GCSE English : Writing To Describe

Sensuous Imagery

Senses

Writers often use description in an attempt to allow their readers to imagine characters, moods and settings.

One way of making these descriptions effective is by appealing to the readers' senses. Your readers should be able to see, feel and taste the world you are describing.

Sensual imagery is an excellent way of bringing your writing to life.

Sight

Visual details are probably the most important, especially now when we all watch a lot of films and television. A writer should aim at creating a kind of film of images running through a text, so that their readers can imagine themselves there.

Sound

Without sounds, your film of images would be a silent one. Details of sounds can be particularly effective in creating atmosphere. Think how the sounds of a busy building site would be different from those of an empty beach and you'll get the idea.

Writing has a few advantages over TV, computer games, or videos. In all of those only two senses can be directly stimulated: Sight and sound. Writing can appeal to three other senses.

Smell

Our sense of smell is strongly linked to our memory. Smells can instantly conjure up a feel of a particular place or time. The salt wind on a sea shore, the smell of boiled cabbage that is intimately linked to school dining halls.

Touch

For readers to believe in the world you are creating, it is important that this world is physical, that it has textures. Using lines that appeal to our sense of touch can help to achieve this.

Taste

Closely linked to the sense of smell, touch is generally a more difficult sense to express through your writing. However, like the others, it can help to bring writing alive and make it vivid for its readers. Even for tired old examiners!

In the following interaction, match the different senses to the passages listed by dragging them onto the question marks. Mark your answer to see how you got on:

Alliteration and Onomatopoeia

Alliteration is when two or more words in a line begin with the same letter or sound.

In 'The [u]s[/u]hingle [u]s[/u]crambles after the sucking surf',for instance, the poet has used alliteration of 's' sounds to create the sounds of the sea.

Onomatopoeia is when the sound of a word re-enforces its meaning. Words such as crash, slither, scrape, whizz, boom are onomatopoeic. Onomatopoeic words are bursting with energy; we hear their actions as if spoken aloud. They are words bursting with energy and liven up any writing.

Onomatopoeia can work in lines as well as in single words. The alliterative line quoted above is clearly onomatopoeic.

What do you think the war poet, Wilfred Owen, was trying to imitate in thefollowing, famous, onomatopoeic lines:

'Only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle can patter out their hasty orisons (prayers)?'

In comparison, we do not 'hear' words such as 'chair' or 'justice'; these words are not onomatopoeic.

Using alliterative and onomatopoeic effects in your writing will help to bring any piece to life.

Varying Sentences

Length

You should adapt the length of your sentences to fit the subject youare describing.

Long sentences can be used to slow a description down to create a sense of relaxation or time dragging. Short sentences are more punchy, quick and dynamic, and are good for describing dramatic events or action.

By varying the length of your sentences you will be able to show the examiner that you are thinking carefully about your writing, and that you are consciously creating effects for the reader.

For example: "The English lesson seemed, to Kevin, to be dragging on forever, as Mr Drake's voice droned on and on,in its weary, low monotone, about the apparently fascinating poetry of somelong-dead writer, who seemed to Kevin at least, to be unhealthily and unnaturally interested in scenes of empty countryside and quiet decay".

For Example "The waves crashed. The moon shone brightly. All else was silent on the deserted beach. From the distance came the sound of thunder."

Rhythm

Repeated use of short sentences will create a choppy, staccato rhythm. Longer sentences will create a more fluid, fluent rhythm.

The key idea is to try to fit the right rhythm to the right subject.

So to summarise:

Long sentences:

Slow, descriptive or explanatory.

Can create a sense of relaxation, flow, or time dragging.

Using long sentences can create a fluent style and rhythm.

Short sentences:

Good for action, and dramatic lines. For example, 'a shot rang out.'

Short sentences can create a punchy choppy rhythm.

Structure

As well as varying the length of your sentences you should try to vary their construction.

If you look back to your work in Year 7, you will probably find that in yourstories you had sections like the following:

"He walked carefully into the narrow room. Then he saw a picture above the fireplace. He wondered who was in the picture. He walked over toit. He was sure he had seen that face before. Then he looked at the grey hair and the cruel eyes. He didn't know where he had seen them. Then he remembered that he had once met a friend of his father's..."

Try listing the elements of this story that make it repetitive.

How would you re-write it, to make it more fluent and less repetitive?

The important thing is to create variety.

Getting rid of 'he did this and did this and he did that' can also erase purposeless repetition, and turning a sentence around can create variation. So 'he saw a picture above the fireplace' becomes, 'above the fireplace hung a picture.'

Sentences in which the subject is kept to the end are sometimes called 'suspenseful', because the reader has to wait to see who or what the subject is. These suspenseful sentences can be used to create effects.

For example: "Claire ran through thelong crowded corridors, where her school mates stopped to stare at her, out through the big double doors at the front of the school and down the main road that led to her home."

