The Versatile Descriptive Essay − Tips for Writing
The description essay is an assignment most often reserved for English courses, for it is a type of writing the purpose of which is to appeal to the senses in some way. When a reader is unable to actually see, hear, smell or fell something, it is up to the author to paint vivid sensory images. Descriptive essay writing can actually be contained in other types of writing, and it is, therefore, a favorite assignment of English teachers and professors. They want students to practice using words to create pictures. It is easy to see, then, why such writing is typically not found in other course work that relies heavily on information, date, concepts, and theories.
Typical descriptive essays topics might include such things as, "Describe the worst storm you have ever experienced," "What makes your favorite vacation spot so special to you," or a type of extended definition essay, such as "Describe the coming of spring." The largest body of such writing is perhaps found in the writing of fiction. In such novels, the writer actually writes innumerable narrative descriptive essay passages, as s/he attempts to describe people, events, and things in ways that allow the reader to see, hear, and feel that all these are described.
Writing a description essay can be difficult for those left-brained individuals who deal with logic, data, information and ideas. They are not used to producing writing that involves all of the figurative language methodologies − similes, metaphors, personification, or alliteration. This is the stuff in which right-brained people revel. They see images and paint them; they hear music and find beautiful ways to describe it; they smell spring and find unique ways in which to describe those smells to a reader.
If you are a left-brained individual in a right-brained writing course, you will need some basic tips if you are to perform well in description essay writing. First, it would be a good idea to read some exceptional descriptions from fiction writers to gain a better understanding of their craft. Seeing good samples will give you good ideas as you attempt to write your own. Consider these two descriptions:
- The tyrannosaurus rex stomped through the jungle on his huge legs.
- The ground literally shook and trees yielded as this monster lumbered through the jungle, his huge thigh muscles rippling with every step.
Which gives you a better picture?
The second tip is this: When you are assigned a description essay, choose what you plan to describe. Write down your very boring descriptive points. Once you have listed these, take each point and see what figurative language you might use. Practice re-writing each item on your list with vivid words, use similes and metaphors when you can (the moon hung itself in the sky like a huge orange hot-air balloon), and use a thesaurus to replace boring words with more lively ones. You do not want to over-use all of these things, however, because your writing will appear "stilted."
The third tip is this: Remember you must follow the basic pattern of an essay. Each paragraph should focus on one aspect of your description and have a transition to the next paragraph. Again, reading sample descriptive essay writing can really help.
The Fourth Tip: If you really hate to write and if these types of essays have you tearing your hair out, get some essay writing help. If friends and family are not up to the task, find a solid custom online essay writing service from which you can buy description essay samples or an original one on a topic of your choice. Do not go to a service that offers an unbelievably cheap custom essay price, for you will get bad writing that may be plagiarized. Select carefully!
The descriptive essay should also provide an idea of what aspects of a person, a place, a thing or an event are described in your essay, and the conclusion should reiterate the introduction.
