Describing Objects/People/Places

 

 Describing Objects/People/Places

Learning objectives:

This course teaches you the fundamentals of technical writing. After completing this class, you will know how to do the following:

·         Use terminology—including abbreviations and acronyms—consistently.

·         Recognize and disambiguate pesky pronouns.

·         Distinguish active voice from passive voice.

·         Develop strategies to make sentences clearer and more engaging.

·         Develop strategies to shorten sentences.

·         Create effective lead sentences for paragraphs.

·         Determine what your target audience already knows and what your target audience needs to learn.

·         Break long topics into appropriate sections.

·         Use commas, parentheses, colons, em-dashes, and semicolons properly.

It takes years of focused practice to become a great engineer or a great technical writer. This lecture will improve your technical writing but will not instantly transform you into a great technical writer.

Introduction:

 It is necessary for students to learn how to use English for describing places, people and objects, etc. They have to equip themselves with the knowledge and use of English structures and vocabulary to be able to meet the requirement of the job market, after their graduation. They may take up the job of a salesman, tourist guide, or they may even like to take up journalism as their career. Whatever field they choose, they will need English for their efficient functioning in that field. This unit and the following ones also have been written with this objective in mind.

Content

Sub-Content I: Describing Objects:

 Describing Objects:

 When you wish to describe anything, you must have an eye for the detail. You must be a good observer. Suppose you were going for a walk. There was a middle-aged man struggling up the road on his bicycle. Suddenly, a car came at a great speed, its horn screaming, and its fend struck the cyclist. The bike and the man fell down. The car did not stop. There was an enquiry. The police inspector asked you:

·         The Inspector : Can you identify the car?

·         You: It was a big car. I think it was a Honda City.

·         The Inspector : Are you sure? What was its color?

·         You : Yes. It was a Sumo. And it was olive green.

·         The Inspector : Can you remember the number of the car?

·         You: No, I am sorry. It happened so quickly. I was looking at the cyclist who fell down.

·         The Inspector : Couldn’t you at least see if the car was from this state or from outside?

·         You : Well, the first letters were definitely LH 3 or something. Quite certainly Lahore.

·         The Inspector: Well, thank you.

 

 You can see how the details are very important. The inspector can now concentrate on a Honda  car or cars registered in Lahore. The search can, thus, be restricted to those cars only.

Note the pattern of descriptive sentences:

·         It was -------------

·         The car was --------

·         The first letters were -------

 Some people have a habit of noticing details and they remember them. There are a number of things in our house, in the hall, in the kitchen, in the bedroom, etc. But, if you are asked to describe the things in the kitchen or the hall or your own room, will you be able to describe them? Here is the picture of a kitchen. There are a number of things and gadgets in the kitchen.

Explanation:

 This is a kitchen platform. Above it, there is a small cupboard in which there are kettle and pans. On the platform, there is a gas stove as well as a microwave unit. Near the microwave, there is a sink with water-taps. Below the kitchen platform, there are a number of cupboards to keep big and small dishes, pots, etc.

2

There is also a waste-bin at the right hand side of the platform. Note the structure again: This is ----, There is -----, There are -----. Note also a number of prepositional phrases used here to state the place or location of things:

above the platform, on the platform, near the microwave, below the kitchen platform, etc.

In every kitchen, there is an oven for baking things. Read the description of an oven given here:

OVEN:

 The oven is a device for baking, grilling, heating, etc. It is an electric device. It has a see-through glass door to view the food being cooked. There are stainless steel black heating elements at the top and the bottom of the oven. They are controlled by a thermostat to provide uniform temperature inside the oven. We can see these through the glass door. There is a wire grill inside the oven. The glass door is a drop-down front door, which gives you easy access to the interior of the oven. On the top right-hand side, there is a black knob for temperature control. Below that there is a heater selection knob. There are heater indication lights also. It is a very useful device in the kitchen. We can use it for toasting bread. It can grill the sandwiches for us. It can also be used to fry groundnuts, etc.

Note how the oven is described here. We started with:

1. what kind of a device it is.

 2. then we described its parts such as see-through glass door, etc.

 3. then we noted how useful it is.

 We made use of the structures like The oven is/has, It is/has, There is/are. They are controlled (by) ----, etc. In the description of an object, we use the simple present tense. If we are talking about things in the past, we can use the simple past tense. But in any case, we describe the appearance, the parts, function, and usefulness of the object we are describing. Here is a task for you to try your hand at describing things:

 1) Describe the fridge in the picture given above.

 2) Describe your Cell-Phone.

