How to describe (and lift it higher)
NESA defines it as: “Provide characteristics and features.”
Describe asks only for the features of something: the what, not the how or the why. It is a lower-order word, and in an extended essay it is where marks quietly stall. So this guide teaches the harder skill: give the features accurately, then lift every one of them toward analysis.
New here first? Start with breaking down the whole question, then come back for this.
Give the feature, then add the 'so what'
Description is the floor to stand on. Analysis is where the marks are, so never leave a feature bare.
- 1
Provide the features accurately
Answer the 'what' the question asks for, clearly and specifically.
- 2
Refuse to stop there
For every feature you name, push toward its effect and its meaning.
- 3
Treat describe as a floor
A purely descriptive essay stays in the lower bands, so use description as a springboard.
The shape of the paragraph
The paragraph names a feature, evidences it, then lifts it from description into analysis.
Topic sentence (the feature)
Open by naming the characteristic or feature the question asks you to describe.
Watch out:Even a describe topic sentence can point toward an idea. Aim it upward from the start.
Evidence showing it
Give a quote that displays the feature clearly.
Watch out:Choose evidence you can also analyse, not just illustrate.
The lift (so what)
Turn the feature into meaning: what its effect is and why it matters.
Watch out:This is the whole game. A feature with no 'so what' is the definition of a stalled essay.
Return line
Close on what the described feature reveals, not on the feature itself.
Watch out:Do not end where you began. The return line should show you have lifted the point.
A model paragraph, labelled sentence by sentence
Here is the structure at work. Read the paragraph straight through first: it should sound like one continuous argument, not a checklist. Then read the label beside each sentence to see the job it is doing. It is written to support this thesis:
The thesis
The Proctor marriage is marked by a cold, guarded tenderness, and Miller uses that strained warmth to show how guilt reshapes even our closest relationships.
The paragraph, read straight through
The relationship between John and Elizabeth Proctor is characterised by a wary, wounded politeness. Its chill surfaces in Proctor's bitter remark that his wife's “justice would freeze beer”, but the description matters only for what it reveals: the homely hyperbole shows how his guilt over the affair has frozen the ordinary warmth of the marriage, so that Miller grounds the play's public hysteria in a very private hurt. Described closely, the marriage is not merely cold; it is a barometer of what guilt does to love.
The relationship between John and Elizabeth Proctor is characterised by a wary, wounded politeness.
Its chill surfaces in Proctor's bitter remark that his wife's “justice would freeze beer”,
but the description matters only for what it reveals: the homely hyperbole shows how his guilt over the affair has frozen the ordinary warmth of the marriage,
so that Miller grounds the play's public hysteria in a very private hurt.
Described closely, the marriage is not merely cold; it is a barometer of what guilt does to love.
Every quotation above is verbatim from The Crucible (Arthur Miller) and verified against the source text.
See it done on your own paragraph
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The definition is quoted from NESA's Glossary of Key Words. The structure, teaching and model paragraph are our own, aligned to the 2017 English Advanced syllabus (2019–2026 prescriptions).