Advanced Descriptive Writing Checklist (High-Ability Writers)

What sense is being explored when you use symbolic or emotionally charged visual details (e.g., a cracked photograph to represent a broken family)?

• Sight

• Taste

• Hearing

• Smell

Which sense involves considering ambient and layered sound, such as the distant murmur of traffic beneath birdsong?

• Sound

• Sight

• Taste

• Touch

Which sense is explored by considering the emotional impact of taste, such as the metallic tang of fear?

• Taste

• Sight

• Hearing

• Touch

Which sense is included when you add temperature and tension, such as the prickling chill of anticipation?

• Touch

• Sight

• Hearing

• Taste

Which sense is used to trigger memory or emotion, such as the musty scent of old paper recalling childhood?

• Smell

• Sight

• Taste

• Touch

Selecting vocabulary that reinforces tone, such as 'languid' for a sleepy summer afternoon, is an example of which technique?

• Mood-Matching Word Choices

• Alliteration

• Hyperbole

• Onomatopoeia

Avoiding clichés by using nuanced alternatives, such as 'serpentine' instead of 'winding', is an example of which technique?

• Advanced Synonyms

• Literal Translation

• Passive Voice

• Redundancy

Using exact language, such as 'glowered' instead of 'looked angrily', is an example of which technique?

• Precision in Verbs and Nouns

• Use of Hyperbole

• Passive Voice

• Alliteration

Which technique involves aiming for originality and avoiding overused phrases, such as using 'as cold as a church pew in winter' instead of 'as cold as ice'?

• Metaphor & Simile

• Alliteration

• Onomatopoeia

• Personification

Which technique should be used sparingly but powerfully, as in 'Regret clung to him like smoke'?

• Personification

• Alliteration

• Hyperbole

• Onomatopoeia