Descriptive Writing

Vivid Verbs and Sensuous Sentences

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Descriptive Essay

• A descriptive essay simply describes something or someone by

appealing to the reader’s senses
• Painting a picture with the words

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Structuring Descriptive Essay

• 1. Select a subject: Observation is the key to writing a good description.

For example, if you are writing about a place, go there and take notes on
the sights, sounds, and smells. A descriptive essay paints a picture for the
reader, using descriptive devices and the senses. Create a thesis statement
that informs the reader who or what you are describing. Examples: “The
wooden roller coaster in Coney Island is a work of art.” “My bedroom is an
ocean sanctuary.”
2. Select dominant details Select only the details that support the
dominant impression. (Use your thesis statement)
3. Organize details The paragraphs in a descriptive essay can be structured
spatially (from top to bottom or from near to far) or chronologically (time
order) or from general to specific. Descriptive essays can also use other
patterns of organization such as narrative or exemplification.
4. Use descriptive words Do not use vague words or generalities

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Ineffective Description Effective Descriptions

• Uses dull, ordinary vocabulary • Have accurate nouns, verbs,

and modifiers
• Lacks sensory information

• Fails to follow a logical

sequence

• Provides unfocused, excessive

detail

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Dull Verbs and Modifiers

I went up the beach, past colorful rocks, and then I could see him
looking into an old log.

Who looked?
What kinds of colors?
How was the action done?

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Some Vivid Verbs & Modifiers

“I stumbled a little woozily up the beach,

clambering over the boulders of quiet
hallucinatory colours, and then from my new
vantage point saw Mark away in the distance on
his knees and peering into an old log” (Adams
121).

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Ineffective Vocabulary

• Inaccurate, vague nouns

thing, way, stuff, type, method, factor…
• Dull verbs
be, do, get, go, have, make…
• Clumsy modifiers
misused or misplaced adjectives, adverbs, etc.

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Accurate Nouns

• spiky purple flowers

• water lilies

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Dull Verbs

Dull verbs only tell us the basic facts, lacking descriptive

dimension:

I walked to the store.

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Revising Verbs I

Changing the verb can add meaningful information in

just one word:

- I slogged to the store.

Now we know it took great effort to do the action, and

we may feel what the author felt.

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 Revising Verbs II

To enliven your verbs, circle the repeated boring ones, and replace them
with more meaningful verbs:

She ran to answer the phone.

She sprinted to answer the phone.

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Clumsy Modifiers

• Dull Adjectives:
good, bad, nice, great, different, happy

It was a good day.

The cool breeze welcomed me in the morning, the sun

and the clouds in a naughty mood were playing hide and
seek and the lush green trees were smiling generously at
me.

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 Adjectives

Adjectives (and adverbs) prevent an action or a

thing being any other way:
He spoke softly.
He didn’t speak loudly or hysterically.

My generous neighbor.
Our attention is drawn to the neighbor’s generosity, not
sense of humor or annoying habits.

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Sensory Information

Sensory input: words that have to do with

sight
feeling (texture and emotions)
taste
smell
sound
Before writing, visualize the scene, situation, person, or process.

Note the colors, arrangements or sequences, sounds, smells,

thoughts or feelings involved.

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Sensory Detail

“The smell of the bush, the smell of the dust and

grass, caught heart as it always did; and now there
was added a whiff of wood smoke, that marvellous,
acrid smell that insinuates itself through the still air
of morning as people make their breakfast and
warm their hands by the flames” (Smith 196).

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Not every sense needs
mentioning…
I tentatively approached the door. It had a smooth, egg-
shaped, brass doorknob, and turned without resistance. I pushed
open the door and looked around the room that smelled of rose
water. I turned and walked with creaking footsteps across the
hallway to the next door down on my right at the two o’clock
position.

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Figurative Language

• Simile: Using the words such as “like” or “as” when comparing.

Example: A ride to North Hutchinson Island is like a flight to a Caribbean
getaway.
• Metaphor Implying a comparison between two things that are essentially
different. Example: Stalking their prey, the deputies remained hidden in
the bushes and ready to spring on speeding motorists.
• Personification Giving human characteristics to inanimate objects.
Example: The truck, covered with mud and love bugs, cried out for a
wash.
Exaggeration/Hyperbole Using a figure of speech in which exaggeration is
used for emphasis or effect.
Example: I’ll die if I don’t pass this exam

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• Understatement: Writing something opposite to what is expected or
says something less than expected.
Example: Yesterday was a little cool. The high temperature was zero
degrees.

• Onomatopoeia
• Using words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or
actions to which they refer.
Example: “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is.”

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• SAMPLE

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