Table of Contents
Introduction
What makes writing potent? The simple fact is that it can make both real and fictional things come out alive on a piece of paper. Before the development of modern language and syntax, language and writing existed and helped people connect and served as the main driver to reach, conquer, or explore.
Much of the writing started with a real subject against it, but the examples can be anything and everything. In academic institutions, essay writing is a dominant driver for teachers to teach and gauge the academic prowess of the students based on their written expression.
Descriptive Essay Writing
Essays come in different shapes, sizes, and forms. Among them, one of the most important and widely used in schools and colleges is descriptive writing. In a nutshell, a descriptive essay is a subjective account of a person, a thing, a place, or an event, based heavily on sensory details and figurative language. The purpose of writing a descriptive narrative essay is to paint a picture for the readers so that they can understand the subject without laying their eyes on it.
Descriptive writing relies heavily on literary devices such as similes, metaphors, and so on to supplement the details. Many confuse a descriptive essay with a description which is a highly concentrated sentence or paragraph “describing” the subject under consideration.
Writing A Descriptive Essay
Figurative language is the heart and soul of descriptive writing. There is no other tool or way that writers can rely on while describing something else. It adds depth to the prose and makes the readers see or feel the subject that is being described on a piece of paper. For instance, there is information in “the night was cold” but there is no description in it. Whereas, writing “even nocturnal animals were seeking cover” lends the necessary descriptive cover.
Human beings are endowed with five senses, that are sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste. We depend on them to distinguish between things and make decisions based on sensory information received through them. While writing a descriptive essay, writers should rely on this stimulus to evoke images and scenes in the minds of the readers. Students can also consult examples from literature where writers even create fictional worlds and characters out of their imagination, merely depending on rich descriptions.
No matter what you call a rose, it will never lose its sweet fragrance. This adage is true for the real world scenario but when it comes to written description, a rose should be rose and described as such. To create authentic images in the minds of the readers, writers should employ pertinent words and phrases to provide context for the situation. We have seen many good topics being slain by the mediocre usage of vocabulary so this aspect should be kept in mind.
Descriptive Essay Vs. Narrative Essay
As two of the most relied upon essay types in academia, descriptive essays and narrative essays give a tough time to the students. Due to their lack of knowledge and skills of the language and structure, they struggle with both and seek examples.
So before moving forward, simple discrimination between the two is in order.
- A narrative essay is a personal account of an experience or an incident in the life of a writer that changed his perspective and the series of events coming after it. It has elements like characters, plot, theme, setting, and so on.
- A descriptive essay, however, could be a detail-rich account of the said incident or the person behind that incident, or the place where that incident took place. It relies on sensory details and figurative language to bridge the gap for students.
Top 4 Descriptive Essay Writing Examples
These examples we will go through in our descriptive essays are based on four major categories of descriptive essays. Since students have a hard time understanding the nuances of each, especially how to mold the narrative and get sensory details and expressions to work, this section is a goldmine for all.
Describing A Person
In every descriptive essay pursuit, this is one of the most common ones. Describing a person in an essay requires a cohesion of both his personality and his conduct with others. For instance, if you are tasked to write an essay to describe the person you envied, you need to set the premise by telling your side of the story, who you are, and what you long for. Then you can connect the narrative with the person that you envy, the qualities he possesses, as well as the success he is having because of who he is. Often, students make the mistake of showing flat two-dimensional characters which can be problematic.
Describing A Place
We all go see new places often and depending on the relation to our visit there, we connect with them and either long to revisit them or play for the chance to avoid them. While writing a descriptive essay on a place, fictional or otherwise, it is necessary to showcase what it stands for. A wilderness can be a symbol of peace and tranquility or it can be a haven for monsters lurking in the shadows. Even when the physical traits of the wilderness do not change, the perception and feeling did. Novice writers should aim for that and anything less should be improved upon.
