Academic Writing Lessons: How to Write a Descriptive Essay

how to write descriptive essayIt doesn’t seem hard to write an essay, especially in college when you already have writing experience after school. But that is the main trap for a lot of students. Writing in college and writing in school are two absolutely different experiences. While being in college, you have to bring your academic writing skills to the next level. If it is a writing assignment, it is not just an abstract task to do. Usually, it is a specific type of writing with its own requirements and restrictions.

A descriptive essay is the easiest task you can get, at least for some students. Mistakenly, they take a descriptive essay as something that can be finished an hour before the deadline. But the easiest assignments are the most difficult ones. Are you sure you know how to compose a descriptive essay correctly? If not, browse this affordable online essay helper website or keep reading the article to get to know what it really takes to write a proper descriptive essay.

The Procedure of Writing a Descriptive Essay

What does it take to create a perfect piece of a descriptive essay? Is it about the ability to describe everything in details? Is it about synonyms and epithets? Or is it about the structure?

First of all, let’s make it clear what a description is based on. Writing descriptively means writing upon our five senses:

  • Sound;
  • Touch;
  • Sight;
  • Taste;
  • And smell.

In other words, when writing descriptively, you have to use those sensory details to entice the readers and catch their attention, providing a description of something. The ability to describe well is very important as it is used in every job as well as almost every activity we do. Every day we describe someone or something even if not realizing that. In your essay, you create an impression of something for the reader word by word, detail by detail. So, the words and phrases, which you use influence the emotions of the readers and the image of the object, which you’re describing. The reader will see it the way you describe it.

So, how to write a descriptive essay to deliver your idea and the image of something accurately?

First of all, define the purpose of your essay. Is it about to compel someone to do something (to adopt animals, to recycle garbage, to visit some place, etc.)? What is the purpose of your description? What goals do you want to achieve? And what image do you want to create?

Define the dominant impression. Pick up two-three main epithets, which are going to associate with the object of your description. You’re going to build the whole essay around them mainly.

Then, create a thesis. A thesis is the main idea of your essay. But don’t confuse it with the purpose of your essay. For example, if the purpose of your essay is to convince the readers that they need to take care about animals and to adopt more cats, the thesis will be about the fact that animals need love and attention from people or something like that. Make a dominant impression to be a part of your thesis.

idea for thesisSince you’ve defined the purpose, the dominant impression, and the thesis, you can start writing. Appeal to five senses, which we’ve mentioned above. How? Describe to the readers what emotions they might have when they see, hear, touch, or smell the object of your description. The main goal here is to make the readers feel as if they already have the object of your description. So, make them want it through those five senses.

Descriptive Essay Structure

As with any other essay, a descriptive one consists of three main parts as well: introduction, body, and conclusion. In the introduction, you have to introduce the subject of your essay and formulate a thesis. In the body paragraphs, you have to make the dominant impression and provide the detailed description of an object. Try to stick to a logical flow of the paragraphs. For example, you can start writing from well-known facts to less known facts, or from older information to a new part of it, etc. Everything depends on what you prefer more and which topic you have.

In a concluding part, you have not only to restate what has been said in the introduction but also to explain the importance of the topic and the discussion. Use different lengths of paragraphs and a variety of sentence types.

So, if you have a descriptive assignment at college, don’t be afraid to write it because of not knowing how to formulate your ideas. At the same time, don’t be too careless about it. Use the recommendations provided in the article or apply to a professional service to help you to understand how everything works in writing descriptively. Hopefully, you’ve found our article and recommendations useful enough to compose your own descriptive assignment without a problem.

Images source via pixabay

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