Descriptive writing: A complete guide to know how to write a descriptive essay

Introduction

Are you looking for an idea to write a piece of descriptive writing? Being clueless while working on something is unpredictable. You can be out of ideas if you don’t have sufficient information about anything. Digging out more descriptive writing leads you to perform many searches on search engines. To make your research less time-consuming, we are projecting all the necessary information in this write-up. You will come to know about what descriptive writing is and how to express your viewpoints via descriptive writing.

Descriptive writing

Descriptive writing is the form of writing in which you describe the place, location, or thing to draw a clear outline of it in the reader’s mind. The prime motto of this writing style is to discuss everything in detail and lets your readers create an imaginary version of the scenario in their minds. It is best for essay writing and storytelling. Writers use their five senses to give feelings and emotions to their writing while describing anything.

Weaving your perspectives in the description can be tricky irrespective of the matter of presentation. There is no right or wrong way to express your thoughts in writing. It’s all about how to present every bit of detail without letting your readers get bored. It is good to use figurative language and put emotions into your writing style.

What are the attributes of good descriptive writing?

Good descriptive writing says a lot about your skills and vision of sharing minute details. Your way of writing helps the readers to imagine the incident completely. Therefore, it is crucial to have a great understanding of descriptive writing so you can present the best model of writing. For more explanation, go through the following features of good descriptive writing:

  • To make your descriptive writing more appealing and effective, use sensory details. Use your five senses and create a beautiful picture of your description. Through your writing, allow readers to feel, sense, hear, touch, and taste whatever incidence you are going to share.
  • For an everlasting impression of your words in your readers’ minds, use figurative language. Better to go with smiles, metaphors, and analogies to describe your version of turn of phrase.
  • Good descriptive writing teaches you to be careful with language. Avoid generalizing your language with the use of general nouns, adjectives, and passive verbs. Use language precisely with specific nouns, adjectives, and strong action verbs.
  • Make sure to organize your writing properly. Follow a format, chronological order (if needed), and order of importance while describing any particular event. For example, if you want to tell a story, start with describing the physical description of your characters and then move to virtual imagination.

5 Steps to writing an effective descriptive paragraph

Words without meaning are useless. Therefore, you need to use your words wisely and convey the appropriate message from your writing. Writing a descriptive paragraph requires your attention and knowledge. If you want to make your writing effective, follow the correct steps. In order to make your writing appealing, go through the following and get the idea of how to write a descriptive paragraph:

Step1: Start the paragraph with a topic

To give the right direction to your thoughts, you should need a topic. Your mind must know what you are going to tell your audience. If the topic is already provided, then try to interpret it completely before pen down your thoughts; if not, then make a smart selection with your topic. Make sure to keep the rough idea of your audience to whom you are going to share your expression before finalizing any topic.

Step2: Make a good choice with descriptive words

Are you ready with a topic? Proceed to choice of words for writing the viewpoints in the description. The impression of your writing on people’s minds depends on the choice of your words. So, be selecting while your vocabulary in any descriptive paragraph. As a simple trick, imagine three words that come to your mind after seeing any picture or scene. Use them to explore your topic vividly.

Step3: Provide a basic description of your topic

In this step, you need basic information on the selected topic. Don’t try to stress yourself while writing the description; just go with the flow and write down the thoughts that eventually strike your mind. You can start your paragraph with one of those three words that you picked after visualizing the picture. Give yourself five minutes and write the basic descriptive passage. 

Step4: Add senses to your descriptive passage

It is not mandatory to add all five senses in your descriptive writing. But, it is good to use sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch in your writing to make the writing more effective. Adding senses depends on your choice. It is like what you allow readers to feel after reading the paragraph. For example, if you enter the old house of your village, you can add smell to your writing. It could be like “when I enter my old home, I felt the touch of fresh air and smelled of musk and sand.”

Step5: Proofreading and make it more organic

There is a minor line being very dramatic or authentic. So, keep that minor line in your mind when you need to describe anything. Make your description more organic so the readers’ can feel what you had felt. It is suggested to not finalize your paragraph before proofreading your write-up. Read it carefully and make the necessary changes to make it more engaging. Proper reviewing of your paragraph helps you to make your paper error-free.