Describing A Thing
Just like a person or a place, a thing can stand for much more than what it is composed of. When students need to choose a topic, they need to come up with a hinge to connect the narrative with the description. For instance, if you have planned to write about a thing you consider to be lucky for you, it is necessary to describe what it is and how it reinforced the idea of being lucky at key events of life. Many players consider different things lucky for them and these superstitions are also carried by the general populace. The idea here should be to catch the essence and connect readers with it.
Describing An Event/ Experience
This is something that can be as objective or subjective as possible, depending on the angle of the writer. Mostly, descriptive essays are written on persons or places, but events and experiences can be great topics to cover in an essay. Again, in this case, students need to find cohesive details and bridge what is physical or real with what is metaphysical or felt during that event or experience. Another narrative expects from this example is how it changed the future course of events for the writers. Keep in mind that a person attending an event cannot capture every detail. Similarly, experiences are remembered for what they stand for.
Excellent Descriptive Essay Topics In 2022
In this section, we will go through a handful of topics from all major categories, so that writers can visualize how they can take examples and apply them to different categories and genres.
So, let’s get started:
- My favorite place in my hometown
- The house I spent my childhood in
- My idea of a perfect vacation
- My dream apartment in downtown NY
- A visit to a nostalgia shop
- Things I see from my bedroom window
- Visiting a cafe with my love
- My mother – is the most creative person
- My father is a genius
- The best singer and actor in my family
- The first athlete I liked in my childhood
- The writer of the essay
- An interesting stranger in the neighborhood
- Why I love my girlfriend
- The idea of a perfect date
- The time I visited a foreign country
- Spending time with grandparents on a farm
- The best birthday bash I was invited to
- The scariest moment of my life
- A lucky thing I have
- The anti-stress balls to play with
- My first car was a beautiful beast
- My favorite food
- What I always keep in my pocket
- The must-have applications on my smartphone
- The way I unwind after a hectic fishing trip
FAQs on Essay Writers
How do you write a descriptive essay?
Writing a descriptive essay requires a subject that you want to explain or describe to the readers. This is the first step. In the next step, you need to come up with the theme that you want to incorporate in every major section of the essay. In the end, it is topped off with concluding remarks where the theme and key takeaways from the essay are mentioned.
What are the major steps in writing a descriptive essay?
Here is a simple content flow to write a descriptive essay:
- Choosing a specific topic
- Researching and gathering the necessary information
- Creating an outline
- Writing the first draft
- Proofreading and editing
- Finalizing the essay
What is the role of literary devices in a descriptive essay?
It would not be an overstatement to say that descriptive essays are incomplete without literary devices. The job of the writer is to help readers see what is only possible through comparisons, analogies, parallels, and more which are all part of the literary devices. So, this is the bread and butter for a writer who is trying to write a descriptive essay.
Can you provide rich context without relying on sensory details?
Sensory details are the input that we receive through sensory organs, such as ears, eyes, nose, tongue, and skin. These details can reveal the true or near-to-life character of the subject under consideration and make them “see” and “feel” it. Without sensory details, it is hard to think about the rich context in a descriptive essay.
What is the ideal word count for a descriptive essay?
The ideal word count for a descriptive essay is hard to determine. Novice writers who are just trying their hands on the craft should aim for five paragraphs. One is to introduce the subject and set the stage. The next three should be of the main body to explain and cover the bulk of the essay. In the end, one should be to conclude the description with the highlighted theme and parallels.
What is the difference between explanatory and descriptive sentences?
Although it has some subjective character, especially compared to an argumentative essay, a descriptive essay is much based on how a writer wants to portray an image of the subject under consideration. Depending on the inclinations, a theme and a thesis statement can be formed to provide a wide context to the essay.
Final Thoughts
An example is a great way to learn a craft or a vocation. When it comes to writing descriptive essays, students can learn a lot by deeply studying examples from masters of the craft. In this post, we have shared four distinct examples of descriptive essays that writers can rely on so that they can become better and faster at churning out descriptions. In addition to this, we have also shared some topics that can either serve as the practice field for the students or they can pick one of them to write descriptive essays for schools or colleges.
So, the best thing to do now is to connect the dots for the object and start adding sensory details and figurative language to it.
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