How to Write Excellent Descriptive Essays

Descriptive essays usually describe the personal experience of an individual about a person, a place or an object and strive to create a vivid and deeply involved experience for the reader. These essays are usually subjective and create appeal for the reader by using detailed descriptions and observation.

Just about anyone can write an excellent descriptive essay. Just take care of the points mentioned below:

• Choose an Experience

This is the most important part of the process. Identify what you are going to describe. Choose a topic, which you remember vividly and still bring out those emotions which you felt back then.

• Reason for Your Writing

Think about why you are writing this essay. What is main impression that you want to create in your essay. Once you have figured this out, it will be easy for you to model your paper for maximum effectiveness.

• Show, Don’t Tell!

One thing you should remember is that the purpose of descriptive essays is to tell the reader about your experience. So you need to focus your description on your five senses. Allow free play of emotions and feelings. Use adjectives and verbs creatively to convey your state of mind. Throw in some metaphors. This will make your essay exciting and hold the attention of the reader.

• Mix up Ideas

Use concrete ideas and mix them up with abstract ones. Be natural and refreshing and avoid clichés even if it means being economical.

• Draft it First

You wouldn’t be reading this if you were able to write your essays in one go. So, that means you need to draft your writing first. It’s a good idea, because it lets you jot down all the points which you want to include and modify or add to them later. Write an outline first. Then use this outline to fill as much pages as possible with your ideas and rewritings, as you can. Finalize the ideas and structure of sentences that you will use to describe them.

• Organize

Descriptive essays tend to follow the same general structure as other types of essays. It has an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Introduce the topic in first paragraph to the user and tell what will be the focus of your essay and what aspects you will be focusing on. Describe your experience in a capturing way in the body of the essay. You can go into as much detail as possible and use the words that appeal to the senses. Describe it as you have seen it. And in the conclusion, summarize your thoughts and restate the essence of your essay.

• Proof Read It

Once you have written the essay that you are happy with, proof read it. Either you can do it, or, get someone else to do it. Mark all the grammatical mistakes and rewrite it. If someone else is reading your essay, it is a good idea to get their views on your essay. This will give you an idea of how captivating it really is.


Remember that excellent descriptive essays are all about describing your experience firsthand and capturing the attention of the reader. The points that have been mentioned above will definitely help you a lot in writing one.