Descriptive Language

Creative Writing

English Language GCSE

Paper 1

Question 5

'THE ROOM'

What do you need to know about question 5 of paper 1?

• This is the creative writing question-you need to write a STORY or a DESCRIPTION (YOU DO NOT DO BOTH!)

• This question is worth 40 MARKS!!!

• 24 marks for content and organisation

• 16 marks for technical accuracy

THIRD PERSON!!

For a description it is advised you write in third person

By using he/she the narrator has access to a characters thoughts and actions

Image

You will be given an image to base your work on. This can be anything and you will not see the image until the day of the exam.

Chosen Image

Use this image to base your work on.

Write a description of a run down home as suggested by this picture.

Step 1- What?

• you need to know what type of writing you're being asked to make

• it is asking for a description

• it has said about creating a piece of writing "as suggested" by this picture. This means you can use the picture to help develop your ideas.

Step 2- Zoom

• Zoom in on the picture and select at least 5 key areas that are of interest and you can describe

• You can draw circles or section the image up to make this easier

• For this image it could include: Walls, Ceiling, Draws, Window, Bed.

Step 3-Tone

• Now you need to think about the TONE

• Is this going to be a happy place? is this going to be a terrible experience? Will it start off good and end bad?

• if you look at the Room image, you can see that the window is in the centre of the image and darkness is around it. what could this suggest?

• There are trees outside the window, this could be a symbol of life and happiness, a contrast of the hopelessness inside.

TONE

• In this image there is an undercurrent of destruction and darkness with a light at the end of the tunnel. (the darkeness of the inside around the brightness of the light coming in from the window)

• This contrast of tone could make your descriptive writing become very interesting.

• you could start your writing with a dark and miserable tone and then end it with a light and happy tone.

Step 4-Plan

• you will be given a space to plan your writing

• even though this plan does not get marked it can help you write down your ideas so you do not forget later.

• You can use any planning method, icluding:

• Mind Map

• Paragraph plans

• List of ideas

ideas for structure

• ^{Paragraph one: Zoom in on the broken walls and floor}

• ^{Paragraph two: Zoom in on the draws and memories they keep, focus on dark tone.}

• ^{Paragraph three: Zoom in on the bed, was someone ill in that bed? did they sleep well?}

• ^{Paragraph four: Zoom in on the window and change the tone to a hopeful way out of the darkness.}

• ^{Paragraph five: keep to happy tone and end with a short question- what really happened here?}

OVER TO YOU!

Write a description of a run down home as suggested by this picture.

Starting sentence:

It was as if no one cared...

Ending sentence:

A tingling sensation shuddered her nerves. There was hope.