Descriptive essay is one of the popular assignments at schools and colleges. The significant thing about it is that it teaches the student to explicate the subject of writing in an interesting and attractive way for the reader. Here the writer elaborates details with the special care so to present them in an eye-catching and sense-appealing way. What is more, the describing skill will be useful as in daily life so in further academic writing: every research paper requires explication of the issue, apart from analysis and research itself. Here we will provide you the main steps to writing a successful description paper and some ideas for topics.
Steps to writing a successful description essay.
- First of all, you have to select a subject to describe. Make sure that the subject, which you have chosen, should be the one that you can or was able to observe. This is the secret of a good description – only sharing your personal experience and vision of the subject will let the reader feel the same.
- As it was mentioned, the most important component of the description is the detail. It should be vivid and dynamic so the reader does not find the description boring. Also, you should point out the major details, which will make the basis of your thesis statement.
- Details should be structured coherently. Use one principle for the details organization: you may begin from bottom to top, from general to specific, or in time sequence.
- Do not use general words for description, such as good, important, bad, nice. Try to be as specific as possible.
- Provide sensory descriptions. Address the feelings of the reader and give sound, visual, tactile, smell and taste images.
Ideas for writing a description paper.
There is a range of topics, which you can choose for description essay. They can be classified in the following way:
Describing places:
- Your room
- Apartment
- Summer house
- The place where you used to live in childhood
- Classroom
- Your house of dream
- Unusual place, which you have been to
- Places where you traveled
When you are writing about the place - think about your personal experience connected with it and the feelings that you had. Try to use figurative language: metaphor and comparisons.
Describing people:
- Your parents
- Best friend
- Relatives
- Teachers
- People who inspired you
- Famous people that your met in your life
- Character from the film or movie
In case you choose to write about a person do your best to give a dull description of appearance and character traits. Try to connect them and find the reflection of personality in the person’s appearance. Also, we recommend you to focus on your reception of this person and describe him or her through your own vision.
Describing things and events:
- Your favorite book
- Vase with flowers
- Clothes that you like to wear
- Photography
- Old or historical places that you visited or subjects in there
- Your visit to cinema
- Meeting with a friend that you have not seen for long
- Meeting with a famous person