Have you used a variety of nouns, verbs and figurative language? He lost one of his shoes among the cabbages, and the other shoe amongst the potatoes. A good descriptive paragraph is like a window into another world. The Purdue OWL offers global support through online reference materials and services. Capturing an event through descriptive writing involves paying close attention to the details by using all of your five senses. View archives. Sensory language What is descriptive writing???? They slept all closely huddled together, and took it in turns to watch; and when it was Bilbo's turn he would see gleams in the darkness round them, and sometimes pairs of yellow or red or green eyes would stare at him from a little distance, and then slowly fade and disappear and slowly shine out again in another place. After losing them, he ran on four legs and went faster, so that I think he might have got away altogether if he had not unfortunately run into a gooseberry net, and got caught by the large buttons on his jacket. Dominant use of nouns and verbs (in addition to adjectives) to create an image of a person, place, thing, memory, experience or event. 5. Example 2: To describe tasting spoilt food. It seemed to bring hundreds and hundreds of eyes all round them, though the creatures, whatever they were, were careful never to let their bodies show in the little flicker of the flames. Print.). For e.g. Sucking in a deep breath, he stood up. What aspects of the person, place, thing, memory, experience or event would you like to describe? Bilbo tried flapping his hand in front of his nose, but he could not see it at all. Dominant use of nouns and verbs (in addition to adjectives) to create an image of a person, place, thing, memory, experience or event. During the planning stage, think through the following points: The nights were the worst. Do all the sensory details combine to create an image that can be easily and vividly imagined and understood. And sometimes they would gleam down from the branches just above him; and that was most terrifying. Hmmm... do we have all of these???? Example 1: To describe a punch It brings out the topics or the matter of interest in the limelight 2. But the eyes that he liked the least were horrible pale bulbous sort of eyes. +65 6342 5119, © 2020 The Singapore Book Council Academy. Show: His face grew as red as crimson. Descriptive Writing. While expository writing … The article provides information on the topics 3. The Purdue Writing Lab serves the Purdue, West Lafayette, campus and coordinates with local literacy initiatives. It influences the readers and urges them to think 5. When I ate a scoop of it, it tasted like a mixture of salt and soured milk. Descriptive writing is writing that vividly describes a story or event using sensory language and the 5 Ws. In this article, you'll learn how to employ descriptive elements in your writing, tips to enhance your descriptive writing … Descriptive writing is about using the power of words to arouse the imagination, capture the attention, and create a lasting impact in the mind of the reader. United Kingdom: George Allen & Unwin, 1937. “Insect eyes” he thought, “not animal eyes, only they are much too big.” Although it was not yet very cold, they tried lighting watch-fires at night, but they soon gave that up. Show: There was a thin film of moisture on the cooked rice. Appeals to the reader’s sense of sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste through use of selective details. +65 6342 5126 The primary purpose of descriptive writing is to describe a person, place or thing in such a way that a picture is formed in the reader's mind. The best descriptive writing appeals to multiple senses at once—smell, sight, taste, touch, and hearing—and is found in both fiction and nonfiction. Print.). Elements in descriptive writing Appeals to the reader’s sense of sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste through use of selective details. 2) Figurative Language Good descriptive writing often makes use of figurative language to help paint the picture in the readersmind. Descriptive writing may also paint apictures of the feelings the person, place or thing invokes the writer. The Purdue University Writing Lab and Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) assist clients in their development as writers—no matter what their skill level—with on-campus consultations, online participation, and community engagement. (Source: Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Tell: He got up and punched his friend in a fit of anger. Descriptive writing goes deeper than expository writing. Use of nouns such as ‘film of...’. Worse still it brought thousands of dark-grey and black moths, some nearly as big as your hand, flapping and whirring round their ears. Well, perhaps it is not true to say that they could see nothing: they could see eyes. It was a blue jacket with brass buttons, quite new. His right fist flew up and swung swiftly across the cheeks of his friend. (Source: J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit. Peter was most dreadfully frightened; he rushed all over the garden, for he had forgotten the way back to the gate. Use of verbs ‘grew’, ‘sucking in’, ‘flew up’ and ‘swung swiftly’. It then became pitch-dark – not what you call pitch-dark, but really pitch; so black that you really could see nothing. Use of figurative language: similie, metaphor, personification, alliteration, Onomatopoeia, hyperbole, idioms and clichés. Through the use of careful examples or details, an author can conjure a scene that vividly describes a person, place, or thing. Sign up for course updates. An article is written with the following objectives 1. Elements: ‘tasted like a mixture of...’. It shows instead of telling. Elements: Use of simile, ‘red as crimson’. Tell: The food was spoilt. , the size of something, an emotion that was triggered or the impact of an action. England: Frederick Warne & Co, 1902. Look at your paper... do you have all of the elements of Teaching students to write more descriptively will improve their writing by making it more interesting and engaging to read. What type of sensory details would you like to focus on – is it the sight, sound, smell, taste or texture? The article discusses various stories, persons, locations, rising-issues, and technical developments It offers suggestions and pieces of advice 4. [email protected] His shoes among the cabbages, and technical developments sensory language what is writing... West Lafayette, campus and coordinates with local literacy initiatives event through descriptive writing???. 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