How to Write a Descriptive Essay
Understanding What is a Descriptive Essay – Definition
A descriptive essay is an essay that you may be asked to write about a place, for example about a beach or a forest, about a person, a situation or adventure. You may be asked to describe anything; the main objective of descriptive essays is to test the ability of a writer to express themselves and explain their experiences. For you to be a pro in this kind of writing, you also have to be a good narrator because description goes hand in hand with narration.
You should be able to describe every aspect surrounding your topic without discrimination. A good description should be able to bring the reader of your essay to the real happening of events. The reader should not question themselves or be left in suspense in a way; you should ensure that you exhaust your descriptions. Every point has to come out clearly in your writing. To come up with a good essay, you have to learn how to create a picture of what you are talking about in the reader’s mind. To achieve attracting the reader to your writing you have to understand how to apply the five senses to your writing. When you learn how to apply them well, then you are sure to satisfy your reader.
For you to come up with a good descriptive essay, you should learn to encrypt a good thesis statement. Writing a thesis is important while starting a sample descriptive essay because it reflects what the essay is going to cover in the summary. Brainstorming is also important as it gives you the points for your body paragraphs.
How to design a good descriptive essay outline
Like all other essays, a descriptive essay will need you to come up with a specific format to ensure quality content. The outline of a descriptive essay contains the segments that should be included in your essay writing. It is the structure of the essay that will guide you on how you should format your essay to meet the requirements. A descriptive essay can be divided into three parts, the introduction, the body and the conclusion.
- Introduction
Tips on how to come up with a good introduction:
It is the introduction of your essay that sets footing for the reader in your work. Before heading to the body, the reader will first come across your introduction. It is the introduction that makes the first impression of your work, so should it be attractive. From reading the introduction, the reader will either get bored with the rest of your work or gain the zeal to proceed. It is through the introduction that you can be able to make the reader understand what is to be shared in the 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 single sentence that mentions the objective of the essay in summary. The thesis should act as a guide for the reader on what to expect in the body; it is like a table of contents for a particular book. When you read through the table of contents for a particular book, you will be able to know what the book is all about and when you proceed in reading it, you get to understand it better. 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 in 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.
- 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 there. 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.
- 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. Make sure that the reader knows they are approaching the end of your paper, 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 it 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 thinking about your essay. After writing the conclusion, make a review of your essay by proofreading. The importance of reading through your paper is that it enables you to identify the mistakes and maintain a good tone throughout your work.
Read also: What is a reflective essay and how to structure it?
Here is the list of the best descriptive essay writing services we have found online:
How to come up with descriptive essay ideas – hints
A descriptive essay will require a creative mind because it tests one’s ability to express what they can see in writing. Before starting a descriptive essay, you should be able to know how you will make your essay meet this need. Some of the hints on how to come up with great ideas for your description include:
- Take time to brainstorm about the topic before starting. Brainstorming involves thinking about the topic and coming up with rough ideas to support your title. You should not think as you write the essay because points may not come out clearly. Just take your time and think as you jot down, in summary, the points in the topic on a piece of paper. The best way is creating a list of points before you proceed to the actual paper.
- Use your senses extensively – the only way that you can link with the reader is by use of senses. There are five common senses that you should use in your descriptions to bring the reader the real picture of the scene or person you are describing. You should be able to engage the reader in your work by the use of senses. You should give a testimony about the scene, how you felt about the situation and what you think about the happenings, too. A rhetorical question can also be a good way of making the reader engaged in your work.
- Choose right words for your descriptions – you should choose words that imply the situation or person described to avoid misleading. You have to equip yourself with an extensive vocabulary to explain different feelings lest you have loose essay imagery.
- Satisfactory descriptions – you should be able to describe the events clearly, so that the readers of your work do not find themselves asking questions on your essay.
- Good organization of your work – you should be able to plan your work, to avoid the mix up of emotions. The reader might be confused when you do not attach appropriate emotions to the description you are giving.
Read also: Review of essay writing services you can trust.
Some of the descriptive essay topics you can come across
There are many descriptive essay topics that you may be examined on as a writer. You should be ready to handle any of them. It is good to get exposed to different topics as it gives you the experience and prowess in writing. Most of the requests to “write an essay for me” are usually about events and ceremonies. You may be asked to write about an event that was held somewhere at a particular time of the year. In this case, you should explain the events as one of the attendees for the situation. Choosing a good topic for your essay is important. It should be attractive to those intending to read your text.
Your topic should be manageable and have ample points to cater for the length of the essay. The title for your essay is dependent on the given topic. The difference between a topic and a title is that the topic is a theme that you are to write about whereas the title is the description that you use as a heading to your essay. A good example of a descriptive essay is an essay about ‘my best teacher.’
In such as essay, in the introduction you should share a memory about the teacher that makes you adore him/her. From that, the reader would be able to ask themselves more about the described person, and they would anticipate for the body. In the body, you can give the attributes of the teacher and support your claims with relevant illustrations. In conclusion, summarize the main attributes and give a reason that makes that teacher the best.
Making an outline before jumping into writing a research paper helps you to structure your thoughts and ideas. See our helpful guide on how to make an outline.
Read also: Cheap paper writing service – high quality for affordable prices.
Significance of descriptive essay examples
It is good to go through various examples of descriptive essays to advance in writing techniques. As a writer, you should read many samples so that you can get exposed to good ideas and style of other authors. Going through various samples can enable you to note the mistakes of other authors and correct the same when you get to your own.
Due to the advancement of technology, you can easily get access to these examples from different resources online. Some of the common resources that may contain descriptive essay examples are articles, journals, and magazines. Most of the stories in the magazines constitute a lot of description, and by going through them, you will be able to acquire the right words to use for your description.
