Teaching Descriptive Writing

– IGCSE FLE(0500)
ABHINANDAN BHATTACHARYA

Collins Resource Team

[email protected]

© HarperCollinsPublishers India Pvt. Ltd

 Webinar Overview
1. Ed Tech tools to revamp online teaching-
learning
2. Interactive assignments and activities
3. Strategies to write with sophistication
4. Annotating Sample Questions
5. Some useful links and resources
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Specimen Question on Descriptive Writing task :
MARCH 2020 IGCSE FLE PAPER 2

1. Write a description of a place you

would like to go back to.
 FEW POINTERS FROM THE EXAMINER REPORT
1. Focus on your thoughts and feelings as you reminisce about a
place from the past.
2. A lot of interesting places may be featured which can be
imbued with emotion and memory.
3. Focus on closely observed details to recreate the place in the
reader’s mind. For example, a glimpse of a partially exposed
tile in a rather dilapidated house will make for an effective
opening paragraph.
4. Another example: searching for a particular tree in an
overgrown garden and ending with the discovery of the tree
with carved initials on it long ago can be equally effective.
5. Focus on building a detailed and emotionally charged scene.
6. Follow a cohesive structure as well as carefully chosen
details.
 What do we describe?
❖ People – body language, facial expressions, mannerisms, actions,
clothes

❖ Attitudes, socio-economic status, profession

❖ Review of a book or a film; eye-witness accounts of events or

incidents; visit to a place (travel writing)

❖ Abstract ideas and objects – emotions, things, feelings, memories

❖ Beliefs and perspectives

❖ Setting – create atmosphere and mood, talk about time and season
 Things to keep in mind while writing a Descriptive piece:
❖ give plenty of concrete, sensory details (involving all the five senses) so that the reader can
visualise and understand each element of description

❖ give the details and then build the impressions around them

❖ present the details in such a way that the reader is enticed into reader without stopping

❖ give logical pattern to the details – important and broader details coming before the minor
ones

❖ set the tone of the descriptive piece at the start and then gradually build it into one strong
emotion

❖ depending on the content and context, give different aspects of the details in different
paragraphs

❖ arouse the reader’s senses, capture the reader’s attention, retain it till the end
How do we describe?
AFRAID NERVOUS EMBARRASSED ANGRY SHOCKED EXCITED
hands tapping blushing/ red in the mouth wide heart
shaking hands or feet turning red face open pounding
heart biting bottom head hanging hands on eyes popping jumping up
pounding of lip low hips out and down
within the
chest
heavy, fast butterflies in holding back clenched gasping for clapping or
breathing stomach tears fists / jaws air clasping
tightened hands
jellied knees lump in stomach flips/ punching heart beating mouth wide
throat hiding face hand into fast open
fist
whimpering stuttering feel the heat veins hands huge smile
between the popping covering across face
ears mouth
sweating playing with blood-shot jumping/step
unusually hair eyes ping back
ACTIVITY
1. Wiping the beads of sweat off his brow, the boy held onto the
angling rod. It seemed too big for his tiny, unskilled hands. But he
wasn’t ready to let it go. A stream of thoughts enveloped his
mind as the rod moved even more vigorously, making him realise
about the catch. Three seconds later he lay on his back after the
strong jerky pull, with a flash of wriggly silvery orange right
beside him.

2. It was happening all too fast. Too fast for her to do anything. For
a split second, she thought she was dreaming. It had to be one.
She had only read about it in the newspapers. Yet, no one around
seemed to pay much attention. And then, a sudden BANG! The
sound pulled her out of her thoughts and almost immediately
she knew what had happened.
ACTIVITY
 DEVICES TO MAKE RICH DESCRIPTIONS

1. Alliteration – deep, dark, dank dungeon – creates

effects according to the association of the sound

2. Assonance - the aunt peered, leered and sneered at

the quaking children – repeating vowel sounds gives
a more sombre resonance

3. Consonance - he knocked again and again, as if his

hand was delivering kicks to try to crack the
blackened oak door or the milk came spilling and
pooling out of the falling bottle
 DEVICES TO MAKE RICH DESCRIPTIONS
1. Present Participles – The waiting seemed endless; the fading
light, the darkening clouds and the cooling air were
combining and developing an atmosphere of impending
doom.

2. Onomatopoeia – The crackling of the branches, the

screeching of fleeing animals and the whooshing of the flames
fanned by the breeze made it clear that the forest was well
alight before a whirring announced the arrival of the water-
bombing planes.

3. Personification – I could hear the footsteps coming towards

me. It was getting nearer and nearer.
ACTIVITY
STRATEGIES TO USE
DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE
FROM BLAH TO BRILLIANT
1. The wind blew against the trees.
2. The wind blew treacherously against the yellowed leaves of
the autumn trees.
3. Against the yellowed leaves of the autumn trees, the wind
blew treacherously. OR Treacherously, the wind blew against
the yellowed leaves of the autumn trees.
4. The deceptive and raging wind blew treacherously against the
yellowed leaves of the autumn trees.
5. The deceptive and raging wind blew treacherously against the
yellowed leaves like a hundred screeching vultures stripping
the last autumn trees to their bare skeletal forms.
6. Like a hundred screeching vultures, the deceptive and raging
wind blew treacherously against the yellowed leaves stripping
the last autumn trees to their bare skeletal forms.
 CREATING IMAGERY USING COMPOUND
ADJECTIVES
1. The rat-infested and soot-stained godown made my stomach
do a back flip.
2. The two-mile, mud-brown, pebble-strewn beach was what
she called her perfect haunt.
3. Romilla is an old-fashioned, strong-willed and high-spirited
social worker who always stands for justice.
4. The fragrance laden, rain-swept and soft breezed August
evening brought back many a fond memory.

