How to Write a Descriptive Essay

More than many other types of essays, descriptive essays strive to create a deeply involved and vivid experience for the reader. Great descriptive essays achieve this affect not through facts and statistics but by using detailed observations and descriptions. What do you want to describe? As you get started on your descriptive essay, it's important for you to identify exactly what you want to describe. Often, a descriptive essay will focus on portraying one of the following:

a person a place a memory an experience an object

Ultimately, whatever you can perceive or experience can be the focus of your descriptive writing. Why are you writing your descriptive essay? It's a great creative exercise to sit down and simply describe what you observe. However, when writing a descriptive essay, you often have a particular reason for writing your description. Getting in touch with this reason can help you focus your description and imbue your language with a particular perspective or emotion. Example: Imagine that you want to write a descriptive essay about your grandfather. You've chosen to write about your grandfather's physical appearance and the way that he interacts with people. However, rather than providing a general description of these aspects, you want to convey your admiration for his strength and kindness. This is your reason for writing the descriptive essay. To achieve this, you might focus one of your paragraphs on describing the roughness of his hands, roughness resulting from the labour of his work throughout his life, but you might also describe how he would hold your hands so gently with his rough hands when having a conversation with you or when taking a walk. How should you write your description? If there's one thing you should remember as you write your descriptive essay, it's the famous saying: show don't tell. But what's the difference between showing and telling? Consider these two simple examples:

I grew tired after dinner.

As I leaned back and rested my head against the top of the chair, my eyelids began to feel heavy, and the edges of the empty plate in front of me blurred with the white tablecloth.

The first sentence tells readers that you grew tired after dinner. The second sentence shows readers that you grew tired. The most effective descriptive essays are loaded with such showing because they enable readers to imagine or experience something for themselves. As you write your descriptive essay, the best way to create a vivid experience for your readers is to focus on the five senses.

sight sound smell touch taste

When you focus your descriptions on the senses, you provide vivid and specific details that show your readers rather than tell your readers what you are describing. Quick Tips for Writing Your Descriptive Essay Writing a descriptive essay can be a rich and rewarding experience, but it can also feel a bit complicated. It's helpful, therefore, to keep a quick checklist of the essential questions to keep in mind as you plan, draft, and revise your essay. Planning your descriptive essay: What or who do you want to describe? What is your reason for writing your description? What are the particular qualities that you want to focus on? Drafting your descriptive essay: What sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures are important for developing your description?

Which details can you include to ensure that your readers gain a vivid impression imbued with your emotion or perspective?

Revising your descriptive essay: Have you provided enough details and descriptions to enable your readers to gain a complete and vivid perception?

Have you left out any minor but important details? Have you used words that convey your emotion or perspective?

Are there any unnecessary details in your description? Does each paragraph of your essay focus on one aspect of your description? Are your paragraphs ordered in the most effective way?

Descriptive Writing The last day of my high school career is fast approaching and I can only imagine how l will be feeling when I step out of Valley High School grounds for the very last time. Throughout these four years, I have felt a lot of urgency about graduating high school. I did not think that the time to graduate would come soon enough. But now, that time is finally nearing. I cannot believe that it has come this fast. I remember my first days of high school. I was just dying to experience all the new and exciting things that awaited me. I just wanted to know what everything was like. Now that I have done all those things and many more, I am about to embark on a new adventure that will take me to many more new experiences. Some say that, "high school was the best time of my life " Just like others say that high school was the worst time in their lives. To be honest, I am not sure which category I fall into. I have had plenty of good times, as well as just as many bad times, in high school. The only thing I can say is that I learned a lot while I was here. I know not just what I was taught through books, but I learned about life and the road ahead of me. From being an inexperienced freshman to a somewhat mature senior, things have really changed for me. I started high school as a disrespectful and cocky athlete, dying to conquer the world, which I did not know much about. I will leave high school as a world-weary senior, knowing that there are many dangers to encounter in the real world. Realistically, I do not know what the world out there holds for me. All I can do is enter it with a guarded optimism and hope for the best.

Descriptive: Visit to the Dentist's Office

I push the door open. The bell tinkles, with a soft but shrill ring. A wave of rubber gloves and disinfectant masked with cheap air freshener washes over me. Chairs are cluttered in the waiting room of the dentists. Clusters of magazines lie on the scratched wood of the coffee tables, shiny bright plastic screaming out logos and slogans. A little way forward from where I stand is a desk. A smiling receptionist sits there. She seems to have been expecting me somehow, as she indicates to the couches and chairs. A few nervous patients are already there. They try to avert their eyes from the closed, threatening doors leading to the dental surgery rooms, where an ominous high pitched whirring sound is coming from. Occasionally, I hear a muffled thud, or yell. One by one, the receptionist calls out the patients name; Baker, John! or, Higgins, Samantha! Plastered on the walls are dramatic Before/After photos. They show yellow teeth, set crookedly in red raw gums becoming brilliantly white and straight. The walls are painted a stark, clinical white, however photographs of people with toothy grins beam down at me, from newspaper clippings over the years. It must be my imagination, but already I can taste the slightly stale, bubblegum flavoured gloves, the cool hard metal of the examining probe, and the chink clink it makes when it sometimes collides with my teeth. I can feel the vinyl of the reclining chairs, which are covered in plastic, and also which clammy legs have a habit to stick to. In my mind I see the perfect teeth of my dentist, an ideal advertisement for his clinic. A sudden tapping of high heeled shoes from the corridor awakens me from my day dreaming. I look up. My pulse quickens, and my hands sweat. I swallow the lump in my throat that has accumulated somehow. Blood is pounding through my head, but even that cannot block out the dreaded words that I hear next; Barron, Richards, Doctor Lush will see you now.

