Descriptive paragraph
A good descriptive paragraph helps the reader create a picture in their mind of
what you are writing about.
Descriptive paragraphs should use adjectives, adverbs, nouns and verbs in
connection with some or all of the five senses:
Sight
Smell
Hearing
Taste
Touch
Adjectives are especially important in descriptive paragraphs.
Exercise 1 (answers in accompanying Word file)
Identify the adjectives in this article from a travel brochure. Which senses
are connected with them?
Academic Writing from Paragraph to Essay, Zemach, D.E., Rumisek, L.A., Oxford Macmillan, 2005.
When describing a place, prepositions also need to be used to tell us how a space is
organised. Here are some common prepositions:
in front of / behind
on top of / on the bottom of
next to
above / below, underneath
to the right of / to the left of
in the middle of
around
Between
The prepositions should be used in a logical way so that the reader can create a clear
picture in their mind of the place you are describing.
Exercise 2 (answers in accompanying Word file)
Identify the prepositions in this article about somebody’s favourite place.
Academic Writing from Paragraph to Essay, Zemach, D.E., Rumisek, L.A., Oxford Macmillan, 2005.
Describing a place
When describing a place the following questions may be answered:
• Where is the place? (prepositions)
• How big is it? (adjective – sight)
• How warm or cold is the place? (adjective – feeling)
• What things and colours can you see? (nouns)
• What can you hear? (nouns)
• How does the place make you feel? Why? (adjective – feeling)
How to organise descriptive
paragraph
A descriptive paragraph needs to have:
1) A topic sentence containing the main idea and the controlling idea.
2) Supporting sentences (description)
3) Concluding sentence which either sums up the whole paragraph or
restates the topic sentence.
Exercise 3 (answers in accompanying Word file)
Read again the paragraph in Exercise 1 and 2.
• What is the main idea and the controlling idea in the topic sentence?
• Does the concluding sentence summarise the main ideas in the
paragraph or restate the topic sentence?
Ways to make a descriptive paragraph more
vivid: similes and metaphor
Simile and metaphor are literary devices that help make a piece of writing
more vivid and poetic.
• A simile is a word or phrase that compares something to something else
using words ‘as’ and ‘like’.
For example: The walls were as white as snow.
• A metaphor directly says that one thing is the other and does not use the
words ‘as’ and ‘like.
For example: She is a walking encyclopaedia.
Exercise 4 (answers in accompanying Word file)
Which of the sentences below are similes and which are metaphors?
1. He has a heart of gold.
2. This bag is as light as a feather.
3. His life is an open book.
4. The mind is a deep ocean.
5. My friend is as cool as a cucumber.
6. Time flies.
7. She is as cunning as a fox.
8. He swims like a fish.
9. That footballer is a goal machine.
10. My hands are as cold as ice.
Ways to make a descriptive paragraph more
vivid: modifying nouns
Another way to make your description more vivid is to modify nouns. This
narrows down their meaning and gives more detail. You can do this by:
1) adding adjectives, adjective or prepositional phrases:
a blue book → a blue paperback book → a blue paperback book with a torn
cover.
2) Adding a dependent clause using the words who, whom, whose, that
which:
As you walk into the room, you see a large table, which half fills the room.
Imagine that you are walking on this beach. How can you make
this place come alive to the reader?
Sight : palm trees, sand, dark blue, sky, rocks, dry
leaves, sea, green, light blue, line of trees, white,
sun, bright, shadows, beige, small waves
Smell : sea, salty air, sun lotion, coconut,
forest/flowers
Hearing : waves, wind, birds, rustling leaves,
Taste : salt
Touch : pebbles in the sea, seaweed, soft sand,
water
Where is the place?
How big is it?
How warm or cold is the place?
What things and colours can you see?
What can you hear?
How does the place make you feel? Why?
Can you use any literary devices such as simile, metaphor, modifying nouns to make your description more vivid?