How to Write a Descriptive Essay

Here are a few tips, along with examples from some of my favorite writers.

1. You don’t always have to be specific.
2. Use figurative language.
3. Describe facial expressions.
4. Make the descriptions match the tone.
5. Scatter physical descriptions throughout the prose.
6. Describe actions that reveal physical characteristics.

1. Step 1: Choose a topic. A descriptive essay will usually focus on a single event, a person, a location or an item.
2. Step 2: Create a statement. The next step is to create a thesis statement.
3. Step 3: Get the senses right.
4. Step 4: Create an outline.
5. Step 5: Write the conclusion.
6. Step 6: Review your essay.
7. Step 7: Finish it up.

Descriptive is defined as giving details or something that describes. An example of descriptive is someone giving a very detailed account of an experience they had; a descriptive person. Concerned with classification or description.

Good descriptive writing includes many vivid sensory details that paint a picture and appeals to all of the reader’s senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste when appropriate. Descriptive writing may also paint pictures of the feelings the person, place or thing invokes in the writer.

A description can be just a simple paragraph, or several ones with no specific structure, meanwhile, a descriptive essay has five or more paragraphs and a clear and complete structure.

Each new paragraph begins with a new indentation. The purpose of a paragraph is to express a speaker’s thoughts on a particular point in a clear way that is unique and specific to that paragraph. In other words, paragraphs shouldn’t be mixing thoughts or ideas.

Paragraphs are used to help your reader follow the logic of your argument. They should not be too long (generally speaking, paragraphs that are longer than 3/4 of a page are probably too long) or too short (one or two sentence paragraphs probably haven’t given your reader enough information).

Your conclusion is your opportunity to wrap up your essay in a tidy package and bring it home for your reader. It is a good idea to recapitulate what you said in your Thesis Statement in order to suggest to your reader that you have accomplished what you set out to accomplish.

The introductory paragraph, or opening paragraph, is the first paragraph of your essay. It introduces the main idea of your essay, captures the interest of your readers, and tells why your topic is important.

The sentence in blue is an example of a good transition sentence that brings out the logical relationship between these two paragraphs: [1] The violent characteristics of the empire are made painfully clear with the tragic death of [2]Palinurus,who, in all ways, is the epitome of a good Roman man.

10 Tips for Writing Physical Descriptions of Your Characters

1. You don’t always have to be specific.
2. Use figurative language.
3. Describe facial expressions.
4. Make the descriptions match the tone.
5. Scatter physical descriptions throughout the prose.
6. Describe actions that reveal physical characteristics.
7. A first person narrator can give biased opinions about appearances.

10 Characteristics of Great Photos

1. 1 – Compelling Composition (Must Have)
2. 2 – Display Of Emotion.
3. 3 – Simple Storytelling.
4. 4 – Elliptical Storytelling.
5. 5 – Iconic Moments.
6. 6 – Unique Moments.
7. 7 – Juxtaposed/Contrasting Concepts.
8. 8 – Unique Lighting and Color.

Describing pictures in English

• Introduction. The photo/picture shows It was taken by/in …
• What is where? In the foreground/background you can see In the foreground/background there is …
• Who is doing what? Here you decribe the persons in the picture or you say what is happening just now.
• What I think about the picture. It seems as if …

The present tense (abbreviated PRES or PRS) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. Similarly, in the historical present, the present tense is used to narrate events that occurred in the past.

present perfect tense