Narrative Essay – Describing a Setting

It takes more than throwing in a few complex words, like ‘octogenarian’, to score some language marks. If you want to score those juicy vocabulary marks, it’s not about using complex words; it’s about using effective descriptions.

Don’t Memorise; Construct

Most students I’ve encountered have memorised some setting to be used in their introductions. By the way, ‘candy-floss clouds against an azure blue sky’ is terribly overused. While there’s nothing wrong with reading sample essays for inspiration, it does more harm than good to memorise them.

Vocabulary marks do not stack like a running tally. The language mark is awarded as a holistic gauge of a student’s language ability. So even if a student has a beautifully constructed introduction peppered with complex words but the whole work is otherwise strung together with largely erroneous sentence structures, the regurgitated content does very little to push up the language score. Also, don’t use the word ‘octogenarian’.

A much better solution than memorising a setting, is to learn to construct one. A good setting has a purpose and is vivid.

The Hidden Character

Just like any good character has a purpose in a story, a good setting serves the same function.

For example, reading a whole paragraph about the weather will be frustratingly unrewarding if the crux of the story takes place indoors. However, if someone in the story were to eventually suffer heat stroke, then it would make sense to describe the intense heat of the day and how ‘the Sun stared its death rays mercilessly upon the school field’.

A good setting affects the character in some way, otherwise it has no purpose.

Using the Five Senses

An effective setting creates a picture in the mind of the reader. The best ones might even trigger some psychosomatic effect, for example, goosebumps or salivating. A great way to achieve this is to use the five senses – sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. They are the means by which we gather information from around us to formulate a mental experience.

Here’s an example of a description of a crowded MRT platform.

Notice the use of all five senses to describe the setting in the first paragraph. Can you imagine how packed the platform was? Even more importantly – can you feel it? Also, notice how that understanding helps us empathise better with the character in the story when he loses his wallet in the second paragraph.

Purpose and Picture

In summary, a well-crafted setting has a purpose in the story and enables the reader to picture it using the five senses; and that will do way more for the language score than using big and uncommon words like ‘octogenarian’. Did I already mention not to use words like ‘octogenarian’?