Descriptive Paragraph

Descriptive Paragraph
Dr. Zaman Al-Jenahi

Space Order
Spatial order shows how people and
objects are arranged in a space or a scene.
A description can be organized spatially in
several ways:
 From top to bottom
 Outside to inside
 Left to right
 Near to far
Inside to outside
 or the reverse of any of these
In Mr. Adam’s classroom, we see a
lot of interesting things. To the left of the
class, we see 10 posters in the colours of
the rainbow. To the right, there is a black
radio on top of the silver file cabinet. In
the back, there is a huge blue curtain
hanging on the wall. In front of the class,
we see a green, rectangular chalkboard.
Indeed Mr. Adam’s classroom is very
interesting.
My Favorite Café
My favorite place to relax is a small café down the

street from where I live. This café is on a small side street
and as soon as you see it, you feel like going in. There are
three windows on either side of the door, and each
window has a small window box with brightly colored
flowers. There is a small wooden door that opens into the
café, and as soon as you go in, you can see a dozen small
tables all around the room. I always like to sit at a small
table in the corner near the front windows. From here, I
can look at the artwork on the walls and at the pretty
green plants hanging from the ceiling. With a strong cup
of coffee and a good book, I feel very happy and relaxed
in my favorite place.
Prepositions for Descriptive Writing
• in front of / in back of/ behind

• on top of / on the bottom of / next to
• above / below / underneath / across
• to the right / to the left

• in the middle of
• around
• between
• behind
Descriptive Paragraphs
 The topic sentence of a descriptive paragraph

should name the topic. The controlling idea should
give the overall impression of the place you are
describing
 My bedroom is my refuge from the outside
world.
 The campus of our university is like a small
city.
 The cafeteria at lunchtime is the school's social
center.
My Mother’s Kitchen
My mother’s kitchen is not very big, but it is

warm and comfortable. On the left side, there is a
nice, small fridge with some family pictures placed
on fridge’s door. To the right, there is a small,
round table with four wooden chairs. In the left
corner of the kitchen stands the food cabinet
which has my mother’s favourite spices and
utensils. My brother and used to sit on the chairs
around the table watching my mother cooking.
We liked learning new things, talking, and making
delicious foods. Now I live far away, but I often
think about my mother’s kitchen.
Activity: Write a description of a place by answering some of these questions:
1. Where is the place?

2. How big is it?
3. How warm or cold is the place?
4. How does the place make you feel?
5. What things can you see in the
place?
6. What colors do you see?
7. What sounds do you hear?
8. What smell do you find in this
place?
Describing People
1. Age: twenty-one, a young woman, elderly, old, middle-
aged, in his mid fifties, in her late thirties
2. Hair: a- color: dark, blonde, gray
b- length: straight, short, long, curly, bald, wavy
3. Eyes: Color : blue, dark, brown, green.
Shape: large, round, almond-shape
4. Height: tall, 180 cm tall, 155 cm short, average
5. Facial features: Face: smooth, wrinkled, thin
eyebrows: bushy
6. body: thin, fat, chubby, well-built
7. Personality: optimistic, kind, angry, considerate,
happy, cheerful, annoying, helpful, scary
Jack Collins
Jack Collins is the most amazing person I
have ever met. He came to my school and talked
about his difficult life in prison. He was in prison
for 15 years. He made a lot of mistakes when he
was young, but now he has changed his life. He
saw a lot of violence in prison, so he uses his
experience to help high school students. Jack is
tall and strong and looks a little scary. The thing I
remember most about him is his sensitive
personality. He is really kind and wants to help
young people. In a word, I’ve never met anyone
like Jack before.
My Grandfather
My grandfather is a great person who often told us tells
great stories about the difficult life he had when he was
young. He is 94 years old, but his voice is still strong
and clear. He speaks quietly and slowly when he
tells stories. His life was difficult when he was
young. His family didn’t have much money, so he
worked hard to support them. Even though his life
was not easy, he is still positive and optimistic. In
short, spending time with my grandfather is always great, as I
can learn many things from his stories.
Using Adjectives
Adjectives are words that describe nouns. Writers use adjectives to give readers a
more complete picture of the people, places and things they want to describe.
Identify the adjectives in the following
sentences:
1. I take care of my expensive old bicycle.
2. I am fond of my house plants.
3. It has broad green leaves and delicate white flowers.
4. I bought a straw hat at a music festival.
5. It was not expensive, but I liked it because it was
practical and attractive.
6. I bought my mug at a small, tourist shop at the
airport.
7. I took a three-week holiday last year.
8. My friend bought a used car.
Ordering Adjectives
Sometimes we use two or more adjectives together:
• My parents live in a nice new house
• A dirty old black cat is wandering the streets
1. OPINION Adjectives
Adjectives like nice and dirty are opinion adjectives. They tell us
what you think about somebody or something. Opinion
adjectives usually go before fact adjectives
2. FACT Adjectives
Adjectives like new, old, green are fact adjectives. They give us
factual information about age, shape, colour, make, etc.
Ordering Adjectives
2. FACT Adjectives: Very often, we put fact adjectives in this order:
1- Articles, demonstratives, pronouns, possessives: a, an, those, her, Mary’s
2- Quantity: two, fifty, some, many, a few
3- Opinion: happy, beautiful, exciting, silly, cheerful
4- SIZE : How big? large, small, tiny, huge, little
5-SHAPE : What shape? square, round, rectangular, flat
6- CONDITION: rusty, broken, hungry, west, cold
7- AGE : How old? new, young, old, ancient
8- COLOUR : What colour? blue, pink, yellow, crimson
9- ORIGIN : Where from? English, American, Chinese
10- MATERIAL: What it is made of ? plastic, wooden, glass, woolen
11- PURPOSE : What it is used for? racing car, frying pan, rocking chair
A. An interesting old book
B. An ugly pink plastic necklace
C. A nice small African drum
D. A delicious round chocolate cake
E. A pair of smart brown leather boots
F. A beautiful small white Chinese computer
Ordering Adjectives
1. At home there is (a wooden beautiful square )
table in the dining room.
2. I was offered (gold unusual an) ring by my
husband.
3. My grandmother has knitted ( a new woolen
nice) pullover for me.
4. I saw (an American interesting old) movie with
friends at home.
5. It may rain ! There are (black big ) clouds
floating in the air.
Ordering Adjectives
6. Last week, I visited (a small old lovely )
village in a remote area.
7. It started to rain so I opened (red yellow
huge a) umbrella
8. John was given (an black little adorable)
cat by his sister.
9. A (shiny new sports Italian) car was
parked opposite my house.
10. It was such (a sunny lovely ) day that we
decided to go out for a walk.

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Descriptive Paragraph

Dr. Zaman Al-Jenahi

My favorite place to relax is a small café down the

• in front of / in back of/ behind

• to the right / to the left

 The topic sentence of a descriptive paragraph

My mother’s kitchen is not very big, but it is

1. Where is the place?

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