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Our ability to be part of the physical world is made possible through our five senses: touch, sound, taste, sight, and smell. Therefore, it’s not surprising that description, a form of writing that draws upon the five senses, often plays an important role in the writing we do, whether in school or on the job. For example, in a marketing class you might describe how an advertisement uses sensory details to entice its audience to a spa; as a witness to a crime, you might have to describe a suspect to law enforcement; as a doctor or nurse you might have to describe changes in a patient over the course of a treatment.
What is a Descriptive Essay?
A descriptive essay is a text that describes a person, place, thing or an event using the five senses. The main goal of descriptive writing is to create a vivid and moving picture in the reader’s mind. You actually want to make the reader feel like they are part of what’s going on.
The purpose of this essay is quite clear: you are required to express your feelings about a particular subject or object, and describe its significant features. In most cases, students are required to describe events, places, objects, animals or people. You have to compile the information as the best descriptive essays are full of details. For example, names, dates, physical characteristics, background information and sensory information. That can help you to implant the main point in your reader’s mind. You have to brainstorm for the details and group them into specific categories.
Most often the purpose of descriptive writing is to create a dominant impression for the reader. All of the details and language you use should contribute to creating this dominant impression, that single image and emotion you wish to create for the reader. Typically, in descriptive writing the dominant impression will be expressed in a thesis statement. For your writing to succeed, you would use description to evoke the five senses.
The Characteristics of a Descriptive Essay
- Characters. Just like a narrative essay, a descriptive essay also needs characters, it needs people. The reader needs to know who are the people that are in the events, or who is the person you’re going to be describing.
- The plot. The plot is the events, what happened.
- The setting. When and where are the events happening? Knowing that, the reader can put some context.
- The theme. The theme needs to run throughout the entire essay, and it’s the main idea.
- Structure. Structure has to do with the paragraphs. They must be clearly defined: an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
- Creative use of language. Synonyms, metaphors, similes etc.
The Structure of a Descriptive Essay
Descriptive writing describes a person, a place or a thing. The structure of a descriptive essay is the same as in a narrative essay. In a paragraph you’re going to have a topic sentence, several supporting details, and a conclusion. In an essay you’re going to have an introduction that includes a thesis statement. You’re going to have at least three paragraphs of supporting details, and you’re going to have a concluding paragraph.
The Introduction
The Main Body
Next would come a series of body paragraphs that build the dominant impression with descriptive details. Methods of organizing these body paragraphs vary, depending on the subject and your approach to it. Sometimes, descriptive paragraphs have a spatial arrangement (top to bottom, front to back, small to large, inside to outside, and so forth).
The paragraphs could employ a climactic arrangement, such as most to least important, most to least familiar, from the dramatic to the mundane, and so forth. Chronological arrangement might flow from the newest to oldest, from past to present and future, or even in a stream of consciousness or random chronological pattern. Often, the assignment you receive will suggest or imply an organizational pattern.
The Conclusion
With most academic essays, the conclusion paragraph of a descriptive essay should do more than merely summarize and restate the thesis. A strong conclusion also provides a sense of closure by telling the reader the overall importance of the discussion. Whatever the subject, descriptive writing provides one of the most creative assignments you receive in school.
How to Write a Descriptive Essay
These are the steps you need to take to write a descriptive essay:
- Choose a topic. You can write about someone that you know or a fictional character from a story or a book; you can write about a place or a thing, but choose a topic that you have a lot to write about, so you have enough details for it.
- Brainstorm your ideas using your five senses. This will help you structure your essay and remind you to include all the sensory details. Write down as many details that you can think of for the topic, based on each sentence.
- Write the introduction. The introduction is the first paragraph, and you want to attract the reader’s attention with the hook. So, you can start your introduction with an interesting fact about your topic or you can ask a rhetorical question. You can also share a humorous short story that captures your audience. After writing the hook, you can include some background information about your topic.
- Write the main paragraphs. A second paragraph describes your topic in details. So, use the sensory details you brainstormed earlier in complete and meaningful sentences. Use show and tell technique and figurative language. A good descriptive essay is always organized, so if you’re describing a place or an event, try to get a very clear picture of the topic in your mind. Choose a wide angle shot, that means describe your topic in general then zoom in and take a close-up picture to further describe your topic. When describing a person, for example, you might begin with a physical description, followed by how that person acts, then feels.
- Write the conclusion. The last paragraph is the conclusion. It wraps up the whole essay. It simply ties all the thoughts together. Don’t be afraid to share your feelings about the topic, but remember not to add any new details in the conclusion.