This conventionally structured sentence can be made more effective by putting the subject (Claire) and her verb (ran) at the end: .

"Through the long-crowded corridors, where her schoolmates stopped to stare at her, out through the big double doors at the front of the school, and down the main road that led to her home Claire ran"

In what ways do you think the second version is superior?

Subject:	Object:
the sunshone hazily	through the low grey clouds.
Object:	Subject:
through the low grey clouds	the sun shone hazily

Now have a go at turning these sentences around:

"Macbeth is a play about many things including murder and betrayal, guilt and love, evil and power."

"The clouds drifted gently across the long stretch of the horizon."

"The house looked very small, with only three windows facing the busy road and a narrow strip of overgrown lawn leading up to a battered front door."

GCSE English : Writing to Argue, Persuade, Instruct

Points against

When planning to write this piece it is a good idea to use a for/against box. For your work to reach the highest marks you will need to have considered both sides of the argument, although you can come down heavily on one side in your conclusion.

Start your writing with your strongest argument, written in a short, punchy style. This way your audience should be immediately interested and engaged.

Next you should write all the counter arguments.

These should be presented as positively and strongly as you can, so that they sound convincing to the reader, and so that you are seen to be fair.

A sophisticated approach is to cast a little doubt on the counter arguments by using phrases such as 'people say'or 'according to...' as this will make these arguments sound more subjective.

Points for

Having set out the counter arguments now you need to advance your side of things. You should argue against and ideally undermine each point of the opposition's argument.

Once you have done this you can then go on to argue other positive points for your point of view.

Conclusion

You should finish by reinforcing your case with your most compelling argument.

Addressing the reader/audience directly, confronting them with the choice between the two sides is a powerful way to finish.

For example:

'So everything boils down to whether you have more sympathy for the hunters or the hunted, the rich and the powerful who gallop about the countryside filled with bloodlust, or the innocent, terrified animal their dogs tear to pieces. In the end who would you rather save?'

So the structure of your essay should be:

• Your strongest argument for
• Points against
• Points for
• Conclusion

Writing About Poetry

Genres Of Literature

Genres Of Literature

GCSE English Literature : Presents From My Aunts In Pakistan

Moniza Alvi was born of mixed parentage, her father being Pakistani and her mother English. She was born in Pakistan but moved to England at a young age. This poem expresses her confusion in her search for her identity. The tradtional clothes that her aunts sent her from Pakistan are a symbol of a part of her, but only a part of her, and one that she does not feel entirely comfortable with.

The first stanza describes the clothes that were sent: two 'salwar kameez' outfits, which consist of a tunic dress and trousers. The beautiful vivid colours are described, the second one with the simile 'glistening like an orange split open'. Alvi tells us that the style of the salwar trousers changed, just as fashions in England change: they were 'broad and stiff, / then narrow.' The aunts also sent oriental pointed slippers, described as 'embossed', 'gold and black', as though they were very decorative. There were also bangles that were 'Candy-striped', but Alvi relates how these broke and 'drew blood'; this seems to be symbolic perhaps of the fact that her life in Pakistan was cut short. The first stanza ends with a description of a green, silver-bordered sari that the writer received as a teenager.

The second stanza relates how Alvi tried on these clothes 'each silken-satin top' - but felt 'alien' in her sitting-room. There is a definite sense here that the two cultures conflicted. Alvi seems to have felt a degree of inferiority when she says 'I could never be as lovely / as those clothes'. She wanted the 'denim and corduroy' that were typical of England. She describes how the Pakistani clothes 'clung' to her and uses the metaphor 'I was aflame', but, unlike the phoenix, she could not rise from the fire, and thus could not take on the Pakistani identity. She contrasts herself with one of her aunts, emphasising that she herself was 'half English, / unlike Aunt Jamila'.
The shorter third stanza focuses on a camel-skin lamp owned by her parents. Here again, there is a conflict of ideas: Alvi wanted the lamp, but looking at it in her room she simultaneously thought of the cruelty involved in making the lamp and admired its colours which she describes with the simile 'like stained glass'.

Stanza four switches to a comment on Alvi's English mother who 'cherished her jewellery'. The jewellery was Indian, and it was stolen from the family car; this perhaps symbolises the fact that the mother did not belong to the Asian culture. Alvi then alludes once more to the Pakistani clothes that were 'radiant' in her wardrobe. This stanza ends with the irony that the aunts who sent the traditional clothes themselves wanted 'cardigans / from Marks and Spencers'.
Alvi then relates how a visiting schoolfriend of hers did not appreciate the salwar kameez or sari when shown them. This leads into Alvi's expression of her admiration of the mirror-work in the Pakistani clothes. She tells us 'I / ... tried to glimpse myself / in the miniature / glass circles', but the fact that they were so small leads to our realization that Alvi would not have been able to see her whole reflection, just a fragment of herself, which underlines the idea of a split identity. She then tries to remember the journey she made from Pakistan to England at a very young age. 'Prickly heat had me screaming on the way' emphasises the idea of pain and the difficulty of being torn between two cultures. She recalls being in a cot in her English grandmother's home, and stresses being alone with a tin boat to play with after the long voyage.

