DESCRIPTIVE WRITING WHAT IS DESCRIPTIVE WRITING Think of

DESCRIPTIVE WRITING

WHAT IS DESCRIPTIVE WRITING? • Think of descriptive writing as writing that shows rather than tells.

WHAT IS DESCRIPTIVE WRITING? Descriptive writing… • Describes a person, place, thing or event in vivid and carefully selected details. • Uses: descriptive adjectives and adverbs to describe what is going on or how something appears strong, precise verbs that explain the action. • Makes the reader see, feel, hear what we have seen, felt and heard either in real life or in our imaginations.

SIDENOTE: PARTS OF SPEECH ADJECTIVE: A word that describes a person, place or thing. (ex. ) content, gigantic, thin, slimy, fuzzy, purple, etc. VERB: An action word. (ex. ) run, jump, frolic, race, swim, fly, etc. ADVERB: A word that describes a verb. It shows how something happened. (ex. ) quickly, slowly, carefully, easily, patiently, etc.

WHAT IS DESCRIPTIVE WRITING? Descriptive writing makes use of imagery and figurative language. IMAGERY: is language that appeals to the five senses – sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: is language that employs figures of speech and that cannot be taken literally.

WHEN DO WE USE DESCRIPTIVE WRITING? • Stories • Poems • Essays • Reports • Journal entries Descriptive writing is an important component of many types of writing as it really brings the writer’s subject to life.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE SIMILE: is a comparison that uses comparative words such as “like” or “as”. (ex. ) Amber runs as fast as the wind. METAPHOR: is a direct comparison (does not use like or as) between things that are essentially not alike. (ex. ) Nobody invites Jason to anything because he is a wet blanket.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE PERSONIFICATION: When something that is not human is given human-like qualities. (ex. ) The trees danced in the refreshing breeze on that hot July day. HYPERBOLE: Purposeful exaggeration, often in a humorous way, in order to make a particular point. (ex. ) My cat weighs a tonne!

EXAMPLE Remember, descriptive writing shows the reader how something is rather than telling them. For example, if you were going to describe biting into an apple you could say: He bit into the apple and it tasted good. (BOOORING!!!) He closed his white teeth on the smooth, fire-engine red apple. It was as round as a baseball. There was an echoing crunch when his teeth pierced the crisp crimson skin and into the yellowish flesh of the sweet fruit. It tasted like Heaven!(GREAT DESCRIPTION!))