Welcome to this lecture headed “DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY”. We will be discussing all about descriptive essay. Enjoy your lecture.
A descriptive essay permits you to paint a picture for your reader in words.
When you hear the word ‘describe’, what does it signify to you? For the majority of people, describing is a way of demonstrating something with words. You can illustrate a feeling, a sound, or even an emotion.
Descriptive essays are merely the same: they assist you to demonstrate something in a way that your reader can view, feel, or hear whatever it is you’re talking about.
A descriptive essay permits a reader to comprehend the essay’s subject with the use of explicatory language.
Making use of the Five Senses
Descriptive essays are good due to the fact that in a sense, – pun intended – they can assist us see places we may not be capable to go ourselves, hear fresh things, taste various flavors, stink foreign smells, or touch diverse textures.
Descriptive essays do this through the utilization of more real concepts, which most often include our five senses.
Behold the power of making use of the five senses in a descriptive essay:
‘As the waves laid-back collided with the shore, I could hear the weak lapping of the water as it met the sand. The smell of salt air and a warm afternoon wafted through the sky. Slowly, I awoke from my slumber, cuddled in a hammock that surrounded me like a cocoon. The warm sun brightly shone on my face and greeted me, ‘Good afternoon’.’
Based on this passage, where is the author? What is going on? Thanks to the five senses, you can infer that they are just waking up from what seems like a really peaceful sleep in a hammock on a beach in a place.
The way we gathered this
Based on the description, we can observe waves hitting the shore as the tide come in, hear the water as it hits the sand, smell the salty air, and feel the warm sun.
See how the senses made use of concrete things we’ve all possibly experienced to a few degree in our own lives to assist you picture a fresh scene?
This is how a descriptive essay makes use of things we are familiar with – in this case, our five senses – to take us to a stifling delight.
What is a descriptive essay?
The descriptive essay is a genre of essay that asks the student to describe something – object, person, place, experience, emotion, situation, etc.
This type of writing enhances the student’s capability to produce a written account of a specific experience.
This essay type allows for a great deal of artistic freedom with the aim of painting an image that is clear and thrilling in the mind of the reader.
One may gain from keeping in mind this straightforward adage: If the reader is incapable of forming a clear impression of the thing that you are describing, try, try again!
Below are some guidelines for a good descriptive essay:
Come up with Bright idea
If your teacher asks you to describe your much loved food, note down a few ideas before you start describing it.
For example, if you choose pizza, you may begin by writing down some words like: sauce, cheese, crust, pepperoni, sausage, spices, hot, melted, and so on.
Once you have written down a few words, you can start by bringing together descriptive lists for each one.
Make Use of clear and succinct language
This entails that words are selected cautiously, especially for their relevancy in relation to that which you are planning to describe.
Select a clear language
Why make use of horse when you can select stallion? Why not use passionate instead of aggressive? Or why not penny-pinching in place of despicable?
Such choices create a clearer image in the mind of the reader and over and over again present nuanced meanings that serve one’s purpose better.
Make use of your senses!
Bear in mind that if you are describing something, you are required to be appealing to the senses of the reader. Explain how the thing smelled, felt, sounded, tasted, or looked. Beautify the moment with senses.
What you were thinking
If you can illustrate emotions or feelings connected to your topic, you will link with the reader on a deeper level. A lot of people have felt crushing loss in their lives, or euphoric joy, or mild contentment.
Tap into this expressive reservoir in order to fulfill your full descriptive prospective.
Leave the reader with a clear idea
One of your goals is to call to mind a strong sense of acquaintance and admiration in the reader.
If your reader can move away from the essay craving the very pizza you just described, you are just about writing effective descriptive essays.
Plan your writing
You may be tempted to write incoherent piece of writing. Although it evokes emotions and senses when writing a descriptive essay try as much as possible to put them together in a well planned and organized way.
Nevertheless, you ought to strive to offer an organized and logical description if the reader is to come away from the essay with a convincing sense of what it is you described.
Showing against Telling
In addition, the description assists to set a mood by making use of more clear language to harmonize the sensory-based description. The author illustrates to us, instead of telling us, what the afternoon on a beach looks like.
Instead of saying, ‘I heard the waves as the tide came in,’ the author says, ‘As the waves slowly collided with the shore, I could hear the delicate lapping of the water as it met the sand.’
The extra detail actually assists us envisage the scene that the author is trying to picture.
