This blog is not a descriptive essay.
There will be parts here and there that discuss descriptive essay format, address descriptive essay questions, and descriptive essay examples–but, again, this blog is not a descriptive essay. No, it is instead an informative piece meant to intrigue and inspire–not an example for you to use in your classes.
Apropos, this is not a descriptive essay introduction; it’s just a plain ol’ introduction to orient you, kind readers, to the purpose of this blog: to help you understand the role and goals of descriptive writing in the classroom and how to write a descriptive essay by creating a vivid picture with words–which this introduction definitely did not do.
An Introduction to Descriptive Writing
Okay, with that information out of the way, let’s do this properly. Here’s your descriptive essay introduction via an example, courtesy of Nora Roberts and her book Whiskey Beach:
He didn’t see the gun. As with the footsteps, the fog muffled the shots so they sounded low, thick, odd. They puzzled him in that instant of shocking pain. He never reached for his own gun; it never occurred to him. He fell, eyes wide, mouth working. But the words were only gurgles. He heard, as if from a great distance, his killer’s voice. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.” He didn’t feel his hands searching, taking his phone, his recorder, his keys, his weapon. But he felt cold – biting, numbing cold. And unspeakable pain through it as his body was dragged to the edge over rocky ground. For an instant he thought he was flying, wind rushing cool over his face. Then the thundering water swallowed him as he hit the rocks below.
The excerpt above is a good description about a person example.
Notice the figurative language of the vignette fueling engagement and understanding.
See the descriptive writing 5 senses coursing through the text’s veins.
Appreciate the vivid picture with words that’s created for us, the readers, who feel the wind whip past us as the character falls and splats.
While not a complete essay, the excerpt indeed does lay the groundwork for how to write a descriptive essay and what elements we, as writers, want to consider.
Elements of a Descriptive Essay
Whether it’s an essay about a place or a descriptive essay about a person or a descriptive essay about nature, there are some common elements in a descriptive essay format to consider:
Detailed Description. I mentioned descriptive writing 5 senses above, and that’s key here. The essay should include thorough descriptions that appeal to the reader’s senses—sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell.
The goal is to create a vivid image in the reader’s mind. Think of it like creating a movie with words. This can be executed with adjectives, adverbs, vivid verbs, and figurative language.
Figurative Language and Imagery. Similes, metaphors, and personification–moving between the literal and the figurative–strengthen the imagery and effects of descriptive essays.
Compare, for instance, noting a man is tall to developing a simile in which a man is as tall as a tree, his arms reaching like branches toward the heavens each time he stretched to full height. I bet you saw a clearer (though exaggerated) image of the man with the latter vs. the former.
Characterization. Character can be found and built everywhere: that old park bench, withering in the sun, dripping with bird droppings? That’s character.
The spunky puppy nipping at the bottom of his owner’s jeans, snagging threads of cotton like floss between its teeth? That’s character.
That old boxer whose knuckles creak like a door on a rusty hinge as he flexes his hands instinctively? Yup, that’s character.
Indeed, regardless of the subject of a descriptive essay, building character is a necessary element, so a writer needs to consider elements of characterization and the impression the person, place, or thing makes on the audience as a result of it.
Tone and Mood. If our goal in an essay description is to create a vivid picture with words, we have to think about the effects of that picture on our audience.
Is the picture meant to cause despair and hopelessness as the sea engulfs a small child afloat an even smaller raft, its seams being eaten away by the hungry ocean’s salt? Is the picture meant to evoke pride and patriotism as the flag waves unfailingly in the wind, braving the lashing rain and the roiling unrest of its country’s citizens?
Indeed, the tone and mood we want to develop determine the images we create and the descriptions we build.
Connotation. Would you rather be called skinny or thin? Decrepit or old? Words can mean the same or similar things–but their connotations are different.
Writers can use different shades of meaning in their writing to help create an image for their readers.
For example, my reader will think about a character differently if I call her a genius or if I call her smart. A single word can change so much in the reader’s mind. (Just ask your students if they’d rather be called stupid or dumb; you can expect a lively discussion.)
Theme and Main Idea. Like with all the elements above, a writer should have intentions in mind when writing. While a descriptive essay isn’t an argumentative essay, it still does have a descriptive essay thesis. (It just might be more covert than overt, more implied than explicit.)
A thesis drives the point of the description. It gives purpose to the vivid pictures. Imagine taking a bunch of random photographs and splaying them across a table. There’s no reason, no rhyme–just chaos.
But have an idea in mind and begin to sort and scrape away the images, and all of a sudden one might find a line of reasoning among the images, a main idea and story developing. This is what we want to do in our descriptions.
While those elements above are often seen in descriptive essays, that doesn’t mean there’s an exact formula for how to incorporate them, for the fun of descriptive writing is that it’s not a prescriptive essay. Students looking for a descriptive essay graphic organizer (Give me boxes to fill out! Tell me how many similes to use!) might come up short. That doesn’t mean, however, that we can’t give our young writers guidance.
One strategy we can use in the classroom is looking at descriptive narrative essay examples (like George Orwell’s “A Hanging” or Jo Ann Beard’s “The Fourth State of Matter”) and see how those writers develop their descriptive essay thesis.
In a descriptive essay, we can see how the introduction begins sets the table for what’s to come; how the body of the essay unfolds the characters, conflicts, settings, and everything in-between; and how the conclusion ties together the threads of the essay.
The fun, then, is to see how writers create effects in their descriptive essays that affect their audience and create a vivid picture with words, and in a society where visuals bombard us through cell phone screens and Netflix streams, what a pleasure to use our imagination and enjoy a movie-made-from-words!
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