  Sub-Content II

II. Describing Persons:

Read the following very short descriptions of persons and the descriptive phrases, adjectives, etc.

1. Aleeza Qureshi is twenty-two years old. She is very short and has long curly hair. The best feature in her face is a set of lovely dimples when she smiles, which she often does.

2. Ahmed is twenty-five years old. He is a thin man. He has wheatish complexion and a small mustache.

 3. Rida is a fifteen-year-old girl. She is dark-skinned and has a broad face and very long hair always in a plait.

It is very important to observe people and be able to describe them. A woman was going for a walk in the evening, and someone came running from behind, snatched her chain from her neck and ran away. These incidents are now frequently being reported. The police will ask questions about the woman :

: Can you describe the person?

: He was a young man, Sir. He was of medium height. I saw only the side of his face. He was rather dark-skinned. He had short black hair. He had put on a half-sleeved shirt of grey color and faint blue trousers. He slipped while running and I saw yellow rubber slippers on his feet.

This lady has been able to give a comparatively better description, because normally, in such a situation, a woman is so frightened that she may not be able to give any details of the chain-snatcher. But it is not only a chain-snatcher that you are going to describe. You may have to describe people, young or old, who you come across in your life. What do you notice first when you meet strangers, or even persons familiar to you? Here is Khushwant Singh, a very well known writer, describing his very old grandmother.

Note the descriptive details, adjectives and other expressions used by the writer.

 My grandmother, like everybody’s grandmother, was an old woman. She had been old and wrinkled for the twenty years that I had known her. People said that she had once been young and pretty and had even had a husband, but that was hard to believe.

 She had always been short and fat and slightly bent. Her face was a criss-cross of wrinkles running from everywhere to everywhere. No, we were certain that she 7 had always been as we had known her. Old, so terribly old that she could not have grown older, and had stayed at the same age for twenty years. She could never have been pretty, but she was always beautiful. She hobbled about the house in spotless white with one hand resting on her waist to balance her and the other telling the beads of her rosary. Her silver hair was scattered untidily over her pale puckered face, and her lips constantly moved in prayer.

 (Khushwant Singh)

You must have come across old men and women. Note how the writer has given here the details of the appearance of his grandmother. Study the following descriptive details:

 Age: old, terribly old

 Face:  wrinkled, puckered

General Appearance: not pretty, but beautiful

Figure: short and fat and slightly bent

 Manner of Walking: hobbled, with one hand resting on her waist

 Hair: silver, scattered untidily

Dress: spotless white

 Action: lips moved in prayer, hand telling rosary beads.

The passage is written in the past tense. Most of the verb phrases are in the past tense or in the past perfect tense because the writer is talking about his grandmother who is no more. But you can see what details of personality can be given while describing a person.

You can write about age, height, weight, face, head, and hair, etc. in general terms. See for example:

Age:       You may not know the age in years. But you can say An infant, a child, a teenager, a young man/woman, a middle-aged man /woman, an old man, an old lady, etc.

 Height: Normally we talk of height in feet. We can only guess someone’s height. We can say: He must be five feet six inches tall. She is about five feet three inches.

But very often we say:

 He is rather tall. She is rather short. She may come up to my shoulders.

He is of medium height. He is very tall for an Indian. She cannot be more than five feet.

 

Weight: If we know, we can say how much a person weighs. But while describing, we talk about weight in general terms. We make use of adjectives such as:

 fat, thin, slim, overweight, plump, famished, well-built, stocky,

 These are all adjectives. Fat, overweight and famished and thin has unfavorable meaning. We mean to criticize the person we are describing. But, plump and slim are favorable in their meaning. For example, ‘She is slim and looks pretty.’ ‘Well-built’ is favorable in meaning, but stocky is not.

Face and Head: When you describe someone’s face you say something about his or her eyes. Eyes can be:

 blue, black, brown, grey or green.

Eyes can also be round or elongated or slit eyes. Face and head include Hair, Nose, Moustache, Lips, and Ears.

Hair: Hair can be black, blond, in colour. In size, the hair can be long or short, curly, wavy, straight, closely cropped, tied in a bun, or left loose around the shoulders.

 Mustache:      This is in the case of men. There can be a thin mustache or ample mustache, curved or sloping down. Or a man can be just cleanshaven.

 Lips: lips can be thin, red, or wide, and thick While describing a person you can use the following expressions (mostly adjectives), which can be your general impression about the person you are describing.  smart, efficient, mischievous (about children), elegant, thoughtful, melancholy, gentle, untidy, easy-going, eccentric, good-humored, businesslike, etc.

