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"The boy was smiling and he had red hair..." Add some details: "The boy was smiling reluctantly and his red hair hadn"t been cut for weeks... " Did you get a better picture? On this page you"ll get to read two different descriptions and then you"ll have to write your own. How can you make something clear, whether it"s a description of a person, a place or a thing? |
| What am I supposed to practice?
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You should feel comfortable informing other people about different things, and you should be able to describe things. You should also be able to express your own thoughts about something. You can describe a person from your childhood, a place you"ve been to, or a painting, or a photo. But let"s have a look at how this has been done by other people. |
Start reading (and look up difficult words):
1. The first excerpt is from ALICE"S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by
Lewis Carroll.
CHAPTER I
Down the Rabbit-Hole
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice "without pictures or conversation?"
So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!" (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoast-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty
of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to
happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming
to, but it was too dark to see anything; then she looked at the sides of the
well, and
noticed that they were filled with cupboards and bookshelves; here and there
she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of
the shelves as she passed; it was labeled "orange marmelade",
but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the
jar for fear of killing somebody, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards
as she fell past it.
"Well!" thought Alice to herself, "after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn"t say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!" (Which was very likely true.)
Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! "I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?" she said aloud. "I must be getting somewhere near the center of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think--" (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) "--yes, that"s about the right distance--but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?" (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)
2. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes also wrote other stories. This is the beginning of a "medical story". It"s called "ROUND THE RED LAMP " and describes quite realistically the doctors work.
This is the beginning of the story when a grown man, a doctor, describes his first meeting with James Winter, the doctor of his childhood.
BEHIND THE TIMES.
My first interview with Dr. James Winter was under dramatic circumstances.
It occurred at two in the morning in the bedroom of an old country house.
I kicked him twice on the white waistcoat and knocked off his gold spectacles,
while he with the aid of a female accomplice stifled my angry cries in a flannel
petticoat and thrust me into a warm bath. I am told that one of my parents,
who happened to be present, remarked in a whisper that there was nothing the
matter with my lungs. I cannot recall how Dr. Winter looked at the time, for
I had other things to think of, but his description of my own appearance is
far from flattering. A fluffy head, a body like a trussed goose, very bandy
legs, and feet with the soles turned inwards--those are the main items which
he can remember.
From this time onwards the epochs of my life were the periodical assaults which Dr. Winter made upon me. He vaccinated me; he cut me for an abscess; he blistered me for mumps. It was a world of peace and he the one dark cloud that threatened. But at last there came a time of real illness--a time when I lay for months together inside my wickerwork-basket bed, and then it was that I learned that that hard face could relax, that those country-made creaking boots could steal very gently to a bedside, and that that rough voice could thin into a whisper when it spoke to a sick child.
And now the child is himself a medical man, and yet Dr. Winter is the same
as ever. I can see no change since first I can remember him, save that perhaps
the brindled hair is a trifle whiter, and the huge shoulders a little more
bowed. He is a very tall man, though he loses a couple of inches from his
stoop. That big back of his has curved itself over sick beds until it has
set in that shape. His face is of a walnut brown, and tells of long winter
drives over bleak country roads, with the wind and the rain in his teeth.
It looks smooth at a little distance,
but as you approach him you see that it is shot with innumerable fine wrinkles
like a last years apple. They are hardly to be seen when he is in repose;
but when he laughs his face breaks like a starred glass, and you realise then
that though he looks old, he must be older than he looks.
| Assignment: Think about what you know about Alice. Her looks? Her feelings? Do
you know what the rabbit-hole looks like? The rabbit? Now write your own description. Write a draft to begin with and rewrite when you"ve decided that this is one of the assignments you"ve chosen. If you write about a well known place, person or painting, don"t tell us who or what it is. Let the rest of us guess instead! Do you want more descriptions? Go to Gibson - a text archive - and have a look! |
| Assignment to be submitted,
Choose between writing about a painting, a photo, a person or a place. Then submit it to your project discussion and read what other participants in your group have written. |