Descriptive Essays

1. Amanda Karim Writing Lab TA Descriptive Essays

2. The Power of Details • Rather than telling a reader about your topic, use details to show your points and make your writing stronger. • When you describe something well, you help your readers use their five senses to connect with your topic.

3. Senses Questions • What does it look like? • Colors, brightness, shapes • What does it sound like? • Noise, silence, the kinds of sounds you hear • What does it smell like? • Fragrance, odors, scents, aromas, perfumes • What does it taste like? • Bitter, sour, sweet, tangy, etc. • What does it feel like? • Texture, hard, soft, rough, smooth

4. More Questions • What is it? • How many are there? • What size is it? • What is it made of? • What is it doing? • How is it doing it? • Where is it located? • Does it have any emotions?

5. Using Powerful, Specific Vocabulary • When describing something, you need to use specific tools: • nounsthat namethe object, • verbsthat provide an action, • adjectivesthat provide more details about your noun, and • adverbsthat tell how an action is performed.

6. Do not Use Non-Specific Words • Non-specific words may distract or bore your reader. • List of non-specific words: • Things, Stuff • There is, there are • Good, nice, bad • Just, rather, quite, so

7. Putting It All Together • When you have brainstormed all of the details, think about which ones you want to include. • The details that you do include should all relate to the overall idea that you want the reader to understand. • If any details do not support this idea, leave them out.

8. Putting It All Together – In Order • It is not enough to simply have all of your details support your overall idea. • You also need to put your details in some logical order, so they are easy for the reader to follow. • Order by time – first to last • Order by position – left to right, top to bottom, middle to outside, etc. • Order by type – put similar things together

9. Finishing Touches • Once you have determined which details to use and which order to put them in, ask yourself whether you made your point. • All of your details should support your topic sentences.

11. Brainstorming • Specific nouns • Whale, tail, fins, flukes, water, ocean, sea, clouds, spray, foam, air • Specific adjectives • Black tail, two fins, cold water, open ocean, splashed spray, white foam, clear air • Specific verbs • Whale dives, tail stands, water churns, spray blows, foam surrounds • Specific adverbs • Dives slowly, stands straight, churns quickly, surrounds totally

12. Putting It All Together • Non-Specific: The tail of an animal is in the air with water all around it. The water is blue and white. The tale is black. • This example is boring because the writer has not used strong verbs, any adverbs, or specific nouns. • The reader does not know what the object is or what it is doing, so the paragraph seems to lack a purpose.

13. Putting It All Together • Specific: • In the picture, a hugewhaledivesslowly into the coldwater. His blacktailstandsstraight in the clearair while the openoceanchurns around it. Whitefoamsurrounds the flukes, and sprayblowssideways in the wind.