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SWITCHING from an argumentative to descriptive writing for public examination Paper 1 is a different game with same winning plan. Descriptive essays is equal to “show don’t tell”. They want senses plus vivid pictures, not arguments.
How to tackle any descriptive topic in 4 steps?
Pick your angle fast. Public examinations topics are vague: “The Market,” “Rain,” “My village.” Do not describe everything. Zoom in. For example: “The Market” — focus on the Bulawayo Vegetable Market at 7am on Saturday.
Use your five senses. Examiners love this. Before you write, list. What do I see, hear, smell, taste, feel or touch?
Vegetable market: see crowds, hear equal to vendors shouting. There is a smell of roasting maize and sweat from the vendors roasting green mealies. You feel the heat and people bump into you now and again.
Structure your descriptive essay like this — five paragraphs. In the introduction set the scene and mood. There is no thesis needed but use one striking image. The first rays of the sun the vegetable market and the whole place wakes up like an angry beehive.
In body 1: talk of sight and sound. You describe what you see and the sounds you hear. In body 2 you describe what you smell and taste depending on what you eat. Is it a fruit like a banana or mango? In body 3 you talk of what you touch, feel and emotion. You end with what you feel.
In the conclusion you describe one final picture and mood. By 10am, the dust settles but the memory of the vegetable market’s chaos stays with you. Ditch these 3 things:
Arguments/opinions — Markets are important is wrong for descriptive. Story plot — no “then I did this” unless the topic is “A Memorable Day.” Repetition — use synonyms. Not just “big, big, big”. Use “crowded, packed, overflowing”.
Power trick for the public examination: Start 3 sentences with sensory words. “The air smelled . . .” The sound hit. . .”
“My skin felt . . .” Examiners scan for that. Here is a descriptive topic which might be set this year given the rampant road carnage on our roads. “A horrific accident.”
This is a classic descriptive topic which might be set. Examiners want blood, fear, and detail, but no story plot and no moral lesson but just the scene. How to tackle this in 4 steps. Do not tell a story. For example, this is wrong: “I was walking home when suddenly a car . . . then we called the ambulance.”
Right: Freeze one moment. Describe the 30 seconds after impact like a photo. Use the five senses and emotions.
Accidents are for easy marks if you hit all senses. See = twisted metal, blood on tar. Hear = screams, car horn stuck, silence after. Smell = petrol, burnt rubber, blood. Feel = heat, shaking hands, stomach dropping. Touch = sharp glass, hot metal.
Structure = five paragraphs. You set time in the introduction and mood in 1 sentence. Midday on Fifth Avenue in Bulawayo felt normal until metal screamed. Body 1: You talk of what you see and hear sound of the crash itself. Body 2: You smell and touch as you approach and get closer the scene.
There is a smell of burning tyres, leaking fuel such as petrol, oils and a flicker of fire resulting from the crash. As you get closer you observe the wounded occupants of the cars. Blood is oozing from different parts of the body. The driver has a scar on his head which brings fear to onlookers.
Ambulances have been heard with their horns and sirens blaring from different directions. An accident scene is typical of crowds gathering around the scene. Nowadays, with technology many observers will be taking photos instead of helping the injured. We find people making a scramble of having a better view of what has happened.
This in body three which brings human detail and your emotion as told of what people do. In conclusion of this dramatic scene you give one final image and the mood it left. “Long after the sirens faded, the smell of petrol stayed in my nose.”
For public examinations, use power words. Swap weak words: “bad”— shattered, mangled, crumpled “people were scared” — “faces drained of colour, hands trembled.”
Sample introduction + body 1 for you: Introduction: Monday heat pressed down on Fifth Avenue until sound of tearing metal split the air. What followed was not a scene, but a nightmare frozen in time. Body 1 —Sight+Sound:
The car lay crumpled like discarded paper, its bonnet folded over the engine. Glass glittered across the tar, catching the sun in cruel flashes. A woman’s scream cut through the air, high and broken, then came the strange silence that follows shock.
The car horn jammed on, blaring one long, desperate note that made my teeth ache. In those seconds, the busy street forgot how to move. This is just description students can read and follow to improve their work.
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