Hello, welcome to our lesson today on writing a character description.

My name's Miss Sutherland, and I'll be teaching you today.

Our learning outcome for today is to write an interesting character description.

Today, we'll be drawing upon inspiration from Irene Nemirovsky's "Suite Francaise" to create our very own interesting character descriptions.

We have three key words today.

Let's go through them together now.

Our first key word is condescending.

Condescending means having an attitude of patronising superiority.

We might call someone condescending if they belittle us, and make us feel inferior to them.

Our next key word is dismissive.

Dismissive means feeling that someone is unworthy of attention.

So if someone is dismissive to you, they might cut you off in the middle of your sentence, they might ignore you.

Our last key word is irreproachable.

Irreproachable means faultless and impossible to criticise.

Someone may be described as having irreproachable conduct at school, and that means they would've never got a detention, they would always have impeccable uniform, and they would always be polite to other people, and that would show their irreproachable conduct.

I'll give you a moment to pause the video and make a note of the keywords that you're not quite familiar with.

Pause the video and reflect upon the keywords now.

Great.

Let's look at today's learning cycles now.

In today's lesson, we have two learning cycles.

In our first learning cycle, we'll learn what it means to zoom in to aspects of a character, and describe different elements of their appearance.

And in the second learning cycle, we'll learn how we can reveal information about a character by using punctuation.

In today's lesson, we'll be looking at how Irene Nemirovsky describes Madame Pericand in "Suite Francaise" to help us describe our own character.

So let's begin with zooming in to a character.

So imagine you were asked to describe the woman on the left in this photo.

Discuss what aspects of the woman would you pick out to describe.

Pause the video and discuss.

You might want to describe the parts of the woman that are central to her personality.

In other words, you might pick out things about her appearance that tell the reader something more deep and intimate about the woman.

So for example, you might pick out her clothing, you might pick out her hat.

The woman's hat might tell us a little bit about the job she does or the class she's in.

So we might want to describe her hat and her clothing in general.

We might want to pick out her hair, how she has styled her hair, might tell us about her personality.

We might want to pick out her dress, the colour of it, the style of it, the length of it, because this might tell us more about the woman's personality or occupation.

And we might also want to pick up the woman's shoes.

Are they practical shoes? Are they glamorous shoes? Are they comfortable shoes? That also might tell us a little bit about the woman.

We could also pick out the woman's facial expression, the way she is looking at the other woman, and the child may tell us about her feelings and may tell us about her personality too, and her height and frame.

By describing all of these things, we allow the reader to get a really well-rounded image of the woman in their heads.

It is also important though to consider an effective order for describing each aspect of the woman's appearance.

We might not necessarily want to describe her hat and then her hair and then her dress, and then her shoes and so on.

We might want to pick out a strategic order in describing these elements, and have a reason that we've described the hat first, and then her height and frame.

So discuss now, which order would you describe each of the women's features in and why? Pause the video and discuss.

Now we want to make our character descriptions as engaging as possible for the reader.

So we might want to slowly reveal more and more about the woman's personality and lifestyle and order these aspects to help us do this.

So let's say the woman's dress tells us the most about her.

We might save that description of the dress until the end of our paragraph because this allows the reader to gradually, gradually get more information about the woman.

And then by the end of the paragraph, the most telling information about the woman is revealed to the reader.

Let's take a look at how Irene Nemirovsky describes her character in "Suite Francaise." So I want you to read extract one which can be found in your additional materials.

In this extract from the novel "Suite Francaise," Nemirovsky describes a character called Madame Pericand.

I want you to read the extract.

After you finish reading, I want you to discuss the following questions.

"What do you learn about Madame Pericand? What is your impression of Madame Pericand? What order does Nemirovsky describe Madame Pericand features in, and do you think the order she chooses is effective?" Pause the video now.

Get reading, get discussing.

Off you go.

Great focus whilst reading there.

Well done for confidently discussing those questions.

So here is the order that Nemirovsky uses to describe Madame Pericand.

She first describes her clothes, her hat, then her face, and then her hair.

I want you to discuss what do you notice about the way that Nemirovsky transitions from describing Madame Pericand's hat to her face? Pause the video and discuss.

"Prepositions allow Nemirovsky to transition from describing Madame Pericand's hat to her face." So Nemirovsky first describes Madame Pericand's hat, and then goes on to describe her face by using the preposition beneath.

Let's take a look at that now.

Her clothes were black, her hat a divine little creation in fashion that season, decorated with three flowers and topped with a silk pom-pom.

Beneath it, her face was pale and anguished, emphasising the marks of age and fatigue.

Now I want you to discuss what is interesting about the difference between the description of her hat and the description of her face.