- Finally, edit your writing.
5 Techniques for Descriptive Writing
All the above can be done using three techniques: sensory details, show and tell, figurative language, dominant impression, and spatial order.
Sensory Details
Sensory details use the five senses, sight, smell, taste, sound, and touch to add depth of detail to writing. If you want to bring your story to life, then use them right so the reader can actually see the beach, hear the birds, smell the flowers, taste the ice cream or feel the breeze.
In a descriptive essay we show, we don’t tell; we want to try to show the reader, not tell them about something or someone. We use specific details that paint a picture in the reader’s mind. We add specific details by using sensory details. We use our senses to help us write the description. Our senses include sight, smell, sound, and feeling. They also include taste, but sometimes, unless you’re writing about a restaurant, it’s hard to add taste into the description. So, what you want to do is walk into the scene that you’re going to describe and close your eyes at first and use all your senses.
Show and Tell
The second technique is show and tell. It is showing the reader the actions and feelings instead of telling. Don’t tell the reader ‘the girl was scared’, show her actions and feelings instead: she was biting her nails and her hands were shaking. Don’t tell the reader it was fall, but show the reader actions and feelings during the fall: e.g., the dry orange leaves crunched under my feet.
Figurative Language
The third technique is figurative language. This is when you describe something by comparing it to something else. So, instead of saying ‘she ran fast’, write ‘she ran as fast as lightning’. This is a simile to compare the girl to a lightning, and this is memorable because it makes the reader look at the girl running from a different angle.
Dominant Impression
To get an idea of what to say about the scene, you need to have a dominant impression. You’re describing one thing. That one thing is your main point. This becomes your topic or thesis statement. You might describe a room, a place, a person or some other thing. Use your senses to add specific details to support your topic or thesis statement: what do you do, see, hear, smell, feel, taste?
Spatial Order
We use spatial order to organize our ideas. Descriptive writing organizes the details by moving through space. Once you’ve generated a lot of ideas using your senses, form all your ideas into complete sentences, add some transitions to make your sentences or paragraphs flow together nicely, and check to make sure you’ve described everything. Check all your senses; did you describe something using each sense? And as always proofread, spell check, and have someone else read your essay.
Some Useful Tips
Here are some tips on how to write a descriptive essay:
- Write about something that you have personally experienced or you personally know. It’s very difficult to write about something that you have no experience of or you don’t have any knowledge of, so when you’re choosing your topic, choose a topic that you have information on. this will really help you while you’re writing.
- When writing a descriptive essay, write it in the first person not the third person. Use pronouns such as ‘I’ and ‘me’.
- In the introduction, tell the reader exactly what you’re going to do.
- Be creative. Use similes, describe everything, use metaphors, alliteration etc.
- Another thing to do is to avoid redundancy. This is very common when you are trying to find adjectives that describe something very basic, like the sky. Just get right to the point, use simple words, but describe them in a different way, make a simile or a metaphor.
- Finally, the last thing you can do is to emphasize overlooked items. Good descriptive writers focus on something that is not really seen often.
Example: Describing a Person
Here we will discuss the simplest yet most valuable tips on how to write a good descriptive essay about a person. The description of a person won’t just include the appearance, but would also consider other elements, such as character, interests, achievements, and how this person influences you.
- First, you have to form an outline. A good introductory sentence is very important to hook your reader’s attention. After your introductory sentence, give some general information about the person. Choose the people you know well enough to write an essay about them. However, if you decide to consider a famous celebrity or a politician for instance, please ensure that you research and have a lot of information about the person whom you are going to describe.
- Summarize your main idea in a thesis statement pointing to the information that should make dominant impressions in your reader’s mind. A thesis statement is written at the end of the introduction, mainly a single sentence that describes the whole idea of an essay.
- Then, you may organize the points in your outline. Group your points into individual body paragraphs. Each body paragraph should come with a topic sentence. Support your opinions with some details. Finally, write your conclusion. Restate your main ideas. Rephrase the key details in each paragraph. Do not include a new idea or opinion in your conclusion.
A descriptive essay is an essay where you describe an event, and experience, an object or even a person. The purpose of a descriptive essay is to allow the reader to imagine what you are talking about. For the reader to be able to literally visualize and follow you along your writing journey, when you’re writing a descriptive essay it’s like writing a picture instead of drawing a picture. So, the words that you choose, and how you choose to position your words, the reader can create a picture instead of seeing one.
