This document provides guidance on descriptive writing, focusing on the effective use of parts of speech, figurative language, and sensory details. It discusses how adjectives and adverbs can be used to describe nouns and verbs. Figurative language like metaphor, simile, and personification are also important for description. The document then outlines five things to avoid in descriptive writing: purple prose, overreliance on adverbs, cliches, formal language, and "easy outs". It emphasizes using specific, concrete details over vague language.

1. Descriptive Writing

2. Adjectives and Adverbs
• There are two parts of speech that
are particularly important when you
are writing description.
• Adjectives are words that describe
or modify a noun.
• Adverbs are words that describe an
action (or a verb).

3. Examples?
• Adjectives: Blue, beautiful, horrific,
understated, serendipitous, esoteric,
extraterrestrial
• Adverbs: Unusually, surprisingly,
wonderfully, expectedly, impatiently
• You can often identify an adverb by its ly
ending

4. Figurative Language
• Description also often uses figurative language
like simile, metaphor and personification.
• Metaphor is a comparison of two things: “My
love is a rose.”
• Simile is a type of metaphor using like or as:
“The line of traffic was like a snake, slithering
towards the exit.”
• Personification is describing something non-
human, using human characteristics: “The
clock’s smiling face.”

5. 5 Things to Watch Out For in
Descriptive Writing
(Adapted from a worksheet created by Miriam Gershow )
• Remember, when you write description, you are
trying to bring an object or scene to life for
your reader. You want to make your
description unique, not tired. For instance, if
you describe a tree as leafy and green, you
aren’t exactly breaking new ground. Here are
some ways to avoid boring, uninventive
description.

6. #1: Purple Prose
• “Have you ever been given a Hallmark
card that was so mushy and sentimental,
it was embarrassing to read? That was
probably a result of purple prose.When
language is melodramatic, overwrought,
or gushy, that is called purple and it
should be toned down” (Gershow)

7. For Example:
Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless
night. Very dark, but there were stars—
points of light and reason… And then you
shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly
everything was on fire; there was brilliancy,
there was beauty. When you were gone,
when the meteor had fallen over the
horizon, everything went black. Nothing had
changed, but my eyes were blinded by the
light. I couldn’t see the stars anymore. And
there was no more reason for anything.
• -Stephanie Meyer, New Moon

8. • “Purple is a problem because it’s
not taken seriously. It’s not
realistic: people don’t normally talk
this way. When writing is purple,
you can usually find simpler or
more specific language to describe
the same thing more realistically.”
(Gershow).

9. #2: Adverbs
• “Adverbs are concepts. As we
learned in elementary school, they
dress up verbs. But they aren’t
specific. They don’t lend detail.
Every adverb is an opportunity for
specific detail. And specific detail
is what makes your writing unique
and memorable” (Gershow).

10. Try It!
• Picture a person doing each of these
actions. Instead of using a phrase
containing an adverb to describe them,
use specific details to describe that
imaginary person who is…
• Waiting impatiently…
• Watching anxiously…
• Speaking confidently…

11. #3: Clichés
• “There’s nothing wrong with the words
themselves […] But they’re very familiar.
They’ve been used so many times before they
no longer have any power […]For example: “The
sound was as clear as a bell” (Gershow). These
once powerful comparisons have become tired
expressions.
• Many of these expressions are metaphors, using
like or as to compare two things. For example,
strong as an ox, sly as a fox, or dumb as a
doornail.

12. #4: Formal Language
• “Often, when you’re writing for a class assignment, you might have the
idea that the more sophisticated your language sounds, the better. Big
words will impress your teacher and show how smart you are. Maybe
you sit with a thesaurus next to you; maybe you think if a two syllable
word is good, a five syllable one is even better. You might write “we
ascertained” instead of “we figured out,” or “our prodigious clan”
instead of “our big family.”
• “However, formal language can often be a distraction. If focuses
readers on the words, themselves, rather than the meaning you are
trying to convey. When you use simple, straightforward language, (“I
stopped to smell the flowers” versus “I ceased motion in order to
perceive through olfactory means the seed-bearing plants”) readers do
not have to work as hard to understand your meaning. A reader
shouldn’t have to wade through the language to get to the meat of your
description” (Gershow).

13. Thesaurus Tip
• Don’t use the thesaurus for every word in
your essay. If you find yourself using the
same word over and over again, make
you sure to choose a word from the list
that you know. Be sure you are
confident that you can give a definition
of the word yourself.

14. #5: Easy Outs
• Easy outs are generalizations. Many
familiar adjectives are easy outs. You
might say, “The tree was beautiful”, or
“the river looked dangerous.” The
problem with easy outs is they are
subjective. What is beautiful to me, may
not be beautiful to you. What is
dangerous to a preschooler, probably
does not look so dangerous to a white
water rafter (Gershow).

15. Interesting
Interesting is the worst of all easy
outs in my estimation. It is
important to practice avoiding it.
Practice: Instead of saying, “The
book I read was interesting,” write
a few sentences that “show, don’t
tell” why that is the case.

16. Let’s Practice

17. Finally, the five senses
• Smell
• Taste
• Touch
• Hearing
• Seeing

18. Sight
• Describe the color red
• without saying “red”
Sight is the most commonly evoked
sense in descriptive writing.

19. Smell
• Most people have a “personal scent.”
Think of someone you know whose home
has a distinct scent. Try to describe it.
• Smell evokes powerful emotions and is
often linked to memory. Use it in your
description to make your reader feel
nostalgia.

20. Touch
• Try to describe the way that each
of these things feels to the touch:
• Sandpaper
• Fish scales
• Velvet
• Jello

21. Hearing
• What is your favorite sound? Try to
describe it without naming it.

22. Taste
• Take a moment to visualize yourself
at the beach. Try to describe it
using taste as your primary sense.
• Taste is also very powerful. Most
people can relate immediately to
writing about food.