Which Picture Should I Use? | Choosing the Best Picture to Use for Composition!

Which Picture Should I Use? | Choosing the Best Picture to Use for Composition!

Welcome back! I am Mr Joel, an English teacher at Lil’ but Mighty. In this blog post, I will be discussing how we can choose the best picture to use for our composition!

Have you ever struggled with choosing a picture to use during your composition? Have you written a story halfway only to realise that you did not really have much to write for that picture, or that there was a better picture that you could have used?

Well, I sure have had that experience before!

If you are doing a practice paper, you can simply switch pictures and write a brand-new composition (although not everyone would be keen to do that, am I right?). However, what happens if you are taking an examination or test? It would not be feasible for you to switch pictures and start a composition from scratch! There would simply not be enough time!

Hence, I always say it’s important to look at each picture carefully before choosing the best one to use for your story. Essentially, there’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ picture to use. So what do we mean when we say that we should choose the best one for the story that we want to write?

When choosing a picture to use, these are the few things that we should consider:

Which Picture Is the Best for Us Based on Our Experiences

All of us have different experiences! After all, we all live our lives differently – no two people have the exact same experiences in life (not even twins!).

How does this relate to choosing a picture when writing a composition? One way you can decide which picture is best is to write something based on the experiences that you have had. This means that you might be able to think of an amazing idea for a particular picture because you have encountered a similar situation depicted in the picture.

For example, if you have been on a camping trip before, you would find a picture about a tent or a camping site easy to develop! This is because much of the details that you need to include in the story can be drawn from the experiences that you have had while camping.

On the other hand, you might have some difficulty coming up with an idea related to the same picture if you have little or no experience going camping. In this case, you might be better off choosing another picture and developing a different idea.

However, it is important to note that even if you haven’t had that experience first-hand, but you’ve read up about it or heard about it from a friend or family member, you can still draw on these experiences to write a story.

Which Picture Is the Best for Us Based on Our Vocabulary

Another thing to consider is our own vocabulary. Ask yourself – if I were to choose this picture, would I have the necessary words and phrases to describe it effectively in my story and in a manner that would engage the reader? For instance, some students might find it easier to select a picture of a carnival and use it as the main setting of their story because they know a variety of words related to a carnival (e.g. carousel, the Ferris wheel, bumper cars, cotton candy etc.). With that in mind, try to pick a picture that you have the vocabulary for as this would give you an advantage in writing.

Does this mean that you should always avoid choosing a picture just because you do not have the vocabulary for it? Not necessarily! What it simply means is that you should use this opportunity to expand your vocabulary so that there are a wider range of topics for you to write about. You can read up more about the topic or listen to others talk about it so as to learn new words and terms that could be useful later on should you wish to write about it.