Descriptive Writing

1. Descriptive Writing Some Notes By Brian Yablon

2. Overall Purpose • You want to create an image or series of images in the reader’s mind. • If done well, your reader should feel as though he/she is experiencing the world through your senses -- as though he/she were transposed onto you.

3. A Basic Skill • Descriptive writing is a “threshold skill.” It is the basic building block of all other forms of writing. • In order to write all types of essays well, you must write well descriptively.

4. To entertain Such as an amusing description of a teenager’s room. To relate an experience. Such as a description of your childhood home to convey a sense of wealth or poverty you grew up in. Some Specific Uses

5. To express feelings Such as a description of your favorite outdoor spot so that your reader clearly understands why you enjoy that place so very much. To inform (for a reader unfamiliar with a subject). Such as a description of a newborn calf for a reader who has never seen one. More Specific Uses

6. To persuade, to convince readers that some music videos degrade women. Such as a description of a degrading music video. To clarify, to clear up a misconception. Such as the descriptions of two people, objects, places, or ideas. Still More Specific Uses

7. Where Can Descriptive Writing Be Found? • By itself • Narratives • Exemplifications • Comparison-contrasts • Arguments • Definitions • Division-classifications • Cause-effect

8. How Do You Begin? • First, figure out two things: • Your purpose -- what are you trying to achieve with this description? • Your audience -- who are you directing your description toward. • Your purpose and audience determine WHAT you say and HOW you say it.

9. Generate as many ideas, details, examples, and images as you can -- more than you think you’ll need. Select which of those you want to use. You cannot use everything; it’s too much -- and you want to avoid sounding like a laundry list. Then What?

10. Focus on a Dominant Impression • Support the dominant impression with specific, vivid, precise details that all lead toward that overall image.

11. Getting Organized • There are three ways to organize a descriptive essay. • Keep in mind that organization patterns tend to overlap.

12. Spatial Organization • This is organizing your images in physical space: • Top to bottom • Front to back • Left to right • Near to far • Head to toe • Bumper to bumper

13. Chronological Organization • Sequential order • First to last • Morning-noon-night • First, second, third • Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday • September, October, November • 1999, 2000, 2001

14. Emphatic Organization • Order of importance • Least to most • Most to least

15. Express and explain your details in length and in depth. Avoid creating a laundry list of characteristics. Use sensory language. We are sensory creatures and experience our world with our senses. Hearing Taste Touch Sight Smell Then What?

16. Be Aware of: • The power of words. • Denotation (literal, dictionary definitions) • Connotation (associations we make with words) • They are often not the same -- and sometimes opposite!

17. You Gotta Be Smooth, Baby! • Be aware of transitions; they help your reader move between ideas. • They’re connectors between sentences and between paragraphs.

18. Do You Feel Like I Do? • Use sensory language: • Hearing • Tasting • Touching • Smelling • Seeing • Be aware that sensory language enlivens your writing but also slows it down. • Use it well but sparingly.

19. Precision, Precision… • Always be vivid, specific, and precise with details. • Use concrete details instead of amorphous, vague ideas.

20. Figurative Language • Try to use: • Metaphors • Similes • Personification

21. Sentences • Vary sentence • Length • Short • Medium • long • Structure • Simple • Complex • Compound • Compound-Complex

22. Focus • Remember that descriptive writing is focused on images NOT EVENTS. • Think of it as flipping through a photo album. Each image is static yet tells a story.