A descriptive paragraph uses vivid details to create a picture in the reader's mind — of a place, person, object or event. 🔹 Structure : • Topic sentence — states what you are describing • Supporting sentences — give sensory details • Concluding sentence — ends with an impression or feeling 🔹 Techniques for good description : 1. The five senses : • sight: colours, shapes, size (the golden sand, the towering baobab) • sound: loud, quiet, noise (the sound of the waves crashing) • smell: (the smell of grilled fish filled the air) • touch: texture, temperature (the warm, rough bark of the tree) • taste: (the sweet taste of bissap juice) 2. Figurative language : • Simile: as bright as the sun / like a mirror • Metaphor: the sea was a shimmering blue carpet • Personification: the wind whispered through the trees 3. Specific adjectives — avoid overusing 'nice' or 'good': • beautiful → stunning, breathtaking, magnificent • big → enormous, vast, towering • small → tiny, compact, delicate 🔹 Useful vocabulary for Senegalese settings : • the bustling market / the busy port of Dakar / the vast savanna • the red laterite roads / the tall baobab trees / the turquoise Atlantic • colourful boubous / the smell of thieboudienne

📝 Model descriptive paragraph — A Dakar market : 'The market of Sandaga is a feast for all the senses. As you step inside, a dazzling array of colours surrounds you — piles of fresh tomatoes and mangoes glow under the morning sun, while bolts of brightly printed fabric hang from every stall. The air is thick with the warm smell of roasted peanuts and sweet bissap flowers. Vendors call out their prices in rapid Wolof, their voices rising above the constant hum of the crowd. Children weave between the stalls, laughing and chasing each other. It is noisy, chaotic, and alive — a perfect portrait of Dakar's irresistible energy.' Identify : • Topic sentence: 'The market of Sandaga is a feast for all the senses.' • Senses used: sight (colours, tomatoes), smell (peanuts, bissap), sound (vendors, children) • Simile/metaphor: 'a feast for all the senses' (metaphor), 'glow under the morning sun' • Concluding impression: 'noisy, chaotic, and alive — a perfect portrait of Dakar's irresistible energy'