How to Write a Descriptive Essay?
February 11th, 2009Tips on How to write a descriptive essay
Students are taught to write essays right from when the attend school. But what exactly is an essay? An essay is a short piece of writing that is written from the author’s own point of view. A student can write an essay in any way he wants. There are essentially for types of essays. They are descriptive essay, narrative essay, persuasive essay and expository essay. The following is about the general essay format and how to write a descriptive essay. All the essays basically have three main parts. They are the following.
- Introduction
- The main body
- Conclusion
The introduction is the main part that introduces the topic to the readers. It briefs the readers on what the essay is about. There are many tips on how to write an essay introduction. The main body, as the name implies is the part that talks about the subject of the essay in detail. This body of the essay must contain at least three main points around which the entire essay revolves. The essay conclusion is the final part of the essay that has conclusive points that the writer wants to insist upon. This is the basic essay format for all essays.
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. If the dog looks brown and hairy to you, it will look brown and hairy to me and every Tom, Dick and Harry! The physical attributes of the dog cannot change according to the writers unless there’s some serious witchcraft or wizardry going on! 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.
A descriptive essay should give work to the readers’ senses. It means that the readers must be made to use all their five senses while reading your essay – sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. The writer must also remember the difference between “showing” and “telling” while writing the essay. It means that the writer should make sure that the readers can imagine using their senses, what is being written. This is “showing” the readers what you are writing.
Therefore these are some of the tips to be kept in mind if you want to know how to write a descriptive essay.
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