How to write a descriptive essay?

DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY

A cousin of the narrative essay, a descriptive essay paints a picture with words. A writer might describe a person, place, object, or even memory of special significance. However, this type of essay is not a description for description’s sake. The descriptive essay strives to communicate a deeper meaning through the description. In a descriptive essay, the writer should show, not tell, through the use of colorful words and sensory details(sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste.). The best descriptive essays appeal to the reader’s emotions, with a result that is highly evocative.

In other words, One of the keys to writing a descriptive essay is to create a picture in your reading audience’s mind by engaging all five of their senses – smell, sight, touch, taste, and sound. If you can do this, then your essay is a success, if not, then you have a lot of work to do.

the differences between narrative and descriptive 

the main difference between narrative and the descriptive essay is their purpose. A narrative essay is written to narrate a certain incident or experience while a descriptive essay is written in order to describe a person, a thing, or a place. In a narrative essay, the first-person point of view is generally used and both the first and third points of views are used in a descriptive essay. A narrative essay uses a logical, more often a chronological order, but a descriptive essay does not take time factor into account. Another significant difference between narrative and the descriptive essay is that a narrative essay has a plot, setting, and characters as it tells a story. In addition, a narrative essay can also contain dialogues.

So in narrative writing, the writer is perfectly capable of telling you the plot of the story, while in descriptive writing there does not have to be a plot, but something has to become very easy for the reader to visualize.

Let's look at the Lord of the Rings. The way J.R.R. Tolkien describes a hobbit is very descriptive, and the reason the movies were so successful was not only because the story was told correctly (the book being narrative writing also), but because the readers did not have to come up with their own imagination of a hobbit (or other figures, places, and such). They were described in detail, giving everybody a very precise framework of imagination to work from. Therefore everybody could relate to and agree upon the characters and the make-up of the artists.

How should you write your description?

 If there's one thing you should remember as you write your descriptive essay, it's the famous saying: show don't tell. But what's the difference between showing and telling? Consider these two simple examples:

 • I grew tired after dinner. 

 • As I leaned back and rested my head against the top of the chair, my eyelids began to feel heavy, and the edges of the empty plate in front of me blurred with the white tablecloth. 

the first sentence tells readers that you grew tired after dinner. The second sentence shows readers that you grew tired. The most effective descriptive essays are loaded with such showing because they enable readers to imagine or experience something for themselves.

Use metaphors and similes. Metaphors are when you compare one thing to another. Use metaphors to show the reader what you think about the topic

Describe the topic with vivid adjectives. Use adjectives that express emotion. Be as specific as you can. For example, rather than use a broad adjective like “angry,” go for a specific adjective like “rageful” or “tempestuous.” Choose adjectives that will paint a clear image in the reader’s mind

Discuss your emotions and thoughts about the topic. Do not be afraid to express your emotions in your essay. Use the first-person “I” to discuss your feelings about the subject in detail. Do you feel joy, sadness, anger, or disgust with the subject? How do you respond emotionally to the subject?

1. Introduction

Tips on how to come up with a good introduction:

Writing an introductory paragraph for a descriptive essay requires attention to the essay topic and organization. The introduction must grab the reader’s attention and describe the contents of the essay in a clear manner. Descriptive essays are normally written to provide readers with language that allows them to visually recognize the writer’s intentions. This type of essay describes emotions, people or periods of time. Using a writing format to develop ideas can allow the writer to create a compelling introduction to be used in the descriptive essay.. The following tips will guide you in writing a good introduction to your descriptive essay:

• Start the introduction with suspense – you have to choose the right words in the introduction to capture the eye of the reader. To achieve this, you should apply phrases or even questions so that the reader can find the answers later in your essay.
• Go straight to the points – the introduction should not constitute a lot of description; you should give a brief overview of what you intend to talk about in the body paragraph. At the same time, you should not reveal the objective of the essay in the introduction, because it would make the reader disinterested with the rest of your work. When the reader gets a hint of what you intend to achieve in the first paragraph, they will see no need to head to the body.

Write a thesis statement at the end of the introduction – A thesis statement is a key idea or theme for the essay. It states the purpose of the essay and acts as a guide for the rest of the essay. The thesis statement should appear in your introduction and be restated in your conclusion.

• For example, if you were writing a descriptive essay about your mother, you may have a thesis statement like: “In many ways, my mother is the reigning queen of our house, full of contradictions that we are too afraid to question.”

. A good thesis should:

• Define the scope of the essay – the thesis should be narrow for clarity purposes. Do not include an explanation of your thesis as it will mislead the reader on the major points, be short and clear to your points.
• Avoid common words (clichés) – you should be creative in the choice of words so that your thesis does not look common. Most writers would start their thesis with statements such as ‘This essay will talk about….’ Try to be unique in your thesis if you want to score highly.
• Create suspense in your thesis – you should make your thesis attract the reader to the body of your essay.

