Describe by Being a Camera!

Descriptive writing is a fundamental writing skill, and a number of GCSE boards offer it as an alternative to narrative writing in the exam.  Some provide the stimulus of a photograph, like this:

One of the descriptive writing skills I teach is to describe by being a camera, panning from one side to another, zooming in on details, zooming out etc.

There are different elements in this photograph, so the "panning" technique might suggest that first we plan to describe the sunrise, then the mountains, then maybe zoom in on one of the flowers - and so on.

My Hartland English Guides  distill over 30 years of teaching. I use their content in my online tutoring and they are available to purchase as ebooks.

You can find out more here.