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Descriptive Essay: How to Write an Effective Essay

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All about Writing a Good Descriptive Essay from Vedantu

Did you ever read a book review and felt like you were flown right across the pages of the particular book. It happens so often that we fail to realize the magnificence of the writing. That writing follows the nature of a descriptive essay. To learn how to write a good descriptive essay, follow this article.


What is a Descriptive Essay?

A descriptive essay is a genre of essay writing that deals with the description of a particular thing, like an abstract- object, person, experience, emotion, etc. This genre makes the student write a description of the given topic, whether it be emotion, thing, or place. It tests the creative knowledge of the student and makes them think outside the box.


A real descriptive essay makes us rethink and visualize the object in the focus. Our mind has the power to imagine things immediately and create imaginary scenes. A good descriptive essay makes use of that power purely. For example, if you are writing about a flower, try connecting it to the emotion to make it more appealing.

 

“the dewdrops bounced on the flowers lightly before collecting in the soaked mud” can be a line in your descriptive essay. It uses visual imagery and makes you feel good.


What is the Purpose behind Writing a Descriptive Essay?

Like any other type of essay, a descriptive essay also has a specific purpose. This is written for describing something that might be a place, an emotion, a person, a thing, an object, and we can count a number of topics for writing a descriptive essay. With the help of a descriptive essay or speech, the readers are able to get a clear picture of the subject. The selection of language by the writer must be really simple and vivid so that readers can comprehend it with ease. Vedantu has brought together all the ideas at place how to write a descriptive essay, let's check them in detail:


How to Write a Descriptive Essay

To write a descriptive essay, one should fully understand the topic given to him or her. Make use of all of your five senses to make the essay look more connected. You are not to limit yourself only to provide literal details but also the sensory details as they are very appealing in the essay and connect more with the readers. If you want to learn how to start a descriptive essay, go through the following rules.

  • Use Figurative Language 

Literal language does not make the essay perfect; it always has something missing. The descriptive essay needs to have symbolic and sensory details to them. While writing a descriptive essay, make use of metaphor and simile or other literary devices, and see your essay transforming beautifully.

  • Use Sensory Details 

Perhaps the most crucial point is to make your essay appear relaxed and appealing. Use your five senses (sight, smell, touch, noise, taste) to give that creative edge to your essay. “ the tinkling dewdrop fell on my cheek, leaving a cold feel behind.”

  • Use the Right Words

To make your essay more relatable, try using the right type of words. Always remember to use adjectives. Writing such essays can also help you expand your vocabulary.

  • Create an Outline 

It's essential to create an outline for your topic and stick to it. Creating an outline for your essay involves understanding the topic entirely and planning the few points to proceed with writing your essay. For this, you must have a clear understanding of the topic of your essay.


How to Write a Descriptive Essay Introduction

To begin the introduction of a descriptive essay, try understanding the topic clearly first. The introduction or precisely the first paragraph of the descriptive essay should be exceedingly catchy. If you remember any popular quote, try beginning the essay with that quote (only if it is related to the topic you are writing about). If you are writing about a story, begin with a glimpse of the climax so that it makes the reader more intrigued.


How to Conclude a Descriptive Essay

To write the conclusion of the descriptive essay, try to provide the general idea behind the title of the descriptive essay. The conclusion should always discuss the main points and the overall satisfactory picture of the whole essay. The title of the essay should justify the main idea and the conclusion should end with a sense of completion. This is how you should always conclude your descriptive essay.


Review Your Essay

After writing your descriptive essay, it's always necessary to review it. Reviewing involves reading the whole essay with a keen eye to look for mistakes. Do not skip this step. While reading, you may realize some of your mistakes and rectify them. There might also be an error in your delivery, or you might get a new idea and add it to your essay to make it look more creative.


Vedantu emphasis is always on revision as you can get some pointers while revising that you were not going to include or want to omit from your essay. With the help of a review, you can find the words that you can choose wrongly, there might be grammar errors that you committed, there might be a line that still needs to be completed or more. Therefore, giving it a review after writing is always a thoughtful idea.


Conclusion

This small article discussed every aspect of descriptive essay writing - introduction, body, and conclusion. This article briefs about what is descriptive writing and how to write a good descriptive essay using some simple yet useful tips as given above. Practice writing descriptive essays following the above rules in daily life to excel in it.


Thus, did you like the description by Vedantu for writing a descriptive essay? Well, if you still need to clear anything, you are free to go along with the support of the Vedantu team or join us with a few steps today!

FAQs on Descriptive Essay: How to Write an Effective Essay

1. How to best define a descriptive essay?

To define a descriptive essay in the best possible way is that you need to stick to its genre. You might be asked to describe something that may comprise place, object, person, situation, emotion, experience, etc. With this genre, a student is encouraged to exhibit his potential to create a written document covering all the aspects of this genre. Mind it, this will not be all about describing but it is more to do with how it is going to bind the readers with the magic of its words.

2. What are the main steps to be followed for writing a descriptive essay?

Writing an essay is not all about writing anything. You need to describe it in detail with a complete comprehension of the provided topic. It is essential to use your entire knowledge so that it appears to be appealing while reading. You do not need to confine yourself only to sharing facts but it will be great if you can fill it with real-life experiences and emotions. Other than the subject matter, you have to be really careful regarding the right language and selection of words. The essay should comprise the title, introduction, body, and conclusion.

3. Is it necessary to have a conclusion in a descriptive essay?

Yes, having a conclusion is essential to writing a descriptive essay. This is a gist of sharing the main motive of the title and it is all about prime pointers. Overall, a descriptive essay offers a satisfactory picture of the entire essay that you have written. Your conclusion must be plotted in a manner that reflects and justifies the idea of the essay and you are ending it with the best completion. Thus, this is crucial to conclude a descriptive essay.

4. Will there be a specific word count for writing a good descriptive essay?

There are two cases regarding the word count. Sometimes, it is there in your examination and you have a total word count within which you are supposed to deliver the message in the form of a good descriptive essay. And, there might be a second instance, where you are not having a word limit but yes you are assigned some specific sections to describe. In both cases, you must be so artful that you can describe the entire topic in the most satisfactory manner by conveying the best message within a given word count and time limit.