Stanza six focuses on memories of Pakistan. Alvi looks at photographs taken in the 1950s to help her remember the country of her birth. Later, she read about the 'conflict' in Pakistan in newspapers, seeing it as 'a fractured land', which again reflects her own feeling of having a fractured identity. She can still picture her aunts in Lahore as they wrapped presents. They would have been hidden from 'male visitors' by a carved wooden screen this idea again adds to the sense of not being able to see clearly, of fragmentation.

The final stanza opens with memories linked with poverty: 'beggars, sweeper-girls'. As though it were a dream, Alvi pictures herself as part of the scene, saying 'I was there - / of no fixed nationality'. This phrase tells us exactly how feels, in that she does not belong wholly to any one country. Like her aunts, she is behind a screen, or 'fretwork', looking out at the Shalimar Gardens. This echoes the image of her trying to see herself in the mirror-work of the Pakistani clothes, as in both instances a complete picture would have been hard to see.
The language of the poem is quite informal, appearing to flow from the writer's mind as many of the lines are indented in an irregular pattern. The visual aspect of the poem adds to the sense of uncertainty. The lines seem to move backwards and forwards on the page, echoing the idea of going to and fro between two cultures. This is a creative way of underlining the theme of the poem, the feeling of not really belonging to any one particular place, of being unsure of one's identity.

GCSE English Literature : Search For My Tongue

This poem is about Sujata Bhatt being afraid that she was losing her identity as a Gujarati-speaking Indian. It comes from a time when she was in America studying English, and feared she was being ‘Americanised’, and forgetting her first language (her ‘mother tongue’)

The content of the poem consists of the poet writes about losing her tongue, by which she means forgetting how to speak her mother tongue because she had always to speak English (‘the foreign tongue’).
Then, however, as she dreams, her mother tongue re-asserts itself as her first language.
She writes first in Gujarati (e.g. ), then she gives us the pronunciation of the Gujarati (e.g. ‘munay hutoo’), then she translates it for us (meaning: ‘It grows back’).

The feelings of the poet are at first distress that she is losing her mother tongue.
At first she talks about the two languages as though they were at war, and is fearful the foreign tongue seemed to be winning. She seems to think that the foreign tongue is winning because she is not using it (she talks about how it will ‘rot and die’) or because she is consciously not using it (‘I thought I had spit it out’).
However, she finishes confidently, reasserting her knowledge of her Indian identity.
You can sense her happiness when she writes: ‘overnight while I dream … every time I think I've forgotten … it blossoms out of my mouth’.
The allusion to her ‘dreams’ has TWO meanings – one, that she speaks Gujarati literally in her dreams, but also, it is her ‘dream’ (her longing) to speak it always.

The Structure of the poem is that it is written as a single stanza, representing one long coherent assertion to the reader that it is her Gujarati language which is most important to her.
The poem starts in English – because the story starts with her worrying that English is taking over in her life.
But then the entire middle section is Gujarati, a visual assertion that, for her Gujarati is growing back/ re-asserting itself at the centre of her life, and that she is proud of it.
When she writes it phonetically, and then translates it, it is not because English is more important, but simply because she is doing the reader a favour. The result is that the reader reads the story of how Gujarati triumphed over English THREE times!

In her use of language, the poet writes in free verse, so that her poem feels just like a lecture, giving her thoughts as they come out of her head.
She writes in the first person – ‘I’ – to show that this is a personal battle, but also so other readers in the same situation will be able to read it as though it is their personal poem too.
She uses the word ‘tongue’ in three ways, firstly as the physical tongue in her mouth, secondly as her ‘mother tongue’ (her language), but also as a symbol of her personal identity and Indian culture.
The poem consists of an extended metaphor of her language as a plant. At first she is worried that it is going to ‘rot and die’ (that she is forgetting it), but then in lines 30-35: it ‘grows’, ‘shoots’, ‘buds’, ‘blossoms’, representing the poet growing in confidence , remembering Gujarati words, forming them on her lips, and finally speaking them full out fluently in Gujarati.
One a powerful image is of her tongue rotting in her mouth and her ‘spitting it out’, reflecting the horror and disgust she felt at losing her tongue and Indian identity.
The repetition: ‘the bud opens … the bud opens’ symbolises the unstoppableness of the process, but also her excitement that it is happening and that she is re-finding her Gujarati identity.

GCSE English - Past Papers For Revision

For a huge selection of GCSE English Exam papers go to :

http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/english/ks3-4-5/ks4/revision/documents/SFOY10-11Anthology.pdf