Camping Every year my family and I take a trip to the state park campgrounds. As soon as you see the entrance sign, a sudden tingling feeling bubbles through your body knowing a week of relaxing bliss is about to be engaged in. I roll down the screeching window, and I can almost smell the crisp earth, see the glassy lake, and taste the campfire cooked smores and hotdogs. We'd set up our campsite as fast as elves making toys on Christmas Eve. I can hear the fresh, cool lake calling my name. Days on end we would swim carelessly in the glimmering water. I learned how to catch fish and clean their raw, scaly bodies. I will never forget the sharp, rancid scent. As the sun set, the lake would slowly grow cold. The sky filled with bright, twinkling stars. It almost looked as if someone spilled a container of glitter in the sky. The campfire would blaze, warming the cool summer air. I could feel the heat touching my face and the campfire smoke almost perfumed your clothes. We would cook hot dogs hamburgers, fish, corn, smores; you name it. My favourite part was cooking marshmallows. I would hold it over the fire hoping for it not to catch on fire, but most of the time I would pull it out with it drenched in flames, dripping sticky marshmallow and burnt to a crisp. Yet, there was always something about campfire-cooked food that I loved. Waking up in the morning with slimy, mildewed tents was probably the only downfall in the experience. At the end of the week we waved good-bye to the campgrounds. Keeping the memories of the dazzling lake, crisp earth, twinkling stars, and sweet smells of campfire food. Having a ripping feeling of sadness, I'd leave with a smile on my face, knowing I'd be back next year.

At 6:45 a.m. the miniature alarm clock began blaring its usual wake-up call, but was drowned by the even louder snoring coming from the 11 year old child. His older sister shook him awake, while she yelled, "Get up!" He replied by groaning and rolling over to the unslept part of his bed. As he blinked, his slanted, hazel eyes began to water. He lazily dragged his oversized body out of bed to begin preparing himself for school. He carried himself across the dimly lit hall towards the bathroom. As he flicked on the light switch, he first noticed his enormous cowlick on the side of his head. He rapidly pressed down on his dirty blonde and wavy hair trying to get it back into place. As he stood in front of the mirror staring back a his own reflection, he grabbed his toothbrush and began to a white and sparkling perfection. His name was Sam, and he could not care less of his appearance, as he reached for his tattered skater shoes. It was as if an elephant had trampled on them and they had somehow survived. As he pulled on his loose-fitting black TShirt and torn up jeans, he began mumbling a few words of prayer. His appearance might have done a good job of concealing it, but he was an extremely religious boy for his age. A simple glance at the clock and he began to quicken his pace. The clock read 7:20 and anytime soon his elder sister, Erika, would begin yelling for everyone to start leaving. He pulled on his black JanSport backpack, heavy with all of the new books, and heaved himself out of the door; right after picking up a glass of milk. Just a few moments later, as Sam expected, Erika began to yell, "Its time to go!" By that time he had finished his breakfast, and wished he had a bowl of cereal instead. Erika then came out with her mother on her heels, running behind her. They entered the white' 92 Cadillac at 7:30 a.m. Sam began to hope the school would be closed down for some strange and odd reason, but he knew it would not happen. Nothing ever happened his way; that was how he saw things. He took a step back, gently closed the door, and took a few deep breaths. He slowly turned around to face his school, the same school he had been attending for three years, because he attended the seventh grade now. "No longer a little boy", as his family put it. A few paces forward and he passed the gate into his school. Once inside, he felt trapped, and already began to dread the upcoming event of that day.

Appearance

Personality

Feelings

Adorable Aggressive Afraid Affable Adaptable Agreeable Attractive Ambitious Angry Alluring Amused Anxious Beautiful Brave Bad Bonhomous Biased Big-headed Bewildered Bright Bored Confident Cruel Calm Cheerful Combative Confused Charismatic Competent Contented Cultured Co-operative Comfortable Clumsy Cowardly Creepy Drab Dangerous Depressed Dull Diligent Disturbed Dynamic Determined Dominating Debonair Direct Dim Disillusioned Disagreeable Deceitful Elegant Evil Envious Fair Frank Faithful Filthy Fearless Fine Gentle Generous Good Glamorous Gifted Grieving Glum Gregarious Grumpy Handsome Helpful Horrible Homely Harmonious Happy Hurt Hesitant Hungry Ill-mannered Instinctive Ill Interesting Intelligent Idiotic Impolite Introverted Insane Jolly Jealous Jovial Kind-heartedKnowledgeable Kind Lovely Lonely Lively Loud Lazy Lascivious Magnificent Mysterious Mature Nervous Naughty Nice Noisy Nasty Nurturing Pleasant Pleasing Proud Perfect Placid Peaceful Plucky Punctual Protective Smiling Successful Sorrowful Splendid Sedate Silly Self-assured Sincere Sombre Snobbish Selfish Sore Thoughtful Talented Tired Tense Thrifty Troubled Timid Truculent Testy Upset Unbiased Unwell Unpleasant Unscrupulous Unsociable Vivacious Voracious Vengeful Wonderful Witty Wicked Worried Wise Weary Wild Warm Wrong

Zaftig

Zany

Zestful