Writing A Descriptive Essay

By Jon Ginsburg

The assignment is handed out: write a descriptive essay on a topic likely not of your choosing. Whether you are in high school, college or grad school, you likely are already well familiar with the standard essay writing protocols – thesis statement to open, followed by supporting points in subsequent paragraphs, closing with a reiteration of the thesis statement in your conclusion. But within those parameters, much confusion can arise when you are assigned a specific style of essay.

The descriptive essay can be confusing to many students, as it is almost an amalgamation of two other types of essays – the narrative essay and the definition essay. While all three types allow the author to share a subjective viewpoint, there are distinctive stylistic differences.

While the definition essay uses anecdotes, examples, comparisons and contrasts to subjectively define a concept, idea or object, and the narrative essay uses a creative fiction approach with imagery and descriptive writing to share a personal experience in an engaging manner, the descriptive essay is a meld of these.

Much like a definition essay, the descriptive essay centers on a specific concept, item, idea or person, however there is more latitude in how the topic is approached. Similar to the narrative style, the descriptive essay uses more imagery, adjectives and adverbs in order to form a description that will engage and captivate the reader.

As with all essays, you need to open your descriptive essay with your topic or thesis statement, introducing your main idea. You can provide a more formal definition, as you would in a definition essay, but you are also able to use more creative language and imagery in order to evoke an emotional response from the reader. As the descriptive essay is less formal than the definition essay, but still more goal-oriented than the narrative, you will need to support your thesis through the body of your essay.

If you open with a simple definition and then progress with a more narrative style, creative tone as you describe the object, event or concept, closing with a summary statement, and you ensure that, while you write subjectively, you avoid fiction or embellishments, you will have written a successful descriptive essay.

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