Descriptive: Addressing Dual Requirements
Writing Practice
Descriptive essays typically give you two tasks: first, to describe and second, to explain why you have picked your chosen subject. This means that while you may have written very vivid descriptions, you do not fully address the question until you have also given reasons to justify your subject choice.
No Explanation
You describe your subject without meeting the second requirement of explaining why you have chosen to write about it/them.
Clear Explanation
You help your reader understand why you have chosen to write about your subject to address the question.
EXAMPLE QUESTION
Non-expanded
Sometimes I think my brother is the only person in our family with thick, curly hair because he needs more space to house all his inventive, crazy ideas. A true movie buff, my brother has not only watched hundreds of movies in his 20 years of living but has rewatched his favourites to the point where he can quote all the characters’ lines.
Expanded
If it were not for my brother and his bold, creative personality, my timid nature would have doomed me to lead a dull life. Growing up, he would re-create and re-tell scenes from his favourite adventure movies for me. He helped me to let my imagination run free and wild from the safety of my own bed.
