Summary: After going through this article, you can explore what is a descriptive essay, what is the difference between a description and a descriptive essay, what all are the things you can describe in it, the approaches of a descriptive essay, the topics, and ideas related to it. It will basically help you gain the necessary information required while writing down a descriptive essay. In short, it is a complete guide for writing a descriptive essay.
What is a Descriptive Essay?
A descriptive essay is written down in a way that describes an event, object, process, situation, people, etc. Here, the writer’s objective is to make a realistic reading experience.
A descriptive essay is usually written down to attract the five senses of a reader, including hearing, touch, sense, sight, and taste. For example, Jon’s chocolate candy jar shattered into small pieces of glass, catching the attention of all the students in the class. Hence, it can be taken out from this example that making the essay appealing to the readers is the key to writing down a good descriptive essay.
The objective of the writer while writing down a descriptive essay is to construct a comprehensive picture in the minds of its readers that appeals to their five sense organs.
Another important fact while writing down a descriptive essay is that your essay should have a purpose. The purpose can be about anything, such as writing a story about how an event affected your life or a great lesson you learned from a past experience. A descriptive essay is all about bringing the great ideas which come to your mind into life.
Difference Between Description and Descriptive Essay
It is important to know the difference between a descriptive essay and a description while doing this type of academic writing. The description includes writing down just simple paragraphs that do not have any appropriate structure. On the other hand, a descriptive essay is written down in five or more paragraphs having a complete and proper structure. A descriptive essay is written down using a well-organized format which starts with writing down a good thesis statement and ending with an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion in between. However, the description does not have a proper structure because the key purpose of writing is to explain an object or anything else without including any further academic layers.
Things or Issues which can be Described in a Descriptive Essay
- Person: You can write and talk about a person in this type of essay. It can scale from just talking about its appearance to providing more complex information and descriptions like mood, actions, qualities, and behavior of that individual on whom you are writing down.
- Place: While describing a place in your essay, remember to explain it in an original and interesting form. Your readers must feel the essence of it, for example, the beauty and charm of your chosen city or cities.
- Event: In this, you need to describe an event that occurred or a story about something which happened. It can be related to your last birthday, vacation, festival, anniversary, memorable day, etc.
- Animal: It involves describing and explaining an animal’s features, behavior, biology, or appearance.
- Occupation: In this, you can write down about a profession or job which is quite famous, your own job experience, and so on.
- Behavior: It is a form of descriptive essay writing used to describe some irrelevant or strange behavior of a friend or relative of yours or how some people behave during different conditions.
The Two Classical Approaches of Descriptive Essay
- Personal Essay: It is written by describing an experience using your own responses and feelings for the same. It can also be written down in an indefinite and unorganized way. If you wish to write down a good personal essay, then you should try to pay attention only to those features or characteristics which can appropriately explain or express your experiences. There is no need to worry about using evocative or vivid language while doing this type of essay.
The topics on which you can write down this type of essay:
- Explaining about a favorite tv-series and its effect on you.
- Reflecting on an event that has shaped you from the past.
- Describing a memorable paragliding experience.
2. Formal Description: The formal description type of descriptive essay resembles the argumentative essay. While working on this type of essay, your objective must be to communicate a group of essential pointers or explain something in detail- this is known as the appropriate3 and clear structure of it. You have to make use of certain information categories in it instead of just focusing on your own experiences so that you can provide a comprehensive portrait of the thing you are describing. Using this approach can also be very pleasing and engaging, especially when the reader is queerer to know about the subject of the essay instead of understanding about the writer’s reaction to it. But, still try not to make it sound too formal.
The formal description can include the following topics:
- An essay describing historic events, climate change, or politics.
- A news story providing all the detailed information about an event or mishappening which occurred.
The Topics and ideas Related to Descriptive Essay
Searching out a topic for writing a descriptive essay is not a tough task. You can particularly describe anything, be it about your favorite serial or the weather conditions. We have written down some of the descriptive essay ideas below to help you get started with them; hopefully, they will help spark the type of imagination you have.
- Description of a Person: Writing about a person you personally know will be a better option as this way you will have a lot of information to write about. You can choose your friends, relatives, family members, classmates, teachers, or anyone else whom you know personally. You can also write about the celebrities who expose most of their private lives, or else you can even pick famous cartoon characters or the heroes from the hit movies.
- Describing a Place or an Object: You can write about the place or object you have or can feel a special connection with. It can be something that makes you the happiest or scares you the most. Like you can talk about your high school, your favorite toy as a kid, etc.
- Describing an Emotion: You can write down about an emotion you have been through. You can choose to write down on strong feelings and emotions like desire, anger, loss, happiness, rage, etc. It is not necessarily be a personal emotion; it can also be written on an observed feeling or emotion.
You can basically write down a descriptive essay that can be jot down in a way that appeals to the five senses of human beings. If you wish to know more about a descriptive essay or are still facing difficulties while writing it down, there is nothing wrong with seeking assignment help in Australia.