From different genres to composing styles, writing is one’s way of expressing ideas, thoughts, facts, and perceptions. A descriptive essay is one of them and serves the objective of allowing the readers to have a lifelike picture of the topic. You may have to compose one for a class assignment, for memoirs, research papers, book reports, and many other purposes. To begin with and conclude it, you need to be well-versed with its structure, language, and other related aspects. For this reason, this blog focuses on guiding you with descriptive essays and how to create one:
Descriptive Essay: Meaning and Purpose
A descriptive essay refers to the genre of writing that requires the writer to describe an object, place, person, situation, emotion, and many others. The purpose of composing it is to provide the readers with an understanding of specific details. It can need you to provide particulars along with metaphorical language. From a historical event to a piece of art, the reader should have a clear perception of the object. Smodin has developed a tool to write descriptive essays, feel free to test out Smodin Author.
There are two approaches to composing a descriptive essay:
1- Formal Description
Formal descriptive writing mirrors an argumentative essay and allows the person to describe the subject in detail. It requires you to use specific information to represent rather than your personal experience. It can also be appealing, particularly when the reader is intrigued to learn about the subject. For composing one, you can select topics, such as historical events, climate change, and news stories.
2- Personal Essay
A personal essay is where you need to share your responses and feelings. It can be imprecise, jumbled, and even arouse the emotion of compassion among its readers. For composing one, you must emphasize areas that showcase your experience. You can use striking and expressive language to compose this genre. For this, you can pick a wide range of topics, such as a book and its impact on you.
Structure of a Descriptive Essay
As in other genres, you need to stick to a format for a descriptive essay. Its outline must have all the aspects you will use to structure your essay. It can also guide you in formatting the essay. A descriptive essay needs to have three aspects-introduction, body, and conclusion. Here is how you need to compose these aspects in a descriptive essay:
- Introduction
A good introduction is one of the most important stepping stones to a good descriptive essay. It allows a reader to have an idea of what you will share in the essay. You can start it with interesting awakening words and phrases or questions to let the readers find the answers later. However, make sure to add the overview of the body paragraphs. Concurrently, do not share the whole idea and purpose of the essay at the beginning only.
Apart from these, you must also add a thesis statement at the end of the introduction. While writing that, you must keep in mind that it should act as the direction for the readers to learn about what to expect ahead. In it, you must define the scope of your writing and try to exclude cliche words.
- Body
It is the major part of the essay, so you must cover all the points while ensuring that it goes well with the introduction. When crafting it, you should begin every paragraph with topic sentences. While composing it, you should give a clear idea about the content in the paragraphs ahead. You must also include the analysis of sources and ideas in the end.
Select your choice of transition words wisely to connect your paragraphs. Suppose you have to present a contradicting statement, in it, you can use words such as however. Make sure to arrange your paragraphs properly because the way you organize your thoughts and words can impact your essay greatly.
- Conclusion
The conclusion is the endpoint of a descriptive essay and determines the grading level if your essay is a part of your evaluation. Over here, you can use words that suggest an ending, for instance, to end with. You can state your thesis statement again. Next, mention the major points you have added in your essay before. That’s because a conclusion refers to the literary composition of the essay. You have to emphasize making it fascinating to allow your readers to think about your writing.
Well, drawing the bottom line of your essay is not the endpoint, as you also need to make sure that no other aspect is left over. With this, take time to proofread your essay and ensure that your reader finds no grammatical errors, tone issues, or other mistakes.
Tips To Write a Descriptive Essay
In addition to the structure of the descriptive essay and guidelines for keeping up with it, here is another set of tips for composing a descriptive essay:
- Brainstorm
Brainstorming comprises thinking about your topic and then coming up with rough ideas that support the title. The practice of penning down these points is of great importance. For example, if you have to write about pasta, you can begin by noting the terms such as sauce, cheese, oregano, hot, and chili flakes. After this, you can go ahead with a descriptive list for everyone.
- Language
Your descriptive essay should have concise language, which should also be relevant. In addition to that, you must pick the right choice of words for readers to perceive the strong image of your essay. You need to use better words that fit well with the person or situation. For example, instead of using cheap, you can use miserly, and rather than violent, use tempestuous.
- Describe using your Senses
There are five kinds of senses you can use in your descriptive essay to picturise your subject or person effectively. You should strive to engage your audience with your essay, and not just that, but you have to showcase your experiences, thoughts, and perception for the same.
Conclusion
In this blog, you have become familiar with descriptive essays, their importance, structure, and tips to frame them in the best possible way. A descriptive essay is a genre of writing in which the writer has to unfold an object, person, place, experience, or any other subject he chooses to write about. There can be two approaches to composing it, including a formal description and a personal essay. When preparing a formal essay, you have to use specific information to describe a subject. However, the need for a personal essay is to share the personal experiences and perspectives of the writer.
The structure of a descriptive essay can have three parts- the introduction, body, and conclusion. End your introduction with a thesis statement. You must present all the thoughts or information in the body and conclude your essay with the final thoughts the way it is done here. Talking of some tips that can uplift the descriptive essay, you must brainstorm your ideas and then create a descriptive list ahead. You have to use relevant and concise language for that while taking care of the choice of words. Not just that, you must also share your thoughts and experiences about the same. That is all you need to compose an appealing descriptive essay. Don’t forget to test Smodin’s Descriptive Essay generator.