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An Animal You Know Well

Descriptive Writing

Foundation

20 minutes

CSSE

Independent

The Prompt

“Describe an animal you know well. It could be a pet, a farm animal, or a wild animal you have observed.”

Planning Hints

4 tips to help you plan your response

Focus on what makes this specific animal unique — not just any dog, YOUR dog.

Describe appearance, movement, habits, and personality.

Use comparisons that capture the animal's character — is it like a soldier? A comedian? A thief?

Include a specific moment or memory that shows the animal's personality.

Starter Sentences

Suggested opening lines to get you started

“If you looked up the word "chaos" in the dictionary, there should be a photograph of my dog.”

“The cat arrived one Tuesday in September and decided, without consulting anyone, that she lived here now.”

“Biscuit was not what you would call a handsome hamster.”

Key Techniques to Demonstrate

Techniques the examiner will be looking for in your response

Annotated Model Answer

A high-quality example response with techniques highlighted

The cat arrived one Tuesday in September and decided, without consulting anyone, that she lived here now. She was not beautiful, at least not in the traditional sense. Her fur was the colour of a biscuit that had been dunked in tea and forgotten — a patchy, uncertain brown that darkened to almost black around her ears. One eye was amber, the other a cloudy green, which gave her the permanent expression of someone who had just been told something surprising and was still deciding how to feel about it. We called her Crumbs, because that's what she left everywhere. Crumbs moved through the house as though she owned it — which, in fairness, she did. She walked with the slow, deliberate confidence of a head teacher doing a corridor patrol, pausing at doorways to assess each room before deciding whether it was worthy of her presence. Sofas were not sat on but claimed. Laps were not requested but occupied. She had a particular talent for finding the one chair in the room that someone was about to sit in and arriving there first. Her mornings followed a strict routine: a yawn so wide you could see the pink ridges of her palate, a stretch that started at the tips of her claws and rippled all the way to her tail, and then a purposeful march to her bowl, where she would sit and stare at it with the intensity of someone trying to move an object with their mind. At night, she curled into a perfect spiral at the foot of my bed, her purr a low, steady engine that hummed me to sleep. Occasionally, she would twitch — chasing dream-mice through dream-fields — and her paws would paddle the air with tiny, urgent movements. She had been nobody's cat before she was ours. Now she was the centre of everything, and she knew it. Cats always do.

Hover or tap the highlighted phrases to see the technique and explanation

Techniques Used in This Answer

Personification

Simile (x3)

Sensory Detail

Metaphor

Voice

Ready to Write?

Practice this prompt under timed conditions, just like the real exam. You have 20 minutes.

Planning Templates

Suitable for descriptive writing

4-Paragraph Plan (CSSE Style)

A focused structure for shorter writing tasks (15-20 minutes). Ideal for CSSE where you only write 2 compulsory paragraphs, but this plan gives you 4 strong ones if time allows.

4 steps|2-3 minutes