Descriptive Writing questions

Which of the following is the most effective piece of description?

• A really nice vase of flowers was on the window ledge

• A wonderful display of flowers was on the window ledge

• The vibrant colours of the vase of flowers on the window ledge seemed to bring the whole room to life

Which of the following is the most effective piece of description?

• I remember the old railway station well - it was always crowded with men and children playing. We used to sit on the steps and watch the cargo being unloaded. Sometimes we would get an orange and sit and eat that.

• I remember the old railway station well - it was situated in the High Street about a mile from where we used to live. It was opposite a grocer's shop and a bakery.

• I remember the old railway station well - it was always crowded with men shouting orders and children playing and laughing with one another. We used to sit on the rough stone steps and watch the sacks of tea and oranges being unloaded. Sometimes we would be thrown an orange by the foreman and would spend hours sucking its sweet, tangy flesh.

Which of the following is the most effective piece of description?

• Zoe had blonde shoulder length hair and blue eyes. She wore a gold chain and a tight blue dress. She had blue leather shoes and carried a briefcase.

• Zoe was smart and efficient in a stylish way

• Zoe was 25 years old. She was originally born in Perth but moved to Dundee. Her father used to run a printing business.

Which of the following is the most effective piece of description?

• "During the whole of a dull, dark and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher."

• "I spend a whole day travelling slowly on horseback. The countryside through which I passed was empty of any interesting features. For much of the time it seemed about to rain. Eventually, when it was getting dark, I could see the House of Usher ahead of me."

• "During the whole of a dull, quiet day in the summer of the year, when the sun smiled down on me from the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a pleasant stretch of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher."

"A cold wind swept down from the moor and set us shivering. Somewhere there, on that desolate plain, was lurking a fiendish man, hiding in a burrow like a wild beast, his heart full of malignancy against the whole race which had cast him out. It needed but this to complete the grim suggestiveness of the barren waste, the chilling wind, and the darkening sky."

Which word best describes the mood the writer is trying to create in this description?

• Terror

• Foreboding

• Expectation

"He looked and smelt like Autumn’s very brother, his face being sunburnt to wheat colour, his eyes blue as cornflowers, his sleeves and leggings dyed with fruit-stains, his hands clammy with the sweet juice of apples, and everywhere about him the atmosphere of cider which brings such a fascination to those who have been born and bred among the orchards."

Which of the following best explains why this is such an effective description?

• The writer has concentrated on the physical appearance of the character

• The writer mentions colour

• The writer uses a range of different sense impressions