The description essay mustn’t be neglected…

The description essay may often be neglected by both teachers and students as it tends to be considered an easy essay to write.

The fact is, a good descriptive essay shouldn’t be difficult at all once you’ve learned a couple of essay writing basics.

In your essay, the following order should be applied.

Let’s say we are asked to describe a location, our bedroom, for instance.

First, we would start with the location.

But before we describe where the bedroom is located, we need to describe where the house is located. It’s best in a description essay to start wide and then tighten the focus of the description as we progress.

In other words, our descriptions need to go from ‘a general’ to ‘a specific.’

The following example illustrates this concept.

EXAMPLE:
Our house was located on the north side of a small industrial town. We called it the suburbs but it was really just the city extended out a ways. If you turned right at the second stop light past the railroad tracks, our house was the second on the left. It had a small tidy yard as my father was keen on keeping it that way, and a large garage filled with everything a family of five wasn’t using at the time. From the garage you could enter the back door into the kitchen.

My bedroom was located down the hall and it was the third door on the left. When you entered you couldn’t help noticing …

See how the description and location of the house in general comes first? Then we have the beginnings of a description of my room in particular in the next paragraph. This general to specific pattern should be applied to all description essay writing.

The next paragraph would include describing the actual physical set up of my room (i.e., the location of things) followed by a paragraph including reasons why my room is special and how I felt when I was there.

The conclusion would reiterate those feelings and sum up the description. Of course, using the appropriate language and getting the description to paint a picture for the reader is the tricky part of a description essay.

Click on the preceding link to learn about a description of a process. Enjoy the sample essay as I wrote it this summer while preparing one of my all time favorite meals! You’ll be taken to a page with a descriptive essay outline plus more tips about writing effectively essays.