Then you can describe the clothes a person puts on:

A young man puts on trousers or jeans and a shirt that has long or short sleeves. A girl puts on a saree and a blouse or jeans and a shirt,  or a kurta and pajama.

While describing a familiar person, you can write about what he or she does for a living. A woman may be a teacher, an officer in a government department, or in a bank, etc. A man can also be a teacher, an officer, or a businessman running a cloth shop, a garage, a shop of electric goods, etc. You can also write about their financial status, e.g. a poor family, a middle-class family, quite well-to-do or a very rich family.

Now here are two small passages describing persons. Study the descriptive details about the physical features, profession, financial status, etc.

Zakir Khan:

Zakir Khan is twenty-four years old. He is over six feet tall and has a muscular physique. He has light brown eyes and straight black hair which is perpetually flopped on his forehead. Zakir Khan is an actor by profession. In fact, he is one of the superstars of the silver screen. He lives in a plush five-bedroom penthouse in suburban Mumbai along with his three servants. He belongs to Haryana, where his parents and siblings still live. They come and stay with him sometime. Though Zakir Khan is very fond of eating, he makes sure he eats the right food and in reasonable quantities since he wants to maintain his weight. He has a gym in his Penthouse where he works out with his personal trainer for two hours every day. The rest of the day is spent in shootings which sometimes wind up quite late at night. After that, he often goes out with friends to restaurants until the wee hours of the morning. He has four cars including an open sports car and a huge collection of dark glasses and designer watches. Zakir Khan is vain about his looks and arrogant about his superstar status. He is very confident about his acting abilities and thinks it will be a matter of time before he is offered a Hollywood film.

 Now note the details of Zakir Khan’s personality:

Personal details:         his age, height, physique, the color of eyes, hair

His profession: actor of superstar status

His residence: a plush five-bedroom Penthouse

His family: parents and sibling in Haryana

 His eating habits: the right kind of food with reasonable quantities

His daily routine: physical exercise for two hours, then shooting for films, spending time with friends at restaurants till late at night.               

His personal collections: four cars, collection of glasses and designer watches

His nature: arrogant and ambitious

 You can get such descriptive details of film stars, sportspersons, etc. from magazines and newspapers. Try to write short descriptive passages about some of them.

Here is another small passage of an ordinary but a very responsible young man:

 Twenty-year-old Hamza is a milkman by profession. He works at a small milk booth in a colony in South Lahore. He is a very pleasant-looking young man of medium height and regular features. His bright smile reveals his amicable and sunny disposition. Sanjay lives with his mother and three younger siblings in a small room. He is a very responsible and hardworking young man as he realizes that his family is dependent on him. Hamza does not really enjoy his work of delivering milk and collecting money. He had to leave school after his 9^th  class when his father passed away. He has taken a small loan and joined a computer class in the evenings. Hamza hopes that he will get a good job once he completes his computer course.

Note the details about Hamza:

His age, his profession, his personality, his residence his family and his responsibility, his modest ambition, his aim of life.

Note that the descriptive passages here are all written using the simple present tense.

Task II

1)      Make a list of the verb phrases from the passage on Zahir Khan. Use these verb phrases in your own sentences to describe a person familiar to you.

2)      Write short descriptive passage about:

a) your favorite teacher, b) a bus conductor

Content III:

 Describing Places:

When writing the description of places, you need to write about :

 1) where it is (its location), what it is --- a castle, a museum, an art gallery, a temple, a palace, etc

2) if it is a historical place, its possible period when it was built,

 3) its structure and its present state,

4) if it is a town, a hill station, then where it is situated, what it is known for, etc.

 

 Read this description of Matheran, a hill station in Maharashtra (India):

Matheran:

Matheran is a hill station in the district of Raigad. It is situated at the height of 800 meters in the hill ranges of Sahyadri mountain. This beautiful place was discovered in 1850 by the Governor of Bombay (now Mumbai), Lord Elphinston. This is a very peaceful and pleasant hill station, where cars are not allowed. It is a heaven for those who love nature. You see hills covered with green grass. There is a meter-gauge train running from the railway station Neral, which slowly winds up its way to Matheran. It’s a wonderful experience to travel by this train.

Note the structures in this descriptive passage. The sentences are all in the present tense. And you come across structures like:

There is -----,

there are-----,

 this is-----,

 it is -------

You see ------,

you come across, and so on.

And there are descriptive noun phrases such as :

the hill ranges of the Sahyadri Mountain, a very peaceful and pleasant hill station, a heaven for those who love nature, a meter-gauge train, etc.

