Writing To Describe: Structure: Exploring Skills
Writing To Describe: Structure: Exploring Skills
Writing To Describe: Structure: Exploring Skills
Exploring skills
As a warm up, ask students to work in pairs to decide what makes the best descriptive
writing. Remind the students of books they have read over the past few years in
school, of news reports about significant events – maybe natural disasters or national
celebrations. Then share the most powerful piece of description that you have read
recently with students and explain why it had such an effect.
Put quotations on the edge of the whiteboard such as ‘I could picture what was being
described just as if I was there’ or ‘it made me feel like I was there’, or ‘I couldn’t get
the image out of my head’. Then turn to Student Book p. 100 and as a whole class
discuss ideas for the task ‘Describe an exciting moment or special event’. Read
through the bullet points and collect further additions on the whiteboard for Q1.
Read the example text as a class and revisit the quotations on the whiteboard from
earlier. Ask students about the images that linger. Read the Top tip and together
decide whether this text describes a setting or simply recounts events.
Use PPT 3.14a, if appropriate, to reinforce the structure of the paragraph. Explain that
the structure is simple sentence/long complex sentence/complex sentence. Discuss
Key writing skills
Chapter 3
how the conjunctions ‘which’ and ‘when’ trigger layers of extra information; ‘which’
triggers the release of further details about the ‘dusty’ street, expanding the picture of
Pineapple Gardens, and ‘when’ gives uncle Sarfraz’s arrival extra drama.
Give extra support by providing the same text but punctuated differently and
slightly rewritten on PPT 3.14b. Ask students to consider the change in pace
between the two texts and the way that drama is created in the original but not in
the modified version. Then invite students to describe the different effects. Use
PPT 3.14c for shared drafting of the long sentence opening paragraph 2 for Q3.
Developing skills
As a whole class, read the first part of this section up to the end of the four bullet-
points. Discuss ways of answering the question: ‘How can this be done?’ Encourage
students to focus on specific techniques. Take suggestions and recap techniques used
in previous sections, such as short sentences, specific small details, imagery.
Then read the rest of the text on Student Book p. 102 and evaluate the writer’s
planning of the first four paragraphs. Make sure that students understand that the
plan contains description of what the writer is going to do rather than the piece of
writing itself. PPT 3.14e shows a continuation of the writer’s plan and you could use
this as a model to support students in completing Q7.
Ask students to work in pairs to complete Q8. They could use a table to make notes on
examples of the writer’s use of time and place. Highlight the Top tip, which discusses
how the character’s memory is activated to give further insight about his past.
Give extra challenge by asking students to use the senses that the writer has not
used so far. How could sounds have been used to create the present image or that
of the past? Or smell? Encourage students to be original but to maintain the style of
the original text, for example: the sounds of bells and slamming desk tops combines
with the smell of chalk. What comparisons could be drawn to fit the description with
the one already used, i.e. the writer recalls that he used to run like the wind.
Ask students to complete Q9 on Student Book p. 103 using the description of the
abandoned school to prompt ideas for the contrasting description of a modern school.
PPT 3.14f provides a structure to use in preparation.
Applying skills
Begin by running through the points for Sound progress and Excellent progress on
Student Book p. 103. Then recap the techniques used successfully so far: use of the
senses to create a detailed picture in the reader’s mind, use of short sentences for
contrast or emphasis, establishing a distinct time, place and character with deliberate
use of adjectives, adverbs and imagery. Use some images (such as those on PPT 3.14g)
Key writing skills
Chapter 3
or sounds to help create the atmosphere for writing about the four settings: the beach,
a remote place, a special event or the old abandoned school. Then allow plenty of time
for planning, drafting and editing.
Ask students to complete Q10 independently and extend the time limit to suit
individual needs. It might be useful to have a range of reading texts ready for those
who finish early, in order to prolong the writing time for the others.