CHARACTERISTICS OF
DESCRIPTIVE ESSAYS
from Seeing the Pattern 146-150
Notes adapted from Seeing the Pattern
What is description?
• Appeals to one or more of the five senses (sensory
details)
• Tries to create a specific impression or feeling
• Works to help audience vividly experience what you are
writing about
Planning your essay
• Introduction
• Provide background on your subject
• Place us in the setting of your description
• Provide the dominant impression that you want to convey in your
essay (this is the thesis of the descriptive piece)
Dominant Impression
• Overall attitude, mood, or feeling about the subject
• Implied thesis of the descriptive essay
• This is your point—define it clearly (write what you know!)
Dominant Impression?
Dominant Impression?
Dominant Impression?
Planning your essay cont’d
• Body
• Describe your subject using sensory details and/or comparisons.
• Conclusion
• Revisit your dominant impression
• Logically wrap up the ideas in your essay – don’t leave loose ends.
**Have a clear vantage point**
Vantage Point
• Do you want a fixed or moving vantage point for
describing your object?
• Fixed: from one position
• Moving: various positions
• What vantage point(s) will give your reader the most
useful information?
• From which vantage point(s) can you provide the most
revealing or striking details?
• The vantage point is like your perspective in the piece.
Think of it as a camera for the reader.
Sensory Details
• Sight
• Sound
• Smell
• Taste
• Touch
Make a chart to track
your details.
Sentences Come Alive
Active Verbs
Use active verbs rather
than adverbs to create
“striking and lasting
impressions” (148).
What is the effect of the
revision on the reader’s
understanding of the
event?
Examples
The team captain proudly
accepted the award.
The team captain marched
to the podium, grasped the
trophy, and gestured
toward his teammates.
Connotative Language
• Words have subtle variations in meaning
Skinny
Svelte
Slim
Scrawny
• Select words that strengthen your dominant impression.
Cellar
Basement
Uses Comparison
Simile
Biting into a tabasco
pepper is like aiming a
flame-thrower at your
parted lips
Metaphor
Eating chili peppers is a
descent into a fiery hell.
Uses Comparison
Personification
The television screen
stared back at me.
Methods of Organization
Spatial
Chronological
Front
Back
Middle
Behind
Between
To the left
Next to
Above
Below
Near
Far away
North
South
East
West
Describe a subject from top to
bottom, inside to outside, near to far
away, from a central focal point
outward.
First
Next
Then
Before
After
Later
Methods of Organization
Least to Most
Most to Least
“Eating Chili Peppers” pp. 144-146
Read the sample carefully.
• What is the dominant impression?
• What is the vantage point?
• What method of organization does the author use?
• What language appears to be particularly effective?
Brainstorm
• Look at each of the prompts for your descriptive essay.
• For each prompt, brainstorm as many topics as you can
think of.
• You will use this list to help you come up with an idea for
your descriptive essay.
Your turn
• Take your list of topics and narrow down to one.
• What attitude, mood, or feeling do you want to create about your
subject?
• List sensory details that would help you to create this dominant
impression.
• Use the scaffold to help you outline your topic.
Next Class
• Complete the scaffold to help you outline the body of your
essay.
• Draft the introduction of your essay.