Descriptive writing uses sensory details to describe a person, place, thing or event. Sensory details include details that appeal to the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Choosing an interesting topic and arranging descriptive details are important for an effective descriptive paragraph. The document provides guidance on how to write descriptive paragraphs, including focusing on significant details about a person or place and presenting ideas in a clear order.

1. Descriptive Writing

2. What is descriptive writing?
Descriptive writing uses
sensory details to paint a
mental picture of a person,
place, thing, or event.

3. What are sensory details?
• They are details that appeal to the five senses: seeing, hearing,
smelling, tasting, and feeling.
• They help descriptions come alive in the reader’s mind.

4. How do I choose a topic for a descriptive
paragraph?
• Think about interesting people you know.
• Think about favorite places you’ve been.
• Think about an object you know a lot about.

5. Invitation to Read
• Read the following descriptive paragraph.
• See if you can find all the sensory details.
• Can you find the topic, body, and closing sentences?

6. My Grandmother
My grandma’s name is Suriya, but I call her “Nano.” She
has long, white hair. Her hair was brown when she was
younger. She likes to wear green and off white dresses. She
has a fun, loud laugh. She makes Thanksgiving dinner for us
every year. She has strong arms and likes to give big hugs.
Nana is the greatest.

7. Invitation to Write
• List three people you know well.
• Choose one to write about.
• List details of what he or she looks like, sounds like, and likes
to do.
• Use these details to write a descriptive paragraph about your
person.

8. In descriptive writing you usually know about
your theme. Even you have the place person
or thing in your mind which you are going
to describe.

9. There are two main problems
• How the description can be made
interesting
• How points can be arranged in order

10. Describing a person
• General impression of the person e.g
• my best friend is a girl with blond hair and blue
eyes
• Describe the physical feature or outlook like the
way he walks, clothing or manners.
• Characters or qualities
• Why you like or dislike the person or to quote
his/her doings.

11. Look for significant details
• There is something about person which
gives us a hint to his character. There night
be something in his cloth, the different way
he speaks, his untidiness, or his wrinkled
face, a look in his eyes, yellow teeth or
pale face. Try to find and describe minute
details in his personality which help the
reader to imagine the person you are
describing.

12. Exercise 1
• Describe somebody’s look
• Describe somebody’s hair
• Describe somebody’s typical voice
• Describe somebody’s untidy dressing
• Describe somebody’s way he walks.

13. Describing a place
• A place can be describe from the center of
the place and work outward or start from
the perimeter and work towards the center.
One method is following:
• Give a short description af the place e.g.
Aisha lives in a village between hill and
river.
• Then describe the place working towards
from most important point.

14. Writing a
DescriptiveDescriptive
Essay

15. Purpose:
• To inform a reader about
something (place, event, object,
subject…)
• ToTo shareshare an experience.an experience.
• To give a report.
• To entertain a reader.

16. Requirements:Requirements:
What should it look like?
• Strong sensory details (sight, touch, taste,
hearing, feelings, thoughts…)
• Main idea/topic followed by supporting
details and descriptions.
• Clear organization.
• Effective transitions.

17. The great thing about
Descriptive writing is that you
get to choose what the topic is
going to be and what details you
want to include!

18. You can…
• Describe an event that happened to you.
• Take the reader to a place.
• Teach the reader about something you
know.
• Report on a subject/object of your choice
(monkeys, planes, weather, volcanoes,
historical events…)

19. Take the reader to a place with
your words!
• Present your ideas in order as they
happened or in a pattern that makes sense to
the reader.
• Set a mood (suspense, calm, exciting…)
• Make the reader get a mental picture of
what you are talking about.
Major Hints!

20. What Next?
• 1) Find a topic that you want.
• 2) Read about it so that you are an expertexpert in
the area.
• 3) Take notes so that your details are freshfresh
and accurate.
• 4) Think of ways to write that will keep
your audiences attention (cool facts, humor,
astonishing details…)

21. What Next?
• 5) Write your drafts in order and keep on
the topic.
• 6) Get ready to share your essay with your
classmates by rehearsing what you’ve
written.

22. What is a topic sentence?
• The topic sentence names your topic.
• It is the first sentence in the paragraph.

23. What are the body sentences?
• Body sentences include the details of the topic.
• They use sensory details to describe the person, place,
thing, or event.

24. What is the closing sentence?
• The closing sentence ends the description.
• It is the last sentence in the paragraph.

25. ?