2. The body

After the introduction and the thesis, what comes next is the body. The body is the main part that constitutes your essay. All the points should be covered in the body. The body should support your thesis statement. To achieve great body paragraphs, you should:

• Use topic sentences at the start of every paragraph. The idea should come out clearly at the beginning before you proceed to give descriptions. After the topic sentence, proceed with your description to back up your idea.

• Link your paragraphs using good transition words for descriptive essays. Most of the transition words are usually conjunctions, so you should be able to select appropriate conjunctions to suit your explanations. If you are connecting contradicting sentences, you should use contradicting conjunctions such as ‘however’ if you are adding, use addition conjunctions such as ‘in addition to.’

• Organize your paragraphs appropriately – the organization of your work is fundamental for the merit in essay writing. You have to place each idea into its paragraph. The length of the paragraphs should also be standard, do not make your paragraphs too short or too long. A body paragraph should constitute at most six sentences.

3. The conclusion

The last part of your descriptive essay is the conclusion. A conclusion is the last chance that you have as a writer to impress the reader of your work. The last part that the reader can contain in their mind about your essay is the conclusion, and so it is also the determiner of the grading level that you will be categorized, so you have to pay all attention to this section. In conclusion: Make sure that the reader knows they are approaching the end, by use of words that suggest ending, such as ‘to finish with.’

Restate the thesis statement – this is just to remind the reader of what the essay was obliged to cover. After reminding them of the thesis support your thesis with a summary of the points in the body paragraphs. You should state the main points briefly without much description as a support for the thesis. Your last parting shot with the reader should be intriguing so that they can leave with a memory for your essay. After your conclusion, you should make a review of your essay by proofreading. The importance of reading through your essay is that it enables you to identify the mistakes and maintain a good tone throughout your work.

LET'S AN EXAMPLE

Descriptive Essay Example: Morning Jog In The Park 

One of my favorite things to do before starting my day is to take a jog in the local park. My mind will clear, and I will be able to face whatever may happen that day. It makes me appreciate the simple things in life a lot more. Jogging in the park during early hours opens up opportunities to see different scenes and portraits and open my mind to a new perspective.

 Entering the park, a slight breeze rustles the leaves making them fall to the solid ground one by one. The sun begins to rise, waking the tired sleepers. Flowers are vast, and they conceal the freshly cut green grass. There are sun-colored daisies, vivid purple lilies, carrot tinted hydrangeas, and cotton candy pink hyacinths. The pathway is nothing more than dirt littered with random rocks. The ground, moist from the night before, causes my footing to slip, keeping me on my toes. There is a white picket fence that runs along the trail, reminding me of the one running along Manilla and Matthew's property in the movie, Anne of Green Gables. The park is barren except for an elderly couple feeding the ducks and a couple of fellow joggers breathing in the fresh morning air.

 Walking by the minute green and brown tinted pond, the milky white, soft feathered ducks can be heard a block away as they quack and battle for the food being thrown for them. The elderly couple, dressed in their black silk slacks and crème colored matching sweaters, watch in amusement as they are the ones causing all the excitement. Behind the oddly shaped rocks and algae in the pond, orange, red, and yellow fish dart back and forth. They only come out of hiding when minuscule hints of bread begin to fall. If you look closely enough, you can see a turtle, colored forest green, blending in with the algae.

 Beyond the pond lies the lonely playground. The brick red jungle gym sits there in its solitude, longing for some eager company. In between parts of the jungle gym is the bridge to partake in children's fantasies from battling trolls, or patrolling the fort. An ugly putrid brown covers it, and it is obvious that the screws are becoming unhinged, and it is only so long before it comes crashing down. The swings rock gently, and the sound of the metal rubbing together can be heard. Orange and bright in color, the swirl-shaped slide echoes the belly laughs and shrilly screams of children who have dared to go down the slide. The merry-go-round, orange-red color with splashes of blue across the edges, is still like a parked car. No one is there to move it or spin it; There are no bursts of laughter or tears for when someone falls off and scrapes their knee.

 The park offers a variety of scenery, which makes the jog more worthwhile. As the end of the jog nears, my mind is refreshed and my body is energized for the day. Unforeseen thoughts pop into my head just as new answers for old problems unfold. One beautiful morning run can change your day and make all the difference. 

Finally, read your essay again very carefully and check for any grammar, punctuation or spelling errors that are obvious within the essay. If you find any clichés, be sure to delete them, they certainly do not belong in your essay. If there are any parts that are not completely descriptive or don’t make as much sense as you would like them to, rewrite them once again and then follow the proofreading and reading aloud process again to ensure that the final product is exactly as expected. You can never be too thorough when it comes to reading the essay over again and checking for any areas that need to be reworked.


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