Descriptive Essay: A Market Place – JSS1 English Lesson Note (First Term)

A descriptive essay is a piece of writing that uses words to paint a picture of a person, place or thing so that the reader can see, hear and smell it.

Behavioural objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. describe a busy market using details of sight, sound and smell;
2. pick out comparisons that use “like” or “as” in a descriptive passage;
3. explain how the market by day differs from the market at night;
4. write a short description of a marketplace they know.

What is a descriptive essay?

A descriptive essay describes a subject in detail so that the reader can picture it clearly.

• Purpose: to make the reader feel as if they are standing in the place.
• Subject: a place, such as a market, a school compound, a motor park or a river.
• Tense: usually the simple past or the simple present, kept the same throughout.
• Language: strong, exact words and comparisons, not plain words like “nice” or “bad”.

What details do we use to describe a market?

We describe a market with details from the five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch and taste.

What is a simile?

A simile is a comparison between two different things using the word “like” or “as”.

• Pattern: A is like B, or A is as (adjective) as B.
• Use: it helps the reader picture something quickly by linking it to a familiar thing.
• Everyday example: “The classroom was as quiet as a graveyard.”

Similes in the sample essay

What other devices make a description lively?

Writers also use personification, metaphor and exaggeration to make a place come alive.

• Personification: giving human actions to a non-living thing, as in “The market roared with rage”.
• Metaphor: saying one thing is another without “like” or “as”, as in “a river of people”.
• Exaggeration: stretching the truth for effect, as in “all the sounds in the world had come to a reunion”.
• Sound and smell details: “deafening chaos” and “stinking air that smelled of sweat and rot”.

What does a descriptive essay about a busy market look like?

The sample below describes a busy market in the afternoon and the same market at night.

The market in the afternoon

The market roared with rage, for it was now awake from its peaceful slumber. The shops were stuffed and street vendors made the street extremely narrow, forcing people to walk in single file like soldiers going to battle. Shops of all different species stood on either side of the street obediently. None of them had doors because the shopkeepers knew very well that the doors would not last long against the might, impatience, and violence of the customers. Herds of people climbed on top of each other at the counter of each shop, yelling wildly like mindless monkeys brawling for a banana.

Large tattered wagons decorated with a collage of vegetables were parked beside the street and their owners stood beside them, screaming prices like auctioneers. Instead of a hammer, they had a carrot which they would use to ward off the flies pointlessly dancing around the vegetables. Sweaty buyers skilfully wove their way by locating minute gaps between people and squeezing through. Pickpockets felt like rabbits in a carrot field, and munched purses out of many pockets of innocent buyers too busy bargaining. Experienced visitors wore tight pants for the same reason.

A helpless woman fumbled through the scores of bags she carried and tried to tick off a list with a pen clenched between her teeth. The sun warmed up the stuffy, stinking air that smelled of sweat and rot. No air freshener could have defeated this sour, rancid stink that ruled over the cramped air here.

The afternoon flamed the market, and exhaustion and breathlessness silently approached the first-time visitors. The everyday buyers, however, proudly held on against the torture of the market and kept shopping. The deafening chaos in the market made ears split as if you were standing under a giant speaker.

Vendors yelled prices and frustrated housewives angrily argued with the annoyed shopkeepers. A nincompoop was trying to get his car across the market and carelessly honked at the river of people ahead, completely ignoring him. It seemed as if all the sounds in the world had come to a reunion.

The market at night

The market was furious, but seldom had anyone seen it while it slept. When a calm breeze swept over it, the crumpled paper lying below swept along. When the street was lifeless and silent as a graveyard. When the moonlight would faintly escape through the huddle of clouds draping the moon. When the market would lie there sleeping lightly, ready to explode at the first sign of light.

Seldom had people noticed this market’s true beauty and enchantment. Older than the people in it was this market, and lived like this every day. With long-forgotten secrets lying deeply buried in its roots and vast knowledge in its stem, it kept on living.

How does the market by day differ from the market at night?

By day the market is loud, crowded and smelly, and at night it is silent, empty and calm.

How do we write a descriptive essay about a market?

To write a descriptive essay, plan your details, then write an introduction, body and ending.

1. Choose a market you know, such as your local market.
2. List details of sight, sound and smell that you remember.
3. Write an introduction that names the market and gives the time of day.
4. Write the body in paragraphs, one for sights, one for sounds and smells, and one for the people.
5. Add at least two similes, for example “the crowd moved like ants”.
6. End with a short line about the mood or how the market looks at closing time.
7. Read your work and correct spelling, punctuation and tense.

Evaluation

1. Pick two comparisons that use “like” or “as” from the passage. Say what each one shows about the market.
2. Which details of smell and sound make the market seem unpleasant?
3. How does the market at night differ from the market in the afternoon?
4. What is a simile? Write one simile of your own about a crowded place.
5. Name the device in “The market roared with rage”.

Assignment

Write your version of a marketplace you know, in about 150 words. Use details of sight, sound and smell, and include at least two similes.