Easy Descriptive Writing Steps: 'My School'

Hello happy people!

English is about equipping ourselves with the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. As of writing, it is one of the most important aspects to be tested in examination in Malaysia. Writing carries the most marks in exam.

Apart from exam purposes, writing can also be a unique and useful way to express oneself. For teachers, how do we teach writing effectively? From my little experience in teaching English to second or foreign language learner, I find out that teaching writing is about supplying the students with step by step guidance, questions and sentences as the contents for their essay.

Many students find it hard to write in English. It's not something odd actually. Many students find it hard even to write in their mother tongue! What more a foreign language like English, right? So, in this entry I'm going to share one method I use to help students write a descriptive essay entitled 'My School'.

Before, here's some background of my students. They want to write essay in English but they do not really know what to write. Often, they do not know the words in English. Most of the time, they are not sure of the correct grammatical structure. And if I just give them the title, usually they fail to write anything because they have 'no idea'.

In order to tackle this problem, here's what I do:

Easy Descriptive Writing Steps

1. Decide how many paragraph you want in your essay and decide the key points for each of your paragraph. Normally we write in 5 paragraphs. (Introduction, Body 1, Body 2, Body 3 and Conclusion)
2. Use WH-questioning method to brainstorm. (Who, Why, Where, When, Which, How...)
3. Use the sentence structure in the question to construct proper sentences. (Useful for students with limited language)
4. *Use 5-Senses method to brainstorm descriptive style of writing. (Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste & Touch)
5. **Add in proverbs, idioms, phrasal verbs for more variety in writing.

FIRST: Decide how many paragraph in the essay and decide the key points for each paragraph.

We decided on the normal 5 paragraphs approach. For this essay, I suggested a few key points. Then we decided as a class to focus on the following key points.

Introduction - Overview of the school (Give an overview of the school)

Body 1 - Friends (Write about their friends at school)

Body 2 - Teachers (Write about their teachers at school)

Body 3 - School buildings (Write about any school building)

Conclusion - Your Feelings (Express their feeling for being a student there)

*You can have many more key points for the paragraph such as Clubs, Societies, Representing the School, Teacher's Day Celebration, Exam Day, The Happiest Day, The Day I will not forget etc etc etc (the list is actually endless!)

SECOND: Use WH-questioning method to brainstorm. (Who, Why, Where, When, Which, How)

This is a very important strategy to brainstorm. We ask questions about what we want to write to think of suitable points. As my students needed extra guidance, we did a classroom brainstorming session and decided on suitable questions:

Introduction - Overview

• What is the name of your school?
• Where is it located?
• Is it a big or small school?
• How many years have you been in the school?
• What is the name of your class?

Body 1 - Friends

• How many best friends do you have?
• What are the name of your best friends?
• Where do they live?
• Why do you like them?
• How have they helped you before?

Body 2 - Teachers

• Who are your favourite teachers?
• What subject do they teach?
• Why do you like them?

Body 3 - School buildings

• What building does your school have?
• What do you do in the building mentioned?
• Where do you normally hang out during recess?
• Do you like your classroom?
• What do you like about your class?

Conclusion - Your feelings about being a student here.

• How do you feel now?
• How do you think you will feel when you have left school?
• How do you want to feel when you come to school to get exam result?

THIRD: Use the sentence structure in the questions to construct proper sentence.

I like to show my students that they can lift sentence structure in a question and use it as their sentence. I give many examples such as.

Q1 - 'What is the name of your school?' can be lifted and turned into 'The name of my school is...'

Q2 - 'Where do you normally hang out during recess' = 'I normally hang out at the canteen during recess.'

Q3 - 'Why do you like them' = 'I like them because...'

Q4 - 'How have they helped me before' = 'They have helped me before by...'

This is not a 'fit for all' model but I figure that when I learnt in high school, relating sentence structure from the question and using it as the answer can make it easier for me to write the sentence correctly. Through this practice, I learnt to observe the patterns too and with many practices, students may gain more confidence in their writing ability.

Thus, as a teacher, we can always guide them by giving them these questions, not only to brainstorm but also to be used as their own sentences.

FOURTH: *Use 5-Senses method to brainstorm descriptive writing style

In a classroom, the level of the students may vary. For weaker students, the first 3 steps should be enough as practice for their writing. For students who want more, I expose them to the 5-Senses method. Asking themselves if they can imagine any of the 5 senses (Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste and Touch) in their writing.

In example, in Body 2, they can ask more questions related to the 5 senses.

Body 2 - Teachers

• How can you describe their appearance? (Sight)
• How do they smell? What kind of smell from their perfume? (Smell)
• Is their voice loud or clear enough? (Sound)

From this approach, students who want to go beyond the first 3 steps, they can work on their own using this guide. The teacher can then go around the class to facilitate individual students, supply vocabulary or help them brainstorm.

FIFTH: **Add in proverbs, idioms, phrasal verbs for more variety in writing

This is also an extra step for the students. Teacher can give examples of relevant proverbs, idioms or phrasal verbs such as:

• Laughter is the best medicine - When describing why they like to laugh with their friends.
• Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner anywhere - When talking about the importance of learning at school.
• As easy as ABC
• Bookworm
• Crack a book
• Cut class
• Make the grade
• and so many more...

When I taught one or two proverbs, idioms or bombastic words and the students use them in later essay assignment, I find it to be thoroughly satisfying for me.

Usually, I will use 30 - 40 minutes for this kind of lesson, to brainstorm and prepare students for the writing. Then, I will either let them write for another 30 - 40 minutes in class with me facilitating or I give it as homework (Where they get to do more research and have more time to spend on the writing)

Admittedly, writing in a foreign language can be a very demanding task. Yet, when explained, prepared and divided the task in steps, the writing will appear more achievable. That is the task of the teacher, to carry students through the process of writing while equipping them with necessary vocabulary, sentence pattern and language to be used in their writing.

Try to write this essay and let me know of any feedback! And I will share some of the writing from my students later on too.

Till then, Man Jadda Wajada, practice, practice and practice!