NOTE: Remember the order of adjectives to create effect.

size, shape, colour, texture, age, quality, characteristic
 ACTIVITY:
Your turn now
Make at least two
sentences to create
effective imagery using
compound adjectives.
 COMBINATION OF VERBS AND ADVERBS

1. gushed incessantly, poured torrentially, laughed

uncontrollably, cried copiously, barged unceremoniously
2. spoke eloquently, sang mellifluously, held gingerly, chuckled
throatily, looked surreptitiously, chanced upon
serendipitously, acting erratically
3. pursued relentlessly, trusted unconditionally, unleashed
victoriously, perched precariously, floated gracefully, scooped
out smoothly
4. replied precociously, agreed unwittingly, acted impulsively,
gazed admirably, blended seamlessly
 FUN WITH METAPHORS
F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “All good writing is swimming underwater
and holding your breath.”

➢ A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running. – Groucho Marx

➢The sky was a purple bruise, the ground was iron, and you fell all
around the town until you looked the same. – Elvis Costello

➢ Time rises and rises, and when it reaches the level of your eyes you
drown. – Margaret Atwood

➢ Books are the mirrors of the soul. – Virginia Woolf

➢ Dying is a wild night and a new road. – Emily Dickinson

GET THE LEARNERS TO CREATE SOME AMAZING DESCRIPTIONS

WITH METAPHORS
MOVIE TIME

https://youtu.be/RSo
RzTtwgP4
ACTIVITY:
CHANGE THESE SIMILES INTO METAPHORS

1. She danced like she was floating in the breeze.

2. The waves crashed on to the beach like thousand charging
horses.
3. He was eating like he was shovelling cement into a mixer.
4. Jim swam as gracefully as a dolphin.
5. Mr. Brown sang like the sound of water going down a drain.
Useful websites to refer to for writing
excellent descriptions:
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-use-everyday-metaphors-and-
similes-in-your-fiction-1277707

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/figurative-language-in-literature-and-how-
it-is-used-1277118

https://bestlifeonline.com/beautiful-words/

https://www.readingandwritinghaven.com/5-brain-based-vocabulary-activities-
for-the-secondary-classroom/

https://writetodone.com/how-to-write-better-descriptions/

https://litreactor.com/columns/writing-powerful-descriptions
 IMPORTANCE OF ANNOTATION

1. Describe the scene and atmosphere as you

wait for your turn to be interviewed.

Let us unpack this question and then understand

what the band descriptors suggest.

Specimen question taken from IGCSE FLE

PAPER 3 – November 2019
 CONTENT AND STRUCTURE
LEVEL MARKS GENERAL CRITERIA SPECIFIC CRITERIA
6 14-16 Content - complex, engaging and effective. Many well-defined and developed
Structure - secure, well balanced and carefully ideas and images create a
managed for effect. convincing overall
picture with varieties of focus.
5 11-13 Content - developed, engaging and effective. Frequent, well-chosen images and
Structure - well managed, with some choices details give a mostly convincing
made for deliberate effect. picture.
4 8-10 Content - relevant with some development. A selection of relevant ideas,
Structure - competently managed. images and details, even where
there is a tendency to write in a
narrative style.
3 5-7 Content - straightforward and briefly The task is addressed with a series
developed. Structure - mostly organised but of relevant but straightforward
may not always be effective. details, which may be more typical
of a narrative.
2 3-4 Content - simple, and ideas and events may be The recording of some relevant
limited. Structure - partially organised but events with limited detail.
limited in its effect.
1 1-2 Content - occasionally relevant or clear. The description is unclear and lacks
Structure - limited and ineffective. detail.
0 0 No creditable content.
 STYLE AND ACCURACY
LEVEL MARKS DESCRIPTION

6 22-24 Precise, well-chosen vocabulary and varied sentence structures, chosen for effect.
Consistent well-chosen register suitable for the context.
Spelling, punctuation and grammar almost always accurate.
5 17-21 Mostly precise vocabulary and a range of sentence structures mostly used
for effect.
Mostly consistent appropriate register suitable for the context.
Spelling, punctuation and grammar mostly accurate, with occasional minor errors.
4 13-16 Some precise vocabulary and a range of sentence structures sometimes
used for effect.
Some appropriate register for the context.
Spelling, punctuation and grammar generally accurate, but with some errors.
3 9-12 Simple vocabulary and a range of straightforward sentence structures.
Simple register with a general awareness of the context.
Frequent errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar, occasionally serious.
2 5-8 Limited and/or imprecise vocabulary and sentence structures.
Limited and/or imprecise register for the context.
Persistent errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar.
1 1-4 Frequently imprecise vocabulary and sentence structures.
Register demonstrates little or no sense of the context.
Persistent errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar impair communication.
0 0 No creditable content.
 WAYS TO IMPROVE

1. Remember the key requirements for

descriptive writing; you are not writing a story
2. Try to be original, both in the scenarios and
the images you create
3. Write sentences with proper verbs; there are
no separate rules for descriptive writing
4. Ensure consistency of tenses
5. Make deliberate choices in your vocabulary
and sentence structures to create effect
 Assessments
• Valid
● Specific
● Consistent
● Positive
● Provide feedback
● Time relevance
 Feedback
1. Peer review
2. EBI – Even Better If..
3. PMI – Plus Minus Interesting
4. WWW – What Went Well
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