Pause the video and discuss.

So Madame Pericand's hat suggests she's a polished, elegant, and beautiful woman.

However, the face underneath the hat reveals a struggling woman, and the preposition beneath helps Nemirovsky to starkly contrast these aspects of the character.

So the fact that this character's anguished and pale face is directly beneath a polish, beautiful and elegant hats allows us to perhaps see the contradictions in Madame Pericand's character, and perhaps allows us to see what lies beyond the surface of what she willingly shows to the public.

Now I want you to discuss what aspect of the woman does Nemirovsky describe at the end of extract one.

Pause the video and discuss.

Let's take a look.

"At the last minute, however, it seemed that Providence had wavered or decided that a shock of red hair would not be appropriate, neither to Madame Pericand's irreproachable morals nor to her social status, so she'd been given mousy brown hair, which she was losing by the handful since she'd had her last child." So Nemirovsky chooses to focus on Madame Pericand's hair last.

Discuss now why do you think she does this? Pause the video and discuss.

Nemirovsky may have chosen to describe Madame Pericand's hair last as her hair colour seems to reveal the most information about her character.

Her hair colour might reveal that she's a woman that conforms to societal expectations, trying to blend in with other respectable people.

Also, losing her hair since having her last child may reveal that beyond her perfect exterior, she's actually stressed and struggling due to her responsibilities taking a toll.

So here we see Nemirovsky choosing to describe Madame Pericand's hair last because it is the thing that reveals the most about her character, and that is definitely a way to build intrigue within her character description.

Now let's take a close look at what Nemirovsky is able to reveal about Madame Pericand through describing her outward appearance.

I want you to discuss what each phrase or sentence suggests about the woman that Madame Pericand is.

Her clothes were black.

Her face was pale and anguished.

She had a strong majestic nose, and the expression in her green eyes was as sharp as a cat's.

Pause the video and discuss what each phrasal sentence might suggest about Madame Pericand.

Off you go.

Let's go through what you may have said.

Her clothes were black.

This could suggest she's quite a serious person.

Perhaps she doesn't have much fun if every single item of clothing she's wearing is black or perhaps she doesn't want to stand out.

Her face was pale and anguished.

This could suggest that she may be ill, stressed, or ageing.

She had a strong majestic nose.

Maybe this suggests she's dominant, affluent, or superior.

And lastly, the expression in her green eyes was as sharp as a cat's.

Maybe this suggests that Madame Pericand is intelligent or shrewd.

Maybe she has good intuition.

Maybe she has good judgement of people and situations.

Now let's check your understanding of what we've discussed so far.

What might we assume about Madame Pericand based on her black clothing? Pause the video and answer that question.

Madame Pericand's black clothing may suggest that she's a serious person.

Of course, it may also suggest that she wants to blend in with the crowd and she doesn't want to stand out.

Either way, we have to look at what the black clothing on this woman could represent.

Now I want you to discuss how you might show the following through someone's outward appearance.

How could you show in a narrative or description that a woman does not take care of herself? How could you show that a woman is overly particular about her appearance? How could you show a nurturing woman, and how could you show a strict woman? What might you describe? What adjectives might you use? Pause the video and discuss.

Let's go through what you might have said.

The woman does not take great care of herself.

You could describe her grubby fingernails to show this.

The woman is overly particular about her appearance.

You could describe her perfect bun, which was slicked back neatly with pins.

To show a woman is nurturing, you might describe her wide eyes, which are brown like honey, and the woman is strict.

To show that you might say she had a chiselled jaw and her glasses perched upon the tip of her pointed nose.

These examples along with Nemirovsky's examples show that you can reveal aspects of someone's personality through describing their outward appearance.

So we need to discuss what type of personality or lifestyle do you think the woman on the left has? You can be as creative as you want here.

Pause the video and discuss.

Perhaps she's nurturing, and we can base that on the way she's interacting with the child.

Perhaps she's professional, that might be gathered from her clothing.

Perhaps she's hardworking.

Again, that could be suggested through her clothing.

She also could be busy, affluent, or pragmatic.

You can shape this character in whichever way you want to.

Now I want you to write a paragraph describing the woman on the left of the photograph.

Remember, she's your character, so you can make her whatever you want.

Here's your checklist to help you create a successful and engaging description.

Use prepositions to seamlessly move from one aspect of the scene to the next.

Juxtapose, two elements of the character like Nemirovsky does.

End your paragraph with a description of the most interesting and revealing aspect of the woman, and hint at the personality and lifestyle of the woman via your description of her outward appearance.

So pause the video now and get writing.

I hope you enjoy creating this character.

Off you go.

Great writing everyone.

I want you now to reread your work and highlight where you met the success criteria in your work.

