Descriptive Language

Descriptive Language

Open Ended

What do you know about descriptive language? What is it? What is an example of it?

Descriptive Language

vivid and specific text that helps someone imagine a scene he or she didn't witness; appeals to one or more of the senses (sometimes called sensory details)

Descriptive Language Examples

• Her last smile to me wasn't a sunset. It was an eclipse, the last eclipse, noon dying away to darkness where there would be no dawn.

• My Uber driver looked like a deflating airbag and sounded like talk radio on repeat. The old man was bent into a capital C, his head leaning so far forward that his beard nearly touched his knobby knees.

More Examples!

• My dog's fur felt like silk against my skin and her black coloring shone, absorbing the sunlight and reflecting it back like a pure, dark mirror.

• The sunset filled the sky with a deep red flame, setting the clouds ablaze.

• The waves rolled along the shore in a graceful, gentle rhythm, as if dancing with the land.

• Winter hit like a welterweight that year, a jabbing cold you thought you could stand until the wind rose up and dropped you to the canvas.

Multiple Choice

Which of these uses descriptive language?

• Sam smiled at me.

• Sam smiled brightly at me.

• Sam's smile lit up the room, basking me in its bright rays.

Multiple Choice

Which of these uses descriptive language?

• There was a colorful sunset tonight.

• Bright oranges, pinks and yellows streaked the sky at sunset.

Examples in Literature

• "She had pewter-colored hair set in a ruthless permanent, a hard beak, and large moist eyes with the sympathetic expression of wet stones."

• "The idiosyncrasy of this town is smoke. It rolls sullenly in slow folds from the great chimneys of the iron-foundries, and settles down in black, slimy pools on the muddy streets. Smoke on the wharves, smoke on the dingy boats, on the yellow river--clinging in a coating of greasy soot to the house-front, the two faded poplars, the faces of the passers-by."

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Examples in Song Lyrics

• "I was born in an empty sea, My tears created oceans

  Producing tsunami waves with emotions

  Patrolling the open seas of an unknown galaxy

  I was floating in front of who I am physically

  Spiritually paralyzing mind body and soul

  It gives me energy when I'm lyrically exercising

  I gotta spit 'til the story is told in a dream by celestial bodies"

• "Blank face in the windowpane

  Made clear in seconds of light

  Disappears and returns again

  Counting hours, searching the night"

Open Ended

Describe this image using descriptive language (or sensory details).

Open Ended

Describe this image using descriptive language (or sensory details).

Open Ended

Describe this image using descriptive language (or sensory details).

Descriptive Language often includes Figurative Language

• Metaphor - comparison of 2 unlike things

• Simile - comparison using like or as

• Personification - giving human qualities to animals or objects

• Onomatopoeia - words that imitate sound

• Hyperbole - extreme exaggeration

Multiple Choice

Which is an example of metaphor?

• All the world's a stage.

• Life is like a box of chocolates.

• The bees buzzed noisily nearby.

• The students melted in the afternoon heat.

Multiple Choice

Which is an example of onomatopoeia?

• All the world's a stage.

• Life is like a box of chocolates.

• The bees buzzed noisily nearby.

• The students melted in the afternoon heat.

Multiple Choice

Which is an example of hyperbole?

• All the world's a stage.

• Life is like a box of chocolates.

• The bees buzzed noisily nearby.

• The students melted in the afternoon heat.

Multiple Choice

Which is an example of simile?

• All the world's a stage.

• Life is like a box of chocolates.

• The bees buzzed noisily nearby.

• The students melted in the afternoon heat.