What is a Descriptive Essay, and How Do I Write One?

A descriptive essay is a form of composition or paper that depicts something, such as a person, a process, or an event. The purpose of the writer is to produce a lively reading experience, or to show rather than tell (metaphorically).

The five senses are commonly evoked in descriptive writing: taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight. (For example, Jack’s coffee mug exploded into tiny shards of glass, drawing everyone’s attention at the office.) Writing an excellent descriptive essay requires always appealing to the senses.

When writing a descriptive essay, your goal is to use the five senses to construct a complete image for the reader. Last but not least, there should be a reason for your job. It might be anything from a life lesson learnt through an experience to a narrative about how an object has influenced your life. It’s all about bringing your brilliant ideas to reality.

What Is the Difference Between a Descriptive Essay and a Description?

You should know the difference between a description and a descriptive essay when writing this type of work. A descriptive essay, on the other hand, contains five or more paragraphs and a clear and full framework, but a description can be simply one paragraph or numerous with no specified organization. A descriptive essay is often well-written, with a strong thesis statement at the conclusion of the introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. A description, on the other hand, does not have to be structured. Its primary goal is to simply describe an object or something else without any further intellectual levels.

The Problems You Might Discuss in Your Paper

• A human being. You can discuss a person in this paper. It could be as simple as writing about their appearance to more extensive descriptions of their activities, behaviors, emotions, and traits.
• A location. When describing a location in your writing, the most important thing to remember is to explain it in a unique and intriguing way. The beauty of your chosen cities—perhaps New York or Rome—should be felt by your reader(s).
• An occasion. You must tell the account of what happened in this section. It may be the day of your most recent vacation, concert, wedding, anniversary, summer music festival, or graduation.
• A creature. You must describe the animal in this type. It could be because to its physical appearance, behavior, or biochemistry.It is a profession. You must write about a job or occupation in this section.
• A way of acting. If you want to write about someone’s behavior, this is the style of descriptive writing you should use. Perhaps you wish to describe your friend’s peculiar behavior or point out how various people behave in different situations.

Two Classic Descriptive Essay Approaches

1. Personal Statement

You must use your feelings and responses to describe an experience in this section. Readers may experience empathy as a result of this work. It might also be chaotic and hazy. If you want to create an excellent personal essay, you should strive to concentrate primarily on the portions of your experience that best communicate your feelings. In this type of work, don’t be afraid to use colorful, emotive language.

Here are a few examples of personal essay topics:

• Describing the summertime sensation of swimming in the azure sea
• Describe your favorite film and how it affected you.
• Consider your birth date and all that has shaped you in the past.

2. Detailed Description

This descriptive writing style is similar to that of an argumentative essay. Your main goal should be to communicate a collection of important ideas or to describe something in detail—in a logical order. Instead of relying on your own experience, you should employ particular kinds of data to paint the most complete picture of what you’re discussing. This method can be interesting, especially when the reader is more interested in the paper’s topic than the writer’s response to it. Nonetheless, avoid using overly formal terminology.

The following are some examples of formal descriptions:

• Describe climate change, politics, or historical events in a descriptive essay.
• A news story that summarizes an incident or offers information on the location where it occurred.

Topics & Ideas for Descriptive Essays

It’s not difficult to come up with descriptive essay ideas. You can talk about everything, from your favorite car to the current weather. We’ve compiled a list of suggestions to get you started. Hopefully, you’ll be able to come up with some good descriptive essay themes that will pique your interest.

Person Descriptors

Choose someone you know well, as this will provide you with plenty of material to write about. Choose from family, friends, instructors, and others. You may even write about a celebrity who makes the majority of their personal lives public, such as the Kardashians, Kanye West, or Taylor Swift. A well-known superhero, such as Spider-Man, is also intriguing. Character analyses of such fictional characters have been conducted from both academic and non-academic perspectives.

Why is my father my favorite person, for example?
Kim Kardashian’s influence on my life.

Describe an item or a location.

You can also talk about an object or a location with which you have a special relationship. This may be your high school, a playground, or a childhood item that scared you. Fictional locations are also acceptable!

Paris, for example, is my hometown.

My excursion to London

Describe a Feeling

Remember the most genuine emotion you’ve ever felt and write a descriptive essay about it. A powerful emotion such as anger, happiness, loss, desire, or rage can be chosen. It doesn’t have to be a personal feeling; it could be something you notice.

Examples of how love has impacted my life

How can hatred and love resemble one other?

You can write a descriptive essay about anything you can describe with your five senses: touch, sight, taste, smell, and hearing.

Outline for a Descriptive Essay

Remember that a well-structured paper outline is your golden ticket when writing a descriptive essay. It will not only help you organize your thoughts, but it will also improve the flow of your essays.

