Sometimes description alone fulfills the purpose of an essay. In most cases, however, you will use description in essays that mainly rely on a different mode. For instance, in a narrative essay, description helps readers experience events, reconstruct scenes, and visualize action. Although most of your college essays will not be primarily descriptive, you can use description in essays that explain the causes or effects of a phenomenon, compare or contrast animal species, or illustrate defensive behavior in children, for example. (The essay “Speaking Quiché in the Heart of Dixie” later in this chapter uses multiple patterns of development to convey the author’s ideas.)

Here are a few suggestions for combining description effectively with other patterns of development.