They illustrate to us what it’s like to be out there on the beach when the tide comes in during the afternoon, instead of merelyt giving us a play-by-play.
The same clear language as well assists the author to produce a mood for this description.
We can start to experience the same calmness through the utilization of words like ‘leisurely’ and ‘delicate’.
Again, instead of merely telling us it was a really relaxing and peaceful day, they let the descriptive language illustrate that to us.
Another essential procedure for setting a mood with your descriptive writing is to make use of similes and metaphors.
A simile is a phrase that compares two unrelated things with the use of ‘like’ or ‘as’ to make a description clearer.
You’ve most likely heard the phrase, ‘running like the wind’ before. This is an instance of a simile. Instead of saying, ‘running really fast,’ you put back the speed with something that may stand for running quickly, like the wind.
A metaphor has the same function as a simile, but the relationship between objects is implicit.
This means that there is no ‘like’ or ‘as’ used to show the comparison. Below is an example of a metaphor from good old Shakespeare: ‘All the world’s a stage and the men and women merely players.’
Instead of saying life is just like a play, he compares the world to where a play is acted out.
You have seen how similes and metaphors are extra tool to assist your descriptions to be more colorful.
They paint a more detailed picture for your reader, making it simpler for them to comprehend what you’re saying, not to mention more interesting, due to the fact that you are showing them what you have in your mind’s eye, instead of telling them.
Model of Descriptive Essay
Pre-write your Essay, Write your essay, Finalize your essay
The key to writing a good descriptive essay is producing a clear image in your reader’s mind with the use of the five senses. Below is a model of descriptive essay writing.
Pre-write your Essay
Pick a topic
Descriptive essays usually focus on a person, a place, an event, or a thing. Writers pass across an idea about their topic by recounting the topic for the reader in a ‘show, instead of tell’ manner.
Showing and not telling means that you paint a picture for your reader. A more excellent way to understand it is to narrate yourself with a life incident like a time where you may have seen a tree next to a river.
After you take down notes on the sensory type feelings you had and make use of it in your final draft.
For instance, rather than saying, “There were trees near the lake” you could say, “The lake stared through the trees, a wide grey eye trapped in a perpetual state of weeping.”
2. Produce a thesis statement.
A thesis statement is the idea that governs the entire essay. It states the purpose of the essay and controls all of the information that is in the writing.
3. Descriptive-Essay-Guidelines
An example of a descriptive thesis statement is: My backyard is like a jungle. This thesis statement does not mean that your backyard is exactly a jungle, but that the diverse aspects of your backyard make it appear like a jungle.
4. Draw five columns on a piece of paper with each column labeled one of the five senses
These include taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell. This list will assist you keep your thoughts straight when describing your essay. Making use of your five senses, write down sensations and feelings you connect with your topic.
5. Examine your list and select the most prevailing details to write about
These details ought to be the items that best support your thesis and are the most motivating. These details will be made into your body paragraphs.
6. Produce an outline that lists what each paragraph of your essay is going to talk about
Characteristically, middle and high school students writing descriptive essays will be asked to write a 5 paragraph essay. College level students and above have more free-reign regarding how long to make their essays.
7. Plan your essay in a way that makes it sensible
If you are writing about an event, plan your paragraphs a sequential order. If you are writing about a place or thing, try arranging your paragraphs so that they go from general to specific.
For instance:
First paragraph:
The things you observe when you look at a house from the outside.Second paragraph:
Put down the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings etc. that you experience when you are inside the house.Third paragraph:
Describe your favorite section of the house
8. Write your introductory paragraph
The introductory paragraph ensures the major ideas of the essay and sets the tone. This paragraph ought to include an introduction to your topic followed by your thesis statement.
9. Produce a topic sentence at the start of each body paragraph
This sentence allows your reader know what the paragraph is going to be about. It ought to be clear and concise. Each topic sentence ought to relate back to the thesis statement.For instance:
Thesis statement: My backyard is like a jungle that I love to explore. Topic Sentence: When I climb a tree in my backyard, I feel like I am climbing a tall jungle tree.
10. Write your body paragraphs with the help of your topic sentences
Body paragraphs are where you prove that your description is true. Always bear in mind that everything you write in your body paragraph ought to be relevant to your topic sentence and your thesis.For instance:
The trees in my backyard are filled with the music of birds. Emeralds leaves sway in sun-filled breeze.
Thanks for reaching to this point marking the end of this lecture.
Your Lecture Master:
Mst. Ugonwanne Joshua
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