The following are the components of a descriptive essay outline:

• a brief overview
• Sentence with a hook
• Background/Contextual information
• Thesis assertion
• Paragraphs in the body
• Sentence about the topic
• Details of the senses
• Details on the situation
• a final thought
• All major points are summarized here.
• Declarative Statement

Because all of your images will be focused around the victim of description, it’s critical to devote enough time to it.

Introduction

The purpose of the introduction is to present your subject to the reader and provide sufficient context for them to completely comprehend your work—but keep it succinct and entertaining for the reader (s). Remember this when learning how to write a descriptive essay introduction: the first paragraph of your document is what will set your descriptive essay apart from the rest.

A descriptive essay start, like any other college assignment, must have the following points:

• Although the entire work should be filled with fascinating and vivid descriptions, catching the reader’s attention from the start is excellent.
• Background/Contextual Information: Tell the reader what you’re going to write about and why it’s important to you. Give them a quick overview of your paper.
• Thesis Proposition: The thesis for a descriptive essay should be a brief yet comprehensive summary of the work. It must include the subject of your description as well as the reason for doing so.

“Even though the monarchy is long gone, Buckingham Palace helps to remind us of the visual beauty which that era had built,” you can write about Buckingham Palace.

Person.

“The distinguishing traits of Spider-Man are his youthfulness, New York City, and the fact that he talks to himself more than Hamlet,” says the author.

Emotion.

An essay about a personal fear experience: “The dark forest is my greatest dread for a variety of reasons, however it is not one I would want to face.”

Paragraph in the Body (s)

In most papers, there are three body paragraphs. They address three distinct issues or arguments. It’s entirely up to you—or your professor—how many body paragraphs to include in your descriptive essay. Sometimes a tale can be told in a single paragraph, while other times it can take several novels.

The following are some examples of how to write a body paragraph:

• Begin by writing a topic sentence. The orange, for example, is a spherical citrus fruit with a color that suits its name.
  Include sensory information. Make use of comparable senses when describing the orange.
• Include specific information. Within your body paragraphs, always add descriptive information. Begin the following body paragraph by concluding the previous one.
• Transition phrases are important because they let your readers immerse themselves in your writing. Your writing will improve, and you will no longer appear to be reading a list of facts.

Conclusion

Your conclusion should be a synthesis of all of the important themes in the body text, according to the descriptive essay format. Writing a conclusion phrase that ties to your paper’s main topic is a fantastic option. The document is now complete after this is completed. We recommend that you review your descriptive essay for grammatical mistakes.

Consider including the following in your conclusion:

• The first thing to do towards the conclusion is to consider the work’s original aim. Give some insight into why you choose to write about this topic and how it has influenced your life.
• Demonstrate the Importance of Details: Go over some of the paper’s most important points. Prepare the audience for the clincher statement by giving a summary of what you’ve covered thus far.
• Last but not least, The clincher is the last phrase of your paper that either confirms the overall purpose of your paper or leaves your audience with an intriguing notion, question, or quote. You’ve most likely spent a lot of time considering a hook to entice the viewers in. Allow the paper to stay in your audience’s minds long after they’ve finished reading it.

Writing and Revision of Your Descriptive Essay

The steps of writing a paper are as follows:

• Stage one of the writing process. Here, you must review all of your sources and determine whether or not they all provide relevant information on the topic of your choice.
• I’m starting from the beginning. You should begin your work with a strong, intriguing hook that will pique the interest of your readers. It could include a unique metaphor or a thought-provoking literary passage.
• Creating your descriptive essay’s first draft. You only need to write down all of the words that come to mind at this point; you’ll have the opportunity to narrow down your ideas later.
• Using an extended English vocabulary and online dictionaries to add specifics to your writing. To help the descriptive essay create a lasting impact, use your English terminology to fill in any missing feelings, such as hearing.

Using a variety of free online grammar checking tools to revise and modify the paper.

Let’s take a closer look at the last step: reviewing your article. Take a rest after you’ve finished writing. Before editing your paper, it’s generally a good idea to clear your head.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when you return to your descriptive essay:

• Have you given enough background information in the introduction?
• Is it simple to read the paper?
  Is the thesis relevant to the paper’s content?
• Is there any vibrant, descriptive language in the paper?
• Is the clincher statement going to stick with you?
• Are there enough specifics in your description to allow your readers to have a complete and vivid picture of what you’re describing?
• Is it the case that each component of your work focuses on a different aspect of your description?
• Are there any extraneous details in your paper’s description that may be removed or replaced with more useful information?
• Does this paper make sense to you, if you were the reader?
• Is there any grammatical or punctuation errors?

Grammarly or the Hemingway app are two examples of web programs that can help you organize your grammar. It is, nevertheless, always preferable to learn the laws of grammar and become the greatest writer you can be. Once you’re certain you’ve finished the final draft, read it aloud or have a friend read it. To wrap up loose ends in your work, you may require some constructive feedback.