This document provides an overview of descriptive writing. It discusses five key elements of descriptive writing: sensory details, figurative language, dominant impression, precise language, and careful organization. Sensory details use vivid language to appeal to the reader's senses. Figurative language like similes and metaphors help paint a picture. The dominant impression gives the reader an overall sense of the subject. Precise language uses specific words. Careful organization structures the description chronologically, spatially, or by order of importance. Transition words can signal descriptions of place, time, or importance. The structure of a descriptive essay incorporates these elements.

1. Descriptive Writing

2. 1)What Is Descriptive Writing?
 Descriptive writing creates a picture of a
person, place, thing, or
event. Description tells what something looks,
sounds, smells, tastes, or feels like.

3. 2) Elements of Descriptive Writing
Good descriptive writing is comprised of five
elements;
1. Sensory Details
2. Figurative Language
3. Dominant impression
4. Precise language
5. Careful Organization.

4. 1) Sensory Details
 Good descriptive writing includes many
vivid sensory details that paint a picture
and appeals to all of the reader's senses
of sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste
when appropriate. Descriptive writing may
also paint a pictures of the feelings the
person, place or thing invokes the writer.

5.  Good descriptive writing often makes use of figurative language to
help paint the picture in the reader's mind. There are many ways to
figurative language, and it is a talent that should be practiced until
perfected.
 -A simile uses like or as to compare two unlike things.
Example: Her smile was like sunshine.
 -A metaphor compares two unlike things without using like or as:
Example: Her smile was a light that lit up the room.
 -Personification suggests comparison between a nonliving thing and
person by giving the nonliving thing human traits
2) Figurative Language

6.  When you plan a descriptive essay, your focus on selecting
details that help your readers see what you see, feel what you
feel, and experience what you experience.
 Your goal is to create a single dominant impression, a central
theme or idea to which all the details relate-for example, the
liveliness of a street scene or the quiet of a summer night.
 This dominant impression unifies the description and gives
readers an overall sense of what the person, place, object, or
scene looks like(and perhaps what it sounds, smells, tastes, or
feels like). Sometimes_but not always_your details will support a
thesis making a point about the subject you are describing.
3) Dominant Impression

7. Good descriptive writing uses precise language.
Using specific words and phrases will help the
reader “see” what you are describing. If a word or
phrase is specific, it is exact and precise. The
opposite of specific language is language that is
vague, general, or fuzzy.
4) Precise Language

8.  Good descriptive writing is organized. Some ways to organize descriptive
writing include: chronological (time), spatial (location), and order of
importance.
5) Careful Organization

9. 3)Transition Words and Phrases that
Signal Description.
.
Transitions used in descriptive writing vary
depending on whether you are describing a
person, a place, or a thing. Here are some
examples of transitions that might be used in
descriptive contexts:

10. To show spatial order or direction

11. To show order of importance

12. To show time order

13. 4)The Structure of a Descriptive
Essay

16. “Dark shapes glide through the night sky on silent
wings, their sinister shadows outlined against the
light of a full moon. Swooping down to the earth,
they hover near houses and deserted buildings,
breaking the peace of the night with their disturbing
presence. Carriers of disease, drinkers of blood,
companions of witches and demons, bats – the very
word brings a shiver of fear to most people.”
~ Sylvia A. Johnson, Bats

17. “Anybody could see how cold it got. The wind already had
glass edges to it, stiffening muscles and practically cutting
through the stitches of our clothes. When it blew, the chill
stabbed our teeth like icicles, and our voices jiggled every
time we talked.”
From Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida
by Victor Martinez

18. Things to Remember About Descriptive
Writing
• Be specific, not vague.
• Elaborate (add more details and expand
your ideas).
• Use vivid vocabulary (strong nouns, verbs,
and adjectives).
• Include details that relate to your five
senses.

19. LET’S TRY THIS