 Task 3:

1)      Describe, giving necessary details, the following locations visited by you:

2)       A Mosque in your township

3)      A vegetable market in your township

Key to Self-Check Exercises: I Self-Check I:

 Answers:

1) Description of a Fridge: A fridge is a very useful device in the kitchen of every house. It is very useful to store fruits, vegetables, pickles and jams, milk, etc. We can use it to keep some special medicines in it. There are four compartments inside the fridge and a shelf inside its door. The uppermost compartment is the freezer in which we can keep a tray for ice-cubes, and in the space by its side, we can keep ice-cream cups, etc. In the two slots below we can store eatables, fruits, jam bottles, pickles, etc. The last one is a bigger well, in which we can keep vegetables. We can use the fridge for making ice-cream at home, putting the ice-cream maker in the freezer.

A Cell-Phone: My cell-phone is the latest Nokia model, which is not only a phone but also a device for storing all essential information, a telephone directory, financial transactions, addresses, etc. I can use it for sending and receiving messages. My cell phone provides immense entertainment to me. I have stored in it all my favorite songs. It has a powerful camera in it, and a device to attach it to my computer. I use my cell-phone to keep a record of my financial transactions, bank account numbers, and all essential information, such as my C.V., postal addresses, etc. My cell-phone is constantly with me, wherever I go. There is a device in it to remind me of my appointments, train timings, etc.

 Key to Self-check Exercises II

1) Verb Phrases from the passage on Zahir Khan and their use in sentences:

 a) My friend is a singer. He has his own piano. He stays in a hostel. 14 b) I have another friend who lives in our own housing society. We eat our lunch together at the college canteen. We make it sure to catch the same bus. c) If you want to be a sportsperson, you must maintain your health. You ought to work out in a gym every day and spend time practicing your favorite sport. d) I wind up my work at 6 p.m. and go out for a walk. I think a long walk to the hill-side in the evening freshens up my mind.

 2) My Favourite Teacher: Sir Ali was my favorite teacher at school. He used to teach us English. He could make learning grammar also a very enjoyable class. He used to tell us interesting jokes while teaching. He was sympathetic and quite helpful when we made any mistakes. Sir Ali was always dressed in a simple manner. He must be about thirty years old. He was slim, and about five feet and seven inches tall. He had a fair complexion, and he sported a thin mustache. He used to smile quite a lot while teaching. I hardly remember him to be angry. He made us speak English, read aloud in the class and we were never afraid of answering questions in his class. Sir Ali used to play harmonium very well. In our annual gathering, he used to play and sing also. He was really a wonderful person.

 A Vegetable Market: A vegetable market in our city is a very crowded place in the morning as well as in the evening, every day. It is at the center of the city, and it is the one place that is properly planned by the civic authorities. There are two main sections of the market, one for the fruit vendors and the other for the vegetable vendors. There is also a small section enclosed by walls, where there are mutton and fish market. There are stone platforms, for the vendors, and each vendor’s place is properly demarked. Since the neighboring villages bring fresh vegetables to this market, it is a very popular place for the house-wives. There are fruit stalls on the other part. The fruits in this market are mostly ordered wholesale from the city vendors from Lahore and Gujranwala :

Describing Things:

1) Characteristics: linking verbs

Firstly, we use the linking verb ‘be’ to describe things.

It is called a linking verb because it links the subject to description, for example:

1.       The iPhone is a smartphone.        2.  My car is a Toyota.          3.    My books are interesting.

 Things can be described in the following ways:

a) size: enormous, huge, very large, large, big, quite big, medium-sized, quite small, small, very small, tiny

b) weight: very heavy, heavy, quite heavy, not very heavy, light, very light

c) shape: round, square, oval, flat, rectangular, oblong, etc

d) color: black, gray, brown, blue, purple, green, yellow, orange, red, white

e) materials: wooden, steel, plastic, glass, brick, stone, pottery

f) flavors: sweet, sour, salty, spicy, rich, oily, buttery, creamy, bland

g) appearance: ugly, beautiful, cute, lovely, sweet, attractive, modern

h) age: new, quite new, not very old, quite old, old, very old, antique, ancient

 

Here are some sentences that describe a computer (singular):

The computer is very expensive. It is very fast. It is very modern. It is the best laptop on the market. It is a good value-for-money. It is available in most department stores and shopping malls.

 

 

Here are some sentences that describe Toyota cars (plural):       

Toyota cars are very reliable. Toyota cars are cheap to repair. Toyota cars are available in most countries. Toyota cars are made in Thailand. Toyota cars are reasonably priced. Some Toyota cars are small and suitable for city driving. Some Toyota cars are large and are suitable for families. Toyota pick-ups are very strong.

