What is travel writing?
Travel writing describes a journey and a place so that the reader can almost be there. It can be a diary, a blog, a letter or a magazine article.
Good travel writing uses the five senses, says where, when and what happened, and gives small true details (a smell, a colour, a sound).
How to write a travel diary
- Start with a time and a place: "Early morning, at the river."
- Use the senses: what you saw, heard, felt.
- Tell one small event.
- Add how you felt.
- End with the next step of the journey.
-ing adverbials: doing two things at once
An -ing adverbial (also called a present participle phrase) starts a sentence with an -ing word. It tells when or how the main action happened.
| Sentence | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Walking along the road, she sang. | while she was walking |
| Crossing the river, we felt the cold wind. | when we crossed |
| He sat at the window, watching the hills. | and he watched |
The same-subject rule
The doer of the -ing action must be the subject of the main clause. Right: Climbing the hill, we stopped to rest. Wrong: Climbing the hill, the rain started. (The rain did not climb.) Fix it: "While we were climbing the hill, the rain started."
Use a comma after the -ing phrase when it comes first.
Try it
Think of a short walk you did today. Write one diary line with where, when and what. Then add an -ing phrase: "Walking to school, I saw...". Ask: who is walking? If it is you, then "I" must be the subject.
Key formulas and definitions
- -ing phrase + comma + same-subject clause
- Walking along the road, she sang.
- diary = where + when + what + senses
- while / when + subject + was -ing = same meaning as an -ing phrase
- different doer: use a full clause (While we climbed, the rain started)
Worked examples
1. Join: She walked along the road. She sang. (use -ing)
Walking along the road, she sang.
2. Is this correct? "Crossing the bridge, the river looked wide."
No. The river did not cross. Write: "Crossing the bridge, we saw that the river looked wide."
3. Write a diary line with where, when, what.
At dawn by the river, a cold wind swept across the water. (where: river, when: dawn, what: wind swept)
Common mistakes
- Different doers: "Walking home, the rain started" (rain cannot walk).
- Forgetting the comma after the -ing phrase at the start.
- Writing a travel diary with only dates and no senses or details.
- Using a past participle instead: "Walked along the road, she sang" is wrong for a continuing action.