidden speakers in the walls. The girl drinks her coke, then coughs as the bubbles go up her nose. Her companion, a boy her age, laughs and hits her on the back.