A good description lets you hear the place and not just read about it. A few exact words do most of the work.
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Students will learn that description lets a reader share an experience through the senses, find the details that appeal to sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, explain what a precise adjective adds, and apply all of it to Mark Twain's account of a steamboat arriving in his boyhood town.
A writer's description works through the five senses, and the strongest ones are usually specific: not a loud noise, but a furious clatter of carts.
A precise word does more than a vague one plus a pile of extra words. The swap test is to put a vague word like nice or big in its place and see how much of the picture disappears.
Calling every detail a sight. Hearing and smell are easy to miss, so ask which sense a detail would reach if the reader's eyes were closed.
Piling on adjectives. Precise doesn't mean more, and one exact word often beats three vague ones.
Have the student describe a familiar room with their eyes closed, using hearing, smell and touch only, and then compare it with what they'd have written looking at it. The written task at the end of the lesson is the same exercise on paper.
Twain's description of the town is in his own words, including a period term and a comic phrase worth a conversation about how language has changed.
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Before You Start
The words this lesson uses. Tap a card to see what it means, then come back to them whenever a question uses one.
Part One
Questions about the story you just read. Pick your answer straight off, or press Find it in the story if you would rather hunt for the sentence first.
Part Two
The word cards are at the top of this page. Look back at them as often as you need, then answer.