Describing places



Authors: Pham Thi Thanh
Pham Thi Nguyet
Vien Van Thi
A descriptive paragraph describes a place so that the reader can imagine it in his or her mind.
A descriptive paragraph which describes a place has a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence.
Topic sentence: The topic sentence introduces the place that the writer will describe.
Supporting sentences: The supporting sentences give some background information about the place. They also give descriptive details about the place. These details describe how the place look. They may also describe in more detail how the writer feels about the place.

Concluding sentence: A concluding sentence restates the idea in the topic sentence using different words. It may also include the writer’s general feeling or a opinion about the place.
In a paragraph describing places, writer also often use spatial order to organize their ideas. Spatial order is the arrangement of items in order by space. For example, when describing your favorite room at home, you could first describe things on the left side of the doorway and then move clockwise around to the right side. You could also start on the right and move counterclockwise around to the left. If you jumped back and forth, it would be very difficult for the reader to try to see the room in his or her mind. It is helpful to use some kind of spatial order when you write a description.
Spatial order words and phrases
Just as there are words and phrases to show time order, there are words and phrases to show spatial organization. They are often prepositional phrases of location or position. Some spatial order expressions are:
+ at the top of + between
+ in the center + behind
+ on the left + in back of
+ in front of + inside
+ next to + across from
The stairway
By Toshiki Yamazaki
“When I was 2 or 3 years old, I lived in a house that had a strange atmosphere. I do not remember anything about the house except the stairway. It was the dark, squeaking, and quite narrow, and its steps were a little high for me to climb up. From the bottom of the stairway, it seemed like an endless climb to the top. Beyond the darkness at the top of stairway, there was the middle-aged, elegant lady leaning against the wall. I had to pass her every time I went to my room, for my room was the first room from the stairs on the second floor. The lady wore a beautiful dress with a quiet pattern and a tinge of blue, and her peaceful eyes, stared at me ever time I went up the stairs.
Example:

As I carefully climbed up the last step, her eyes became fixed on me. I was scared, yet I was also curious about the lady. She didn’t talk, nor did she move. She just stood there and watched me climbed up the stairs. One day I touched her, but she did not react. Her face did not change expression, nor did she even blink. She just kept staring at me with her glittering eyes. Later, we moved out of the house, and I never saw her again. Now I know that the lady was a mannequin. My aunt, whom I lived with, used it for her dressmaking class. I did not know my mother. May be I imagined that the mannequin standing at the top of the stairs was my mother. The stairway with the strange atmosphere has an important place in my earliest memories.”
The model paragraph “the stairway” uses spatial organization. In describing the stairway, the writer shows that as a little boy, his first view was from the bottom looking up at the mannequin. Then he climbed up the stairway until he reached the top. Thus, spatial organization is from bottom to top.
In the first sentence, the writer say that the atmosphere of the house is strange. The writer describe that the stairway is the dark, squeaking and quite narrow, and its step are a little high for her to climb up. Then he describes the woman: “Beyond the darkness … … … I went up the stairs.”
The end
Thanks for listening !