Types of descriptive writing

If we talk about the types of descriptive writing, we can classify it into two broad categories:

Objective description

Amplifying the description of objects as they are, without thinking about the observer’s perception or feelings about them, is called objective description. In this description, writers act as a camera and produce the pictures in their words. It allows the reader to imagine the object even without seeing it. 

Impressionistic description

It is different from the description, reflecting sentiments or emotions. In an impressionistic description, you need to arouse emotions in the readers’ minds rather than sharing the physical appearance of an object. Here, you need to focus on what you feel instead of what you see. With the precise use of figures of speed, you can evoke the right sentiments.

Key points to write a descriptive essay for an object:

  • Start your descriptive essay or paragraph with the idea of object size and shape.
  • Add sensory details to your essay about the object such as color, taste, or smell. For example, when I opened the box, the pungent smell changed the expression of mine as well as my friends.”
  • Clear the purpose of an object by telling about its uses and benefits.
  • Conclude your essay by sharing the object’s significance according to your tone.

Where do you use descriptive writing?

Where to use your descriptive writing? How does a descriptive paragraph elaborate on your writing attributes? After adopting the concept of descriptive writing, thinking about these concerns is quite natural. As you know, there are different types of writing: narrative, descriptive, expository, and persuasive. Therefore, it is essential to know where to use what kind of writing style. Apply descriptive paragraph in the following format of writing:

Nature writing

Nature writing is one of the best formats of writing in which you can use descriptive language. It is an art to explain the magic of nature and the significance of your environment. It also needs to add emotions and sentiments to show your deep connection with nature. Whether you read a novel or poems of nature’s beauty, you feel the use of words to draw the picture of the earth in the reader’s mind.

Travel writing

The excellent way to write a descriptive essay to share your experience of travelling. It requires the complete details from medium of travel to exposure of destination. Your worth of explaining and experiencing any place could force the readers to visit it. Travel writer does the same thing and makes the places lively.

Biography

It discusses writing about any person. In the biography, you have to discuss everything related to a person’s life from his birth to death. It includes his professional as well as personal details. Here, you need to show your writing attributes and present better examples of descriptive paragraphs.

Journal writing

Whether writing a piece of information for a newspaper or blogs in a magazine, both types of writing require proper description. Your way of representing information matters a lot in journal writing. In this form of writing, you have to explain everything precisely. 

Poetry or poem writing

The best combination of words and emotions reflects in poems. When it comes to expressing your emotions and sentiments in words, the poem is the best example of descriptive essays. Your expression and the choice of words decide the engagement of the readers.

Tips to write good descriptive essays or paragraphs

Did you get the ideas of descriptive writing? If yes, then it is the right time to work on your description. Whether you have to describe the place or people, you should follow the proper format. Keep everything in your mind you can present your words impactful. To make your piece of write-up compelling, let’s have some tips to follow:

  • Outline your thoughts before starting
  • Don’t jump straight to your descriptive essays. Try to draw the picture in your mind before describing it in words. That’s what we call pre-writing. You need to outline your thoughts and make strategies for what kind of phrase or words you are going to use in your essay.

  • Create questions in your mind
  • Describing expression reflects what you are going to tell your readers or how you present your sentiments in a wrap of words. To make everything clear to your audience, ask questions to yourself. Have you used figurative language? Did you include any of the five senses in your writing? Did you mention enough details to describe the picture?

  • Draft a copy of your essay
  • Whether you are going to write an essay or an experience, make sure to prepare a rough copy. Read it twice and evaluate the outcomes. If it is not the same that you wanted to prepare, be ready to make necessary changes in it. It will help you to share the appropriate writing stuff with your audience.

  • Proofread and review your work thoroughly
  • Before making the final draft of your work, proofread it either manually or digitally. Read your descriptive essay twice or thrice, so you can pick out the mistakes (if any). Be focus on spelling and the collection of words. Usually, spelling mistakes change the complete meaning of your thoughts and draw the wrong picture in the readers’ minds.

    Do you need a professional’s assistance in projecting descriptive work?

    Now, you got the idea of descriptive writing and how to present all details in the correct format. Examples are also shared with you to provide the idea of writing. Still, if you need any kind of assistance in writing your essays or papers, contact us via our assignment help services. Our professionals will guide you correctly. So, don’t be shy to share your questions with them and receive the solutions without any mess.