Step 4. Describing a Place

 In this step, you will write paragraphs in which you describe places. Descriptions are "word pictures." You tell how something looks, feels, smells, tastes, adn sounds. You need to become a sharp observer and notice many small details so that you can write a good word picture.


 There are two keys to writing good descriptions:

• Use space order to organize your description.
• Use lots of descriptive details.

 Imagine that you are standing in the doorway of your classroom. How would you describe the room to someone who has never seen it? Here are some possibilities:

• You might start at the left side of the doorway and work your way around the room in a clockwise direction to the right side, ending at the doorway again.
• You might start at the front of the room and go from fron to back, firt describing the chalkboard, the teacher's desk, and the area around the teacher's desk. Then you might describe the students' desks in the center of the room, and finally the walls and/or windows at the back and sides of the room.

 This kind of organization is called space order. Here are kinds of space order.

 And here is my writing for "Describing a Place." I used 'outside to inside' order

My Dream House

 My dream house is quite simple. I just want to design my house by myself. My imaginary house will be like following sentences. The outside of my house is surrounded by ivy-covered red-bricks wall, and in the middle of the wall, there is a big gate for entrance. In the garden, the green lawn is spread along the entrance way and many big dogs are playing on the lawn. During walking the road, I can see a two-storied house colored brown. In the first story, there are four rooms. Three of them are for bedroom and the rest one is for dressing room. Each bedroom has a bath room. In the living room, there are brown leather couches. The tiles on the floor are made by dark wooden. In the second story, there are also four rooms for guests and the terrace for tea-time. These things are my demands for my dream house. As I told, I just dream like this simple house. I hope I can get married and live here with my lovely family.

 And, when you write several adjectives in a row, sometimes you must put them in a particular order, and sometimes you can choose your own order depending on the kind of adjective. One kind is called cumulative adjective, and the other kind is called coordinate adjectives.

 Cumulative adjectives always go before a noun. They must be in a particular order.

Here are order of cumulative adjectives.

 And coordinate adjectives can go before a noun or after a linking verb. You can write coordinate adjectives in any order, and you separate them from each other with commas. Also,

•  When coordinate adjectives come before a noun, you may put the word 'and' before the last one(but you don't have to).
• When two or more coordinate adjectives come after a lingking verb, you must put 'and' before the last one.

               Before a noun             A hungry, cold, wet dog sat outside our front door.
               (and optional)             A wet, cold, and hungry dog sat out side our front door.


               After a linking verb     The dog was hungry, wet, and cold.
               (and required)


 Just try to write a  describing paragraph following this step. See you next time!




---edited by Young Jun,
 cited from Ann Hogue, First Steps in Academic Writing(Second Edition)(NY:Person Longman, 2008)