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Select a topic from the list above, or create your own. Use one or more of the following suggestions to choose a subject to describe.
- List one or more broad topics, such as An Unusual Object, A Place with Personal Significance, or An Influential Person. Then alone or with another student, brainstorm a list of objects, activities, or people that fit the assignment. Other prewriting strategies, like freewriting or questioning, may also help you generate topic ideas. (Rational, pragmatic, and concrete learners may prefer listing. Creative, emotional, and abstract learners may prefer freewriting or questioning.)
- Picture the objects in your room or on your desk and ask yourself questions, such as, “Who gave me that object?” or “Why did I buy [or make] it?” (Spatial, creative, or emotional learners may prefer picturing.)
- Work backward: Think about the most influential people or most important values in your life, and then think about a place or object that represents them in your mind. (Abstract and independent learners may prefer working backward.)
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Consider your purpose and audience, and choose a perspective and point of view. Ask yourself these questions.
- Will my essay’s purpose be to express myself, inform, or persuade?
- Who is my audience? Will readers need any background information to understand my essay? Have I chosen a person, place, or thing that I can write about honestly for this audience?
- What point of view best suits my purpose and audience? The first person (I, we) will work best if describing an object with personal significance or if your purpose is expressive; third person (it, they, he/she) will be most appropriate if describing something objectively, of if your purpose is informative.
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Choose an aspect of your subject to emphasize, and collect sensory details. Choose one trait or aspect of your subject to focus on.
| If it’s a … |
try focusing on … |
| person |
a character trait |
| thing |
its usefulness, value, or beauty |
Then record details that support the slant you have chosen.
- Describe your subject to a friend, concentrating on the slant you have chosen, and make notes on your comments and your friend’s response.
- Draw a quick sketch of your subject and label the parts.
- Make a table and label each section with one of the senses. Then list the sensory details associated with your subject.
Generate comparisons. Think of appropriate comparisons — similes, metaphors, personifications — for as many details in your list as possible. Then select the one or two strongest comparisons and try to use them in your essay. Use at least 2 prewriting strategies to generate details. (More prewriting strategies appear in Chapter 5.) |
Reread your notes, highlighting the vivid, concrete details that will create pictures in your reader’s mind. Cross out the following:
- vague details,
- irrelevant details, and
- details that do not support your slant.
Then copy and paste the remaining details to a new document for easy access when drafting. In small groups, share your ideas and details.
- Have each writer explain her or his slant on the subject and provide a list of details.
- As a group, evaluate each writer’s details in terms of her or his slant and suggest improvements.
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Create a dominant impression. Your dominant impression should
- appeal to your audience,
- offer an unusual perspective, and
- provide new insights on your subject.
Description often includes an element of surprise; a description with an unexpected slant and new insights is more likely to engage the readers’ imagination. Think of the dominant impression as …
- a thesis that conveys your main point and pulls your details together.
- a mood or feeling about the subject, which all the details in your essay explain or support.
Team up with a classmate to evaluate each other’s dominant impression. Identify any problematic wording and give feedback. |
Choose a method of organization Select the method of organization that will best support your dominant impression. For example:
- If you are focusing on a person’s slovenly appearance, then a spatial (top to bottom, left to right) organization may be effective. If using spatial organization, also consider what vantage point(s) will provide the most useful information or from which vantage point(s) you can provide the most revealing or striking details.
- If you are describing a visit to a wildlife preserve, chronological order might be a useful method of organization.
- A most-to-least or least-to-most arrangement might work best for a description of the symptoms of pneumonia.
- If you are describing a chocolate chip cookie, you may want to organize by the five senses, clustering details about how it looks, smells, tastes, and feels in your mouth.
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Write a first draft of your descriptive essay. Use the following guidelines to keep your narrative on track.
- The introduction should set up your dominant impression, which you may choose to state in a thesis.
- The body paragraphs should include striking sensory details that support your dominant impression. Be sure to include enough details that readers can picture your subject but not so many that readers will get bored. Try to work your one or two strongest comparisons into your draft. Organize each body paragraph so that it focuses on a single topic, and use transitions (first, next, above, below, before, after) to make relationships among details clear.
- The conclusion should revisit your dominant impression. You may also want to refer to the beginning of your essay or make a final observation about the significance of your subject.
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Evaluate your draft and revise as necessary. Use Figure 13.3, “Flowchart for Revising a Descriptive Essay,” to help you discover the strengths and weaknesses of your descriptive essay. |
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Edit and proofread your essay. Refer to Chapter 10 for help with …
- editing sentences to avoid wordiness, making your verb choices strong and active, and making your sentences clear, varied, and parallel, and
- editing words for tone and diction, connotation, and concrete and specific language.
Pay particular attention to the punctuation of adjectives
- Use a comma between coordinate adjectives that are not joined by and.
- Singh was a confident, skilled pianist.
Coordinate adjectives are a series of adjectives whose order can be changed (skilled, confident pianist or confident, skilled pianist).
- Do not use commas between cumulative adjectives whose order cannot be changed.
- Two frightened brown eyes peered at us from under the sofa.
You would not write frightened two brown eyes.
- Use a hyphen to connect two words that work together as an adjective before a noun unless the first word is an adverb ending in -ly.
- well-used book
- foil-wrapped pizza
- perfectly thrown pass
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