Descriptive Writing

The first skill to improve is descriptive writing. Many great narratives are full of beautiful descriptive writing, and many famous authors are known for this skill - Dickens, Scoville Jr., Hurston, Hemingway, and many more.

I like to use "The Reef" by Samuel Scoville Jr. as my model (mentor) text for descriptive writing. There are many others to choose from, but this story has simply amazing descriptions in it. Whatever text you use, make sure it has these elements:

1. Action verbs used more than linking verbs

2. Participial phrases (and absolute phrases, if possible) used to add detail

3. Similes and metaphors utilized to help build imagery

4. Varied sentence structure

5. Prepositional phrases used to show spatial positioning

6. Written in 3rd person (for simplicity, since the students will be writing in 3rd person)

As we begin working on descriptions, students

1. learn to identify action/linking verbs, participial phrases, prepositional phrases, absolute phrases, appositive phrases, and similes/metaphors. These are crucial skills.

2. Practice creating these structures in isolation, then in sentences, and finally in paragraphs.

3. Write paragraph descriptions of settings AND of characters.

First, students build awareness of details by using graphic organizers like this one. At first, I provide the images for description, and the teacher should model the process.

The written description, again, modeled by the teacher, should emphasize the skills that the students have practiced in isolation.

Once students have gained some facility with following the teacher's lead, they will be able to move on to a more independent form of practice. This graphic organizer allows them to choose their own image(s) and to write their own description for peer- and teacher-review.

Finally, after repeated practice describing settings, students will be able to move into character descriptions. I've always used caricatures for this, since features are exaggerated and students enjoy seeing popular movie stars and sports figures this way. The following descriptions mix setting and character descriptions together, and then transition into dialogue.