PRACTING WRITING

READING AND REFLECTION ON TEXT
Submitted by
R.Abirami
19 USDV001

Practicing Writing-
Picture description/Expansion of
ideas/Essays/Stories.

INTRODUCTION:
Writing, form of human communication by means of
a set of visible marks that are related, by convention,
to some particular structural level of language.
Writing is a medium of human communication that
involves the representation of a language with
symbols. Writing systems are not themselves human
languages; they are means of rendering a language
into a form that can be reconstructed by other
humans separated by time and/or space.

PICTURE DESCRIPTION:
A picture description is an ideal way of
practising your English vocabulary in all
sorts of fields.
PREPARATION:
Have a close look at the picture and decide
on how to structure your picture
description. What is important or special?
What should the viewer pay attention to?

Structure and Content:
It's not easy to follow a picture description if the
writer jumps randomly from one point to another.
Therefore, make sure that your picture description
is logically structured, for example:
from left to right (or from right to left)
from the background to the foreground (or from
the foreground to the background)
from the middle to the sides (or from the sides to
the middle)
from details to general impressions (or from general
impressions to details)

Pictures in General:
short description of the scene (e. g. place, event)
details (who / what can you see)
background information (if necessary) on place, important
persons or event
Paintings
name of artist and picture, year of origin (if known)
short description of the scene (e. g. place, event)
details (who / what can you see)
impression on the viewer
artist's intention
perspective, colours, forms, proportions etc.

Step 1: Understand the symbol of the words in the
proverb:
Most proverbs or ideas are symbolic. The name of
place or animal or thing or person stands as a symbol
of some quality. We have to try to understand that in
the context of the proverb.
For example take the proverb, ‘Rome was not built in
a day‘. Here the noun ‘Rome’ is the name of a place.
We also (should) know that Rome was a great city. So
what does Rome stand for? It stands for Greatness or
success. (Remember it was a great city).

Or take the example of ‘All that glitters is not
gold‘. Here we have the noun ‘gold’. It is the
name of a thing. We know that gold is a
precious metal. So what does gold stand for? It
stands for precious.

Step 2: Substitute the meaning in the idea or the
proverb: Take the two previous examples.
‘Rome was not built in a day’ and ‘All that glitters is
not gold’. Now substitute the symbols we found out
earlier in the sentences. What do we have?
‘Greatness or success was not built in a day’
‘All that glitters is not precious’
The proverb is now decoded and ready for
understanding.

Step 3: Look for a story or anecdote or example or
illustration:
Now that you have understood what the proverb
stands for or what the proverb means, we should look
for a suitable example to illustrate it.
Where do we get these stories? There are plenty of
them. Aesop’s fables are ideal. So are the tales of
India, the Panchatantra.

Step 4: Look for similar proverbs or ideas:
“Patience, persistence and perspiration make
an unbeatable combination for success” by
Napoleon Hill is similar to ‘Rome was not built
in a day’; so is the proverb ‘Do not judge the
book by its cover’ similar to ‘All that glitters is
not precious’.

Step 5: Sum up the paragraph: Use summing up
words or phrases to indicate that you have
finished the expansion and intend to sum it up.
You could use ‘Thus’ or ‘In fine’ or ‘So’ or ‘The
proverb advises that’. Let the reader know that
you are signing off.

CONCLUSION:
Writing equips us with communication and
thinking skills. Writing expresses who we are as
people. Writing makes our thinking and
learning visible and permanent.

PRACTING WRITING

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