Describing

Neni Marlina
Descriptive writing
Descriptions are
words that give or
picture the
readers some idea
of how something
looks, sounds,
smells, tastes, or
feels.
Descriptive writing is the only
type of writing which can be
and should be used in all other
forms: expository, narrative,
and persuasive.
Characteristics of
Describing
 Good descriptive writing includes many vivid sensory details that
paint a picture and appeals to all of the reader's senses of sight,
hearing, touch, smell and taste when appropriate. 
Descriptive writing may also paint pictures of the feelings the
person, place or thing invokes in the writer. Watch a teacher use a 
five senses graphic organizer as a planning strategy for descriptive
writing
 
 Good descriptive writing often makes use of figurative language
such as analogies, similes and metaphors to help paint the picture
in the reader's mind.
 Good descriptive writing uses precise language. General
adjectives, nouns, and passive verbs do not have a place in good 
descriptive writing. Use specific adjectives and nouns and strong
action verbs to give life to the picture you are painting in the
reader's mind.
 Good descriptive writing is organized. Some ways to organize 
descriptive writing include: chronological (time), spatial
(location), and order of importance. When describing a person,
you might begin with a physical description, followed by how that
Grammatical
Features of
Describing
 The present tense is predominantly used;
 The past tense also tends to dominate;
 Relational verbs are used when classifying and
describing appearance/qualities and parts/functions
of phenomena (is, are, has, have)
 Action verbs are used when describing
behaviors/uses
 Mental verbs are used when describing feelings in
literary descriptions;
 Adjectives are used to add extra information to
nouns and may be technical, everyday or literary,
depending on the text
Ted appears to be your average guy, he works
for a builder, is somewhat of a handyman and
likes his beer. However, he does have some
obvious faults. He seems to stand over his
wife to the point where she doesn’t voice her
opinion on some issues. Ted also seems to
resent Evie because she is not his own child
and is always hassling her about getting a job
and (petty) things that don’t seem to matter.
Jules Santorini, about a hundred and fifty-three
centimeters tall, was a boy who felt perfectly ordinary.
He didn’t think he was good looking, but he knew he
wasn’t ugly. His eyes seemed to be the normal
distance apart. His nose appeared to be the standard
model, not pointy, or snobby or flat across his face.
His teeth were mainly straight but he might get
braces next year. His chin has a faint cleft in it, but
not enough that anyone would ever really notice. He
wasn’t the shortest, the fattest, the thinnest, the
fastest, the slowest, the smartest, the dumbest. In fact
the only area where Jules was special was in his
thoughts.
Activity 1:

Write down some things you do and

you do not do in learning English.
 Form

Some things I do: Some things I don’t do:

1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.
Activity 2:

1. Get together with 2. Then combine your

your partner and sentences and your
check whether your friends sentences
sentences are become two
correct paragraphs.
grammatically.
 Choose one of the
following pictures and
write a paragraph
describing the picture
you choose.
Activity 3:
Thank you