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Do you need help writing an essay? Maybe, you’ve been given the assignment ‘write a descriptive essay about your school cafeteria.’ You think, I don’t know where to start. Well, fear not! We’re here to give you a few steps on how to write a descriptive essay.
Writing a Descriptive Essay
Before we can begin writing our descriptive essays, it will be important for us to learn some key terms and strategies used in order to complete the task well. In this article, we’ll go over these things and discuss what makes good descriptive writing and where it fits into the larger context of your life – from education to travel, from work experience to personal observations, and from political causes to spirituality.
To begin with, we should briefly explain what descriptive writing is and what it isn’t. Sometimes we might use the term “descriptive essays” interchangeably with “creative writing.” But creative writing tells a story (fiction) or describes an event (non-fiction). Descriptive writing will help you get vivid pictures in your reader’s mind of the characters, settings, objects, and events that you are describing. Still, it can also be used to paint a broad picture of something like a particular place (a new house, for example) or people who share similar characteristics (such as bridesmaids at a wedding). We may even use this writing style when introducing an idea (perhaps in an essay or presentation).
Descriptive writing is beneficial for painting pictures because, when we read, our brains don’t simply record the words. Instead, they bring them to life by adding color and depth. As someone reads along, they imagine what the writer describes; they “see” faces, places, and things with their mind’s eye; they “hear” voices or sounds; they can even smell aromas that are mentioned! Good descriptive writing makes readers feel like they are literally there – not just reading about it but actually experiencing it. This type of writing requires you to think carefully about using sensory details so that when your reader reads, the piece images come alive in their mind’s eye.
As descriptive essays are often one of the first things that students are asked to write, they are excellent practice for more formal academic writing. You will need to demonstrate your understanding of style and grammar; you’ll also need good research skills (to find the information required) and some organization (to put it all together).
But what can descriptive essays actually do for us? Well, let’s think about that a little bit further.
Writing Descriptive Essays
We tend to think of descriptive essays as something like travelogues or diaries in which we record our own personal experiences – but even if you don’t have any particular experience at hand, there is plenty to describe! For example, take these topics:
- Describe your favorite room in your house.
- Describe the face of someone you love.
- Describe an object that means a lot to you.
Descriptive essays help describe all sorts of things. They’re perfect for exploring ideas or theories, explaining processes or procedures, comparing and contrasting similar things or events, writing reports, presenting proposals, analyzing information. In fact, there’s not much you can’t do with descriptive writing. It is possible to use it creatively too!
Now let’s have a closer look at some words and phrases often used when writing descriptive essays. Being aware of what they mean will help us know what to focus on so that our descriptive writing is as effective as possible.
Descriptive Essay Words and Phrases
Description: The act or process of describing, e.g., “a detailed description.”
Vivid: Marked by intense, fresh, often colorful detail; readily apparent to the eye or mind; specifically: (of color) having the highest saturation (the intensity of a color relative to its own lightness).
Details: Marks, signs, or particulars that help make something specific; functional aspects of form; aspects requiring attention in order to achieve completeness.
Sensory details: Details describing sensory perception through using the five senses (sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste) – which we’ve discussed above. They include references to the five senses: examples:
- I can smell freshly baked bread and sweet pastries from the bakery on Main Street.
- The wind whistling through the trees was eerily quiet.
Specificity: The quality of being specific rather than general; distinctness of outline or detail.
Paint a picture: Arouse mental images in (the mind): give an accurate representation or description.
Imagery: All elements of a literary composition that appeal to the senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch – which we’ve discussed above. They include references to visual things (sight), sounds (hearing), smells (smell), tastes (taste), and touch.
Organization: The manner in which ideas are developed, presented, or arranged; the act or process of organizing.
Topic sentence/main idea: The first sentence of a paragraph that states or suggests the main topic of that paragraph.
Transition words and phrases: Words and phrases used to connect one part of an essay with another, e.g., “furthermore,” “on the other hand,” “nevertheless,” etc. These will help you smoothly move on from one paragraph to another so that your reader doesn’t get confused! Look out for these in future articles so that you can recognize them when writing essays. Here are some transition words you might like to try playing around with;
- Nevertheless
- However
- Conversely
- As a result
But also look out for transition words that can help you move on to the next paragraph, e.g., “Let’s now turn our attention to…” This will help your reader keep up!
Advanced Tips
Before writing anything, it can be helpful to take some time to visualize what you’re trying to describe. First, think about the topic or subject matter and then try very hard to imagine it in front of you – like a three-dimensional object (rather than something like an abstract painting that doesn’t make sense). Focus on the details while you do this! Sometimes it helps if you close your eyes or stare into the distance.
Once you’ve allowed yourself some time to do this, try writing down all of what you can remember on a piece of paper. Then, look over your notes and see if there are any phrases or words that really stand out for you. Remember, it’s the details that will make your descriptive writing vivid, so be sure to focus on those!