Pause the video and reflect on your work now.

I'm really impressed to see how you applied those skills to create an engaging piece of writing.

We're now going to move on to revealing more information about the character in our descriptions, and we are going to look at how we can do this by a punctuation.

So I want you to read extract two found in your additional materials.

This extract also describes Madame Pericand.

After reading, I want you to discuss firstly, what do we learn about Madame Pericand here? And secondly, what is interesting about Nemirovsky's use of punctuation in this section of the text.

Pause the video, get reading, get discussing, off you go.

So you may have noticed that Nemirovsky uses brackets in this section of the text to reveal more information about Madame Pericand.

So let's explore Nemirovsky's use of brackets to add extra information about Madame Pericand.

"Charlotte Pericand, who ruled the family's daily life with an iron hand, whether it was managing the household, her children's education or her husband's career was not in the habit of seeking anyone's opinion." Discuss now what is the purpose of the section in bracket here.

Pause the video and discuss.

The phrase in bracket tells us exactly what Madame Pericand ruled over with her strict control so it reveals the extent of her control, authority, and independence.

Now here are two more examples of how Nemirovsky uses brackets to help us establish a clear picture of Madame Pericand in our heads.

"She took pride in her husband's position.

She herself would've preferred a more domestic lifestyle.

But following the example of our Dear Saviour, each of us has his cross to bear.

For as long as the Pericand children could remember, their mother was always ready to go out armed with hat and white gloves.

Since she was thrifty, her mended gloves had the faint smell of stain remover, a reminder of their passage through the dry cleaners.

Notice how brackets can be used in the middle of the sentence as well as at the end, and in their own sentence." Let's check your understanding of how to use brackets now then.

I want you to discuss where should the brackets go in the below sentences.

Pause the video and discuss.

So the first sentence, "Polly, open brackets, having barely any time in between switching from day to night shift," closed bracket, "was wearing yesterday's sweaty clothes." The phrase in the brackets reveals why Polly was wearing yesterday's sweaty clothes.

Next sentence.

"Sam who took great pride in her appearance," open bracket, "from hair to dress to handbag," closed bracket, "had all eyes on her as she entered the room." The phrasing brackets there tells us exactly how Sam took pride in her appearance and the extent to which she cared about her appearance.

The third sentence.

"She had only eight children," open bracket, "she had longed for a big family since growing up as an only child," closed bracket.

The phrase in the brackets there tells us why the woman has eight children.

And lastly, "She sported a slick bun secured with pins," full stop open brackets, "since she had forgotten to dye her hair recently, grey strands poked out revealing her age," closed bracket.

So in the last example, the bracketed sentence does not rely on the sentence before it.

They are separate.

Whereas in the first three examples, the bracketed phrase is part of the main sentence, and the bracketed phrase relies on the main sentence to make sense.

Let's check your understanding of using brackets correctly now.

Which sentence does not use brackets correctly? Pause the video and answer that question.

Sentence B does not use brackets correctly.

"She started to yawn," full stop, open bracket, "since she was tired," full stop.

This example gives the bracketed phrase a sentence of its own.

This example should not have separated the two sentences.

The bracketed phrase, since she was tired, relies on the sentence.

She started to yawn to make sense.

Therefore, the bracketed phrase, since she was tired, should be part of the sentence she started to yawn, not separate to it.

Ultimately, the bracketed phrase, since she was tired, gives us extra information about why the woman is yawning.

Therefore, the bracketed phrase should be part of the main sentence, not separate from it.

Now I want you to write a second paragraph of your character description using brackets to reveal extra information about your character.

Here are some examples of things you could reveal with brackets.

Why she's wearing what she is, why she does the job she does, why she feels the way she does that day, and her relationship to the child.

Pause the video and get writing now.

Here's what you might have written.

"Carolina, who worked as a scientist by day, microbiologist to be exact, was dressed head to toe in white cotton." See here how the phrase in brackets explains more about the type of scientist that this woman is.

The next sentence, "She worked tirelessly day, night, and everything in between to provide for her daughter." The bracketed phrase in that example shows just how tirelessly the woman works.

And the third sentence, "Her face, which had been stony and scrutinising all day instantly softened as she was met with her daughter's cheeky grin." I hope you feel more confident using brackets to reveal extra information about the character in your own work.

Here's what we've learned today.

"You can use prepositions to move seamlessly between parts of a character description.

You can reveal aspects of your character's personality and lifestyle through describing their outward appearance.

Brackets can add more detail about a character, and you can use brackets in the middle or end of a sentence to add more information about a character." Thank you so much for joining me in today's lesson.

I hope you feel really proud of the character descriptions you've created today.

I hope to see you again soon.