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ELA 5: Sensory Details 1696 Views
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Description:
What did the snow feel like? What does that bird sound like? What does that disgusting trash smell —actually never mind, we can do without that last one. Today, we'll tell you all about sensory details.
Transcript
- 00:04
[Coop and Dino singing]
- 00:13
Sensory details are exactly what they sound like: details related to the senses. [Sensory details definition on a pin board]
- 00:18
And as we know, we have five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.
- 00:23
Sensory details help make writing more descriptive, and the more senses a writer describes, the [Coop and Dino discussing sensory details]
- 00:28
more fully the reader can experience the world of the fiction.
Full Transcript
- 00:31
And unless the fiction takes place in an empty void, there will definitely be some sensory
- 00:35
details worth describing.
- 00:37
Actually, maybe even the void could be described with sensory details… [Man walking in blackness]
- 00:40
Blackness in every direction… Deafening silence…
- 00:44
Whoops, that got a little bleak. Let's see how we can use sensory details to describe [Snow falling on a house]
- 00:48
something a bit happier, like a cold winter’s day...
- 00:50
Well, happier if you’re a husky, or an Eskimo, at least. [Eskimo appears from an iglu]
- 00:53
Let's start out with sight. Maybe you can see a heavy snowfall, which is covering yards,
- 00:58
cars, and trees in a thick layer of white. [Girl walks by house as snow falls]
- 01:00
And hopefully you can also see that you're wearing a coat. And if you’re like that
- 01:03
kid from A Christmas Story, you're probably wearing mittens…and a hat…and a scarf. [Hat and scarf appears on girl]
- 01:08
…aaaand a second coat. …What? We get cold easily our here in California.
- 01:12
Those all count as helpful visual details. Now what about sound? Heavy snowfall isn't
- 01:17
too loud, but you might hear the wind whistling, a snowplow beeping in the distance, boots [A snowplow reversing]
- 01:22
crunching on freshly fallen snow, or a neighbor complaining about the weather. [Neighbor outside complaining about the snow]
- 01:27
That one is pretty likely…grouchy neighbors are everywhere. Just throw a snowball in their face!
- 01:31
That'll cheer 'em right up. You might be getting the hang of this by now.
- 01:35
Smell's a bit trickier, because snow doesn't actually smell like anything, but with cold
- 01:39
weather often comes hot cocoa, and that ‘s a pretty good scent, if we do say so ourselves. [Girl sniffs hot cocoa cup]
- 01:43
Maybe even better than the scent of hot cocoa is its velvety smooth taste.
- 01:47
Describe that, and we have our fourth kind of sensory detail. [Girl takes sip of hot cocoa]
- 01:50
Last but not least, we have touch.
- 01:52
Feel the warmth of that mug in your hands, or, once you've finished your cocoa, the cold of the snow. [Women standing outside in the cold snow]
- 01:57
We kind of like the mug better… As we can see with our example, the more sensory
- 02:01
details we use, the more fully we can picture the scene.
- 02:04
We hope we didn't make you too chilly, though! May we suggest warming up with a velvety smooth [Man sitting indoors with a cup of cocoa]
- 02:08
hot cocoa? That's what we're going to do!
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