The descriptive essay is a type of essay that is written by almost all students. The basic difference between a description and narration is that while description deals with the details of physical attributes of things, while narration deals with the sequence of events that happened from the writer’s own point of view. It can also include the writer’s own opinions and experiences. For example, an essay on “My Pet Dog” could be both descriptive and narrative. When the essay deals with the appearance, smell, touch (and so on) of the dog, it is a descriptive essay. But when the essay is about your experiences with your pet dog, the way it plays with you and the like, it becomes a narrative essay. Your experiences with the dog will not be the same as mine. So any sequence of events or personal experience becomes a narrative essay and the physical attributes of things that can be felt by all, becomes a descriptive essay.
Writing a descriptive essay can be a complicated task. It is easy to be superficial in your description. The problem with not being detailed enough is that your reader can't connect with the people, places and settings you are trying to describe. By using your five senses, you can create a vivid and compelling descriptive essay that will connect the reader to your vision and story.
If you are assigned to write a descriptive essay and do not know how to write it, do not get lost under any circumstances. The key to writing the perfect descriptive essay is to provide enough vivid detail to help the reader create a mental picture of what is being written about:
• Consider what other things were happening around you.
• Think about objects located in relation to where you were.
• Recall the sights, smells and tastes of an event or memory.
• Write down what you were feeling at the time.
• Determine what you want the reader to feel about what you are writing.
• Make sure there is enough detail in your essay to create a mental image for the reader.
• Take a break from it.
As you get started on your descriptive essay, it's important for you to identify exactly what you want to describe. Often, a descriptive essay will focus on portraying one of the following: a person, a place, a memory, an experience, an object. It's a great creative exercise to sit down and simply describe what you observe. However, when writing a descriptive essay, you often have a particular reason for writing your description. Getting in touch with this reason can help you focus your description and imbue your language with a particular perspective or emotion.