ACTIVITY

WRITING A DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH

If you’re going to write a descriptive paragraph or essay, there are a few things that you should keep in mind when writing. This week let’s look at an activity to help you incorporate the five senses to your descriptive writing. Think of a topic you would like to write descriptively about. Now answer the questions given below.

1. What does my topic look like?

If I drew a picture of it, what would I draw?

2. What does my topic sound like?

When I think about this topic, what kind of sounds do I remember?

What sounds would I hear near or around my topic? 3. What does my topic smell like?

Does my topic have a scent? What scents would be around my topic? 4. What does my topic taste like?

If I had to describe my topic as a taste, what would it be? 5. What does my topic feel like? If I was able to touch my topic, what would it feel like? What feelings do I think of, when I think of my topic?

You may not be able to write answers for all these questions. For example, if your topic is about a dog, you wouldn’t want to think about how it tastes like! This is why it is important to know which details are appropriate to include in your writing. But if your topic is the sea, you may write that the sea tastes salty, because ocean water is known to be salty.

It takes a lot of practice to write good descriptions. Think of several topics and try to answer the questions in the activity. Writing Alive will be back next week with another lesson on descriptive writing.