This set covers the five skills in descriptive writing: focus, spatial order, sensory detail, imagery and keeping description separate from story. The questions are original and ordered from easier to harder.
Write your own answer first, even if it is only one sentence. Then open the model and compare. Models are samples, not the only right answer, so judge yours against the question’s criteria.
Questions
Q1. (Focus, easier) Choose a focus word for “a hospital waiting room at midnight” and give three details that fit it.
Show answer
Focus: suspended (a waiting that feels outside time). Details: the wall clock with a second hand that seems to stall; a vending machine humming to nobody; a paper cup of coffee gone cold on a chair arm. All three point to a stalled, waiting feeling. Other focus words (anxious, hushed) are also fine if the details match.
Q2. (Focus) The focus is “neglected”, describing a playground. Cut the detail that does not fit: peeling paint, a freshly mown lawn, a rusted swing, weeds pushing through the tiles.
Show answer
Cut a freshly mown lawn. It suggests care. The other three all show neglect: paint peeling, metal rusting and weeds taking over.
Q3. (Spatial order) Put in order for a hallway described from the front door: (A) At the far end, a door stood ajar. (B) The front door opened onto a hall lined with coats. (C) Halfway along, stairs climbed into darkness. (D) Shoes sat in pairs beneath the coats.
Show answer
B, D, C, A. This is a near-to-far route: entrance, things near the entrance, the middle, then the far end.
Q4. (Spatial order) Name the problem and suggest a route: “The hall ceiling was lined with fans. The floor was scuffed near the entrance. Above the stage hung a banner. By the door a mat was curled at the corner.”
Show answer
The description jumps between high and low and back to the door. A better route is entrance to stage: the curled mat by the door, the scuffed floor, the fans overhead, and finally the banner above the stage.
Q5. (Sensory detail) Rewrite in one sentence with sound leading and no filter words: “I saw the dark sky. I heard the wind. I smelled the sea. I felt the cold.”
Show answer
Sample: “The wind dragged at the loose shutters, and the smell of the sea came with it, salt and cold, under a darkening sky.” Sound leads, smell supports, and “I saw/heard/smelled” is gone.
Q6. (Sensory detail) Identify the lead sense and one supporting sense: “The kitchen hummed with the fridge’s dull drone. Flour dusted the counter, and when Mum lifted the lid, cinnamon rose in a warm cloud.”
Show answer
Lead: smell (the cinnamon carries the warm mood). Support: sound (the hum) and a touch of sight (flour). None is announced with “I smelled” or “I heard”.
Q7. (Imagery) Rank these for a focus of “stifling heat” and explain: (a) “The afternoon sat on us like a wet towel.” (b) “The heat was as hot as fire.” (c) “The sun was a diamond in a velvet sky.”
Show answer
Strongest to weakest: (a), (b), (c). (a) is specific and matches the focus. (b) is a stock comparison that only repeats “hot”. (c) is pretty but points to beauty, which works against oppression. A rank of (a), (c), (b) is also defensible if you argue that (b) adds nothing.
Q8. (Imagery) Fix the mixed image: “The crowd was a river of ants that exploded onto the field.”
Show answer
Keep one picture: “The crowd poured onto the field like water through a broken gate.” The fault was combining a river, ants and an explosion in one sentence.
Q9. (Description versus story) Rewrite as description, in two or three sentences: “I walked to the beach. Then I sat down. Then a wave came. Then I went home.”
Show answer
Sample: “At dusk the beach emptied slowly. The sand held the day’s warmth a little longer than the air did, and each wave came in lower and quieter, leaving a thin line of foam that faded before the next arrived.” One moment, no “then”, and the eye moves across the scene.
Q10. (Description versus story) Is this description or an undeveloped story? Give two reasons. “Mr Lim locked the shop, counted the day’s takings and left.”
Show answer
Undeveloped story. Reasons: three actions follow each other in time, and we learn nothing about the shop’s look, sound or atmosphere.
Q11. (Mixed, harder) Plan a description of “a beach hut that was once busy and is now empty”. Give a focus, a route, a lead sense and one precise image.
Show answer
Sample plan. Focus: abandoned, with a trace of past noise. Route: outside to inside (the sagging door, then the floor, then the shelf at the back). Lead sense: touch and sound, through sand drifts and a loose shutter tapping. Image: “the counter still wore a ring where a hundred cups had stood, like the faint mark left by a watch.” It shows one picture, a clear match and a plain detail doing half the work.
If you got these wrong
| What went wrong | Go to |
|---|---|
| Q1, Q2: details that do not fit, or a vague focus word | Select a consistent descriptive focus |
| Q3, Q4: details that jump about | Organise a setting spatially |
| Q5, Q6: checklist senses or “I heard” phrases | Vary sensory detail without listing senses |
| Q7, Q8: decorative or mixed images | Use imagery precisely rather than decoratively |
| Q9, Q10: drifting into events | Distinguish description from an undeveloped story |
Q11 uses all five skills. If it felt hard, return to the module overview and work through the lessons in order.
How to keep improving
Record each mistake by habit, not by question number, in the mistake log and retest queue. Then write a fresh paragraph on a new topic and compare your first and second drafts with the revision compare view.
The audience and purpose planner helps when a task names a reader or a reason for describing. If you would like someone to read your writing with you and point at the exact slip, our teachers can do that in online one-to-one English First Language tuition.