DESCRIPTIVE ESSAYS

Amanda Karim

Writing Lab TA

The Power of Details

Rather than telling a reader about your topic, use details to show your points and make your writing stronger.

When you describe something well, you help your readers use their five senses to connect with your topic.

Senses Questions What does it look like?

Colors, brightness, shapes What does it sound like?

Noise, silence, the kinds of sounds you hear What does it smell like?

Fragrance, odors, scents, aromas, perfumes What does it taste like?

Bitter, sour, sweet, tangy, etc. What does it feel like?

Texture, hard, soft, rough, smooth

More Questions

What is it? How many are there? What size is it? What is it made of? What is it doing? How is it doing it? Where is it located? Does it have any emotions?

Using Powerful, Specific Vocabulary When describing something, you need

to use specific tools: nouns that name the object, verbs that provide an action, adjectives that provide more details

about your noun, and adverbs that tell how an action is

performed.

Do not Use Non-Specific Words

Non-specific words may distract or bore your reader.

List of non-specific words:Things, StuffThere is, there areGood, nice, badJust, rather, quite, so

Putting It All Together

When you have brainstormed all of the details, think about which ones you want to include.

The details that you do include should all relate to the overall idea that you want the reader to understand.

If any details do not support this idea, leave them out.

Putting It All Together – In Order

It is not enough to simply have all of your details support your overall idea.

You also need to put your details in some logical order, so they are easy for the reader to follow.Order by time – first to lastOrder by position – left to right, top to

bottom, middle to outside, etc.Order by type – put similar things together

Finishing Touches

Once you have determined which details to use and which order to put them in, ask yourself whether you made your point.

All of your details should support your topic sentences.

Brainstorming Specific nouns

Whale, tail, fins, flukes, water, ocean, sea, clouds, spray, foam, air

Specific adjectivesBlack tail, two fins, cold water, open ocean,

splashed spray, white foam, clear air Specific verbs

Whale dives, tail stands, water churns, spray blows, foam surrounds

Specific adverbsDives slowly, stands straight, churns quickly,

surrounds totally

Putting It All Together

Non-Specific:

The tail of an animal is in the air with water all around it. The water is blue and white. The tale is black.This example is boring because the writer

has not used strong verbs, any adverbs, or specific nouns.

The reader does not know what the object is or what it is doing, so the paragraph seems to lack a purpose.

Putting It All Together

Specific: In the picture, a huge whale dives

slowly into the cold water. His black tail stands straight in the clear air while the open ocean churns around it. White foam surrounds the flukes, and spray blows sideways in the wind.