 

Secondly, we use the verb ‘have’ to describe the features that belong to something.

My telephone (third person singular)

My telephone has a camera. My telephone has a USB port. My telephone has a large memory. My telephone has many uses. My telephone has a headphone socket.

 

 

My classrooms (Plural)

My classrooms have many tables and chairs. My classrooms have overhead projectors. My classrooms have computers and microphones. My classrooms have air conditioners. My classrooms have whiteboards.

 

Q. How we can make writing more descriptive by Adding Adjectives in our daily life?

If your English teacher wants you to make your writing more descriptive, you need to learn how to use adjectives. Adjectives add information about number, color, type, and other qualities about the nouns and pronouns in your sentences. Adjectives help your reader get a fuller picture of the things you are writing about.

Here’s an example:

Adjectives describing nouns: The most common job for an adjective is describing a noun. Consider the adjectives venomous, angry, and rubber in these sentences. Then decide which sentence you would like to hear as you walk through the jungle.

·         There is a venomous snake on your shoulder.

·         There is an angry, venomous snake on your shoulder.

·         There is a rubber snake on your shoulder.

In these three sentences, those little descriptive words certainly make difference. Angry, venomous, and rubber all describe snake, and all of these descriptions give you information that you would really like to have.

Adjectives describing pronouns: Adjectives can also describe pronouns (words that substitute for nouns). When they’re giving you information about pronouns, adjectives usually appear after the pronoun they’re describing:

·         There’s something strange on your shoulder. (The adjective strange describes the pronoun something.)

·         Everyone conscious at the end of Ronald’s play made a quick exit. (The adjective conscious describes the pronoun everyone.)

·         Anyone free should report to the meeting room immediately! (The adjective free describes the pronoun anyone.)

Attaching adjectives to linking verbs: Adjectives may also follow linking verbs, in which case they describe the subject of the sentence. To find an adjective after a linking verb, ask the question what. Sometimes a linking verb joins an adjective (or a couple of adjectives) and a noun:

·         Mary’s favorite dress is orange and purple. (The adjectives orange and purple describe the noun dress.)

·         The afternoon appears gray because of the nuclear fallout from Roger’s cigar. (The adjective gray describes the noun afternoon.)

·         George’s latest jazz composition sounds awful. (The adjective awful describes the noun composition.)

 

 

 Summary:

 This passage presents short pieces of description of objects, people and places, showing structures useful for writing descriptions of familiar things, people and places. The unit introduces structures and vocabulary useful for writing descriptions of things familiar to the students. The unit is interspersed with tasks for the students to practice writing. Model answers to these tasks are provided for them to check their own answers and make corrections where necessary.

Describing Things worksheet

Describe the following objects by shape, color and material:

Thing	Shape	Color	Material
Briefcase
Coca-Cola bottle
iPhone
Pencil
Envelope
DVD

Some words you can use:
shape: cylindrical, flat, round, square, rectangular
color: black, brown, grey, white, yellow; gold, silver
material: glass, gold, metal, paper, plastic, silver, wood

Describing Things ( Possible Answers)

Things	Shape	Color	Material
Briefcase	Rectangular	Black	Leather
Coca-Cola bottle	Cylindrical	Brown	Glass
iPhone	Flat rectangular	Grey	Metal, glass
Pencil	Cylindrical	Yellow	Wood
Envelope	Flate square	White	Paper
DVD	Flat round	Silver	plastic

 

 Exercises

 I. Describe the following objects:

 a) The Computer Screen and the icons on it and their functions.

 b) The Pressure Cooker

 c) An Electric Iron.

 

 II. Write a short descriptive passage about:

a) a sports person you like

 b) a film personality,

c) Your uncle or the neighbor.

 

II. I Describe giving necessary details, the following locations visited by you:

a) a shopping mall, or a Gym or a Recreation Centre in your town.

b) a hill station (like Murree)

c) a protected forest area visited by you

 

 Fieldwork:

 From the English newspapers such as the Dawn News, Express-News, etc. collect the advertisements describing gadgets such as electronic goods, kitchen wares, etc. and study the way their parts and functions are described. Similarly, note the passages of description of places from the travel literature from the tourist companies.

Extra References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VdkVgsNWLY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE0RZEeODKI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpYJknsYn2g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV3a2hJ3_E4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuDFz8AijfM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_77akvUaMYo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdldHdDMXDA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAi-y1GwzXw