Descriptive essays employ the power of language and all the 5 human senses to make something feel like it is real. They make the reader feel like they have been to and have seen certain places, heard new things, touched different texture, tasted different flavors, and have smelled different smells.
Steps in writing a descriptive essay.
- Choose a topic that focuses on an item, a location, a person, or an event that you want to describe.
- Create a thesis statement which is the single idea that will be prominent in your essay.
- Get the senses right by ensuring you are able to involve all the senses in your essay.
- Create an outline listing all the details that will be contained in each paragraph.
- Write the conclusion paragraph giving a summary of your essay.
- Review your essay to find out if everything has been described well and clearly.
- Finish up by reading the essay to ensure it has no grammar, punctuation or spelling errors.
Structure of a descriptive essay
The aim of the author when writing a descriptive essay is to describe a particular person, a place, a situation, or an object making the person reading the essay feel the same as the author. A descriptive essay contains the following parts.
- Introduction- This is the first paragraph of your essay. Start by introducing the topic you want to write about by giving a quick overview.
- Thesis statement- Here you give an outline describing your topic but you don’t give a lot of details here.
- The main body- This can have around three paragraphs. The first paragraph can give a detailed description of your topic. You can use the second paragraph to describe the environment that surrounds the topic. The third paragraph will focus on sensual and emotive description thus covering how the topic interacts with its surroundings
- This is a summary of everything that has happened from the beginning of the essay and it does not introduce anything new.
Characteristics of a Descriptive essay
- Must be able to give a vivid description
- Must include all important and small details.
- Must be able to show the author’s emotions in response to the subject.
- Must not include irrelevant details.
Questions to ask yourself when evaluating your essay.
Once you are done writing your essay, read it again to ensure it responds positively to each of the following questions.
- Are the descriptions in my essay able to create a clear image on the reader’s mind?
- Are the descriptions able to show my emotions to the reader?
- Have I used descriptions that are able to convey each of the five senses?
- Are my paragraphs well detailed?
- Have I arranged my descriptions in an orderly way?
If your essay fits these criteria then you can be sure to have written a great essay.
