Engl141 Week 10
Engl141 Week 10
Engl141 Week 10
When writing this type of paper, you should know the difference
between a description and a descriptive essay.
A description can be just a simple paragraph, or several ones
with no specific structure, meanwhile, a descriptive essay has five or
more paragraphs and a clear and complete structure.
A descriptive essay is usually written coherently, has a good
thesis statement at the end of the introduction, three body paragraphs,
and a conclusion. A description however, does not necessarily have a
structure. Its main purpose is to just describe an object, or something
else, without having any extra academic layers.
The Issues that Could be Described in Your Paper
• A person. In this paper, you can talk about a person. It can range from simply writing
about their appearance to more complex descriptions like actions, behaviours, mood,
and qualities of your chosen individual.
• A place. The main thing you should do when describing a place in your work is to
describe it interestingly and originally. Your reader(s) should feel, for example, the
beauty of your chosen cities—perhaps New York or Rome.
• An event. Here you need to describe the story of what happened. It can be your last
vacation, concert, wedding, anniversary, summer music festival, graduation day, or so
on.
• An animal. In this type, you need to describe the animal. It may be its appearance,
behaviour, or biology.
• An occupation. Here you need to write about a job or occupation.
• A behaviour. This is the type of descriptive writing you should go for if you would like
to write about someone’s behaviour. Perhaps you want to describe the strange
behaviour of your friend, or highlight how certain people act under different
conditions.
Two Classic Approaches to the Descriptive Essay
1. Personal Essay
Here you need to describe an experience using your feelings and
responses. This work can awake empathy in readers. It can also be
vague and disorganized. If you want to write a good personal essay, you
should try to focus only on those aspects that most fully express your
experience. Do not shy away from vivid, evocative language in this type
of assignment.
A few examples of personal essay topics might be:
• Describing the experience of swimming in the azure sea in summer
• Explaining your favourite movie and its impact on you
• Reflecting on your birthday and all the things that have shaped you in
the past
2. Formal Description
This type of descriptive writing resembles an argumentative
essay. Your main goal should be communicating a set of key points or
describing something in detail—according to a clear structure. Rather
than focusing on your own experience, you need to use specific
categories of information to provide the fullest possible portrait of
what you are describing. This approach can also be engaging, especially
when the reader is more curious about the subject of the paper than
the writer's response to it. Still, try not to make it dull with too formal
language.
Topics for formal descriptions can include:
• A descriptive essay about climate change, politics, or historical events.
Descriptive Essay Topics & Ideas
Finding descriptive essay topics isn’t hard. You can describe pretty much
anything—from your favourite car to today’s weather. We’ve gathered some ideas
to help you get started. Hopefully, you’ll find good descriptive essay topics to spark
your imagination.
Describe a Person
Pick a person who you know well—doing so gives you a lot to write about.
Choose from family members, friends, teachers, etc. You can even write about a
celebrity who exposes most of their private life to the media: The Kardashians,
Kanye West, or Taylor Swift for instance. A famous superhero like Spider-Man is
also interesting. Such fictional figures have undergone many character studies from
both academic and non-academic perspectives.
Examples:
• Why my father is my favourite person.
• How Kim Kardashian changed my life.
Describe an Object or a Place
You may also describe an object or a place with which you have a special
connection. This could be your high school, a playground, or a toy which used to scare
you as a kid. Fictional places also count!
Examples:
• My native city – Paris
• My trip to London
Describe an Emotion
Remember the most sincere emotion you’ve experienced and turn it into a
descriptive essay writing. You may choose a strong feeling like anger, happiness, loss,
desire, or rage. It doesn’t have to be a personal emotion, it could be an observed one.
Examples:
• How love changed me
• Hatred and love – how they are similar
You can also write a descriptive essay about anything you can
describe according to human senses: touch, sight, taste, smell,
or hearing.
Creating a Descriptive Essay Outline
When thinking about descriptive essay writing, remember that a structured paper outline is your golden
ticket. Not only does it help you organize thoughts, but it will also help your essays flow better.
A descriptive essay outline is composed of the following:
An introduction
• Hook sentence
• Context/Background information
• Thesis statement
Body paragraphs
• Topic sentence
• Sensory details
• Actual details
A conclusion
• Summary of all main points
• Clincher Statement ( will be explained in detail in the following slides)
It is important to spend enough time considering the victim of description because all of your
illustrations will be based around it.
Introduction
The introduction serves to introduce your subject to the reader and give
them enough context to fully understand your work—but keep it brief and
interesting for the reader(s). When learning how to write a descriptive essay
introduction, remember – the first paragraph of your paper is the part that can
make your descriptive essay stand out from the others.
As with any college paper, a descriptive essay introduction must contain the
following points:
• Hook Sentence: Although the entire paper should be full of exciting and vivid
descriptions, grabbing the reader's attention from the very beginning is ideal.
• Context/Background Information: Tell the reader what you’re about to describe
and explain why it is crucial to you. Give them a brief context for your paper.
• Thesis Statement: The descriptive essay thesis should be a short yet concise
summary of the work. It must include the subject of your description, and your
purpose for describing it.
For further information on how to write a thesis for a descriptive essay,
check out the examples below.
Examples:
Place.
• If you were to write about Buckingham Palace: “Even though the monarchy is
long gone, Buckingham Palace serves to remind us of the aesthetic beauty which
that era had built.”
Person.
• For describing Spider-Man: “The defining characteristics of Spider-Man are his
youthfulness, New York City, and the fact that he talks to himself more than
Hamlet.”
Emotion.
• A piece about a personal experience of fear: “For many reasons, the dark forest
is my greatest fear, though not a fear which I would necessarily like to venture
into.”
Body Paragraph(s)
There are usually three body paragraphs in a paper. They cover three
different points or arguments. How many body paragraphs to include in your
descriptive essay is entirely up to you—or your professor. Sometimes it only
takes a paragraph to tell a story, while other times it takes books.
How to write a body paragraph:
• Start with a topic sentence. ex. The orange looks familiar; it is a round
citrus fruit whose colour matches its name.
• Add sensory details. When describing the orange, appeal to relatable
senses.
• Include actual details. Always include descriptive information within your
body paragraphs. Finish a body paragraph by introducing the next.
Transition sentences are essential because they create immersion within
your writing. Your writing will become better and it won’t appear as if you
are reading a list of facts.
Conclusion
According to the descriptive essay format, your conclusion should be a summary of all
of the main points in the body text. It is a good idea to write a final sentence that relates to
the main point of your paper. Once this is done, the paper is now complete. We advise that
you proofread your descriptive essay to correct any grammatical errors.