This document provides guidance on writing a descriptive essay. It defines description as vividly expressing what the five senses experience. A rich descriptive essay freezes a subject in time and evokes sights, sounds, smells, textures, and tastes to involve the reader. Descriptive essays can take an objective or subjective approach. Objective essays describe the subject factually while subjective essays convey a personal view to elicit emotion. The document also provides example topics, strategies for writing descriptively like using imagery, sensory language, and varied sentence structures, and assigns students to write a 3-5 page descriptive essay.

1. ENG 1060
English Composition (ADN)
Session Three
“The Descriptive Essay”
Longman P 126-133

2. What is Description?
• Description can be defined as the expression,
in vivid language, of what the five senses
experience.
• A rich descriptive essay:
– Freezes a subject in time
– Evokes sights, sounds, smells, textures and taste in
such a way that the reader is joined with the
author
Longman P 126

3. Objective or Subjective
• In the objective approach to descriptive writing
you describe the subject in a straight forward and
literal way
– A newspaper reporter might write in the objective
manner
• In the subjective approach to descriptive writing
you convey a highly personal view and seek to
elicit a strong emotional response from the
readers
– A “character piece” or “reflective essay” would be an
example of the subjective approach
Longman P 127-128

4. Descriptive Essay Topics
• Look at these possible
topics for descriptive
essays
– Which of these could be
best written from the
objective perspective?
– Which of these could be
best written from the
subjective perspective?
– Which could be written
from either perspective?
a) A trip to the zoo
b) The sounds of a baby’s cry
c) A walk through an open-
air market
d) How you envision your
dream house
e) The first snow of winter
f) The violence of war
g) The fear of flying

5. Strategies for Writing the Descriptive Essay
• Focus your essay around a dominate impression
• Include as many vivid details as possible
• Organize your essay in a logical sequence
• Chronological Approach – time sequence of events
• Spatial Approach – taking things how they appear in real
life (the big picture approach)
• Emphatic Approach – builds to a crescendo, saving the
most compelling for last
• Simple-to-Complex Approach – proceeds from step one to
step to and so on
Longman P 129 - 132

6. Strategies for Writing the Descriptive Essay
• Imagery is language that
appeals to the senses.
• Vivid imagery helps us see, smell,
and feel the scene. The
highlighted phrases help put you
right in the midst of the field.
“They were standing in a sunlit field,
and the air about them was moving
with the delicious fragrance that
comes only on the rarest of spring
days when the sun’s touch is gentle.”
—from A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
• Sensory language is the words
writers use to create images.
“. . . I worked in construction, mostly
hitting my fingers with a hammer and
making serious attempts at cutting
something off my body with power
saws while I tried to build houses. . . .”
—from My Life in Dog Years by Gary Paulsen
Longman P 129 - 132
Use vivid sensory language

7. Strategies for Writing the Descriptive Essay
Try incorporating these sentence styles :
• Simile – a comparison that although unrealistic draws attention
• I walked confidently like an unstoppable hero.
• The girl stepped as lightly as a panther stalking its pray.
• Time was as slow as a turtle migrating from the North to the South pole.
• Metaphor – providing an uncommon characteristic to make a point
• The incident left me boiling mad.
• As the plane took off I was frozen with fear
• Steer away from the controversy and you will have a successful career.
• Personification – giving a human characteristic to an inanimate object
• The trees whispered in the wind.
• The flowers danced in the grass.
• The sun kissed the ocean.
• The painting screamed "LOOK AT ME!!"
Longman P 129 - 132
Vary your sentence structure

8. Your Assignment
• Compose a 3-5 page descriptive essay on a topic of
your choice
– It is suggested (but not required) that your essay relates to
your program of study
• The essay should be double spaced in 12 pt. Arial or
Calibri font with standard margins
• There should be no “Title Page” for this assignment.
• If you use any outside sources of information, you must
document these sources using MLA style and provide a
list of sources at the end of the paper.