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Free The White House Essay Sample

The White house is a magnificent building with early architectural designs. Event surrounding its constructions are significant. The following paper will look into the design and forms of the building and this means that the Whitehouse communicates in relation to its environs.

Today, the house where the president resides, the White House, is a symbol of influence and power to the United States and across the world. According to George Washington, the building should be a palace that reflects a nation with a federal government that is strong. Achievement of this vision is not through decorative elements and ornamentation, but only through future events that would shape the country and future leaders who would reside in the palace.

The site is on the Potomac River for its geographic location is central though, at that time the surroundings were mainly forests and farms. This land where the white house stands reflects the new republic’s ideas. James Hoban is the designer of the white house. He inculcates the European architectural style, Palladian architecture. The Palladianism the white house depicts are appealing in that it its form is almost that of early neoclassicism.

The south façade resembles Castle Coole design of James Wyatt of 1790; the façade to the north lacks a floor when we compare it with Leinster House, whereas the façade to the south has one more floor with reference to Castle Coole. It has a staircase that is external, this in the Palladian design. The south front has a bow front; interior details in the Blue Room include former niches. Decorations of garland are above the entrance to the north, and beneath window hood pediments are patterns of fish scale.

During the war in 1814, British soldiers set the white house on fire. A thunderstorm of the summer is responsible for putting out the fire. After the burning, of the palace, the rebuilding process starts, and the application of white paint to mask the effects of the fire is the reason many believe is behind the White House name. The white house consists of 132 rooms, two basements, six floors, floors belonging to the public are two and those belonging to the first family, two.

For the preservation of the architectural designs of the white house, no changes are possible without consulting the preservation committee. The west wing which accommodates the president’s oval office, this portion is the setting for the popular screen show: west wing. The wing to the east which we formally call the first lady’s office, its utilization during the second war to conceal the underground bunker construction for emergencies makes it of extraordinary significance.

The grounds surrounding the White House are over eighteen acres, The North loan blooms with large trees that obscure the house from the avenue of Pennsylvania. The White House is indeed a symbol of integrity and power, with its magnificent internal and external designs it stands out as a historical structure that calls for preservation. The events surrounding its construction and its relation to its environment are meaningful to all Americans.

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The White House Building Essay (Critical Writing)

Line, form, color, and texture.

The White House is the formal home and workplace of the President of U.S. The building rests on the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington, D.C. (Hess, 2004). Every presidential family has implemented some transformations to the White House, since Kennedy’s renovation.

The North front, which is the main facade of the White House, has eleven bays and three floors (Hess, 2004). The facade seems to have two floors because ground floor can not be seen. The roofline of the building can, as well, not be seen because of a blocking wall. The Southern facade of the building has three floors that can be seen. The facade has a bow with three projecting bays, at the center. The bow gets bordered by 5 bays. The most recent third floor gets concealed, by a barrier wall and has no function in the structure of the facade.

The design of the building is superbly symmetric on the wings. The well ventilated windows in every wing make the building appear lighter than when there were no windows. Devoid of these elements, the house would appear top heavy.

The building has a floor space of 5,100 M² (Yanuck, 2006). Besides, the East Wing contains extra office space. The Central air conditioning and two other subbasements became added, in order to offer space for storage, bomb shelter and workrooms. The recently renovated interior has an enormous deal of natural light ensuing from the unblocking of both ground floor and first floor windows.

The house uses repetition in several ways. Each Wing of the building has several windows, which get repeated. Bays and pediments, also, get repeated. Windows are in sets of three on the Southern Wing.

Because of rainy summers and cold, windy, winters, the house suitably has tiny, covered, porches and the doors sway inward to let quick entry on a snowy, cold or rainy day. Besides, the building has large blowers close to the ceiling, for heating and vast ceiling fans, which can be reversed in hot summers. Indicate how the Building either assists, or inhibits a Smooth Traffic Flow through its Space, or Spaces.

The building divides into several crosswise pathways, as well as, lengthwise pathways for passage by foot. Besides, the interior has a grand staircase that connects to the Entrance Hall. The adjacent passageways allow traffic ease around the peripheral of the building. The building has a main entrance, at the centre of the portico, which makes it easy to enter directly to the house. Besides, the house has 412 doors for easier accessibility of facilities in the building (Yanuck, 2006). Point Out, how the Building Stimulates the Senses.

The location of the house is pleasant because it is away from the central streets. The house rests on the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington, D.C. (Hess, 2004). The outside is visually friendly as it looks rather like a house of worship (due to its white painting, which symbolizes purity). Thus, the building is pleasant to view. Also, the neoclassical style of the building catches the eye to view the beautiful pediments and wings. The stone feel comfortable under the feet and are easy to walk on, since they do not get slippery even in the rain. Since the White House is away from the traffic and different artists sing and play in the passageways, the sounds are extremely pleasant. Lastly, one breathes fresh air as he walks inside the building since it has central air conditioning.

The structure has several powerful lines. Some vertical lines of the building pounce directly into the sky even as, its horizontal lines that exist between doorways and windows are all stark although significant, generating a solid feel to the whole area. The vertical lines from the ground floor to the pediment make the building distinguishable from other intriguing structures, in the region. These vertical lines and the pediment dominate the appearance of the building.

Form follows function with principal workplace and official residence of the U.S president. The house gets firmly designed and remains true to its novel requirements as a president’s house. This house remains purposeful and yet appealing to the eyes and striking to the numerous visitors of the White House.

Natural colors are an element of the White House surroundings with shades of green, blue, brown, yellow and white. The white color in the building offers it a true, regional appearance. The yellow, red and green painted rooms match well with the surrounding of the building because they conjure up the colors of the region. Hence, these colors help to build the feeling of geographic position for this house and, also, add to the Holy feel of the building.

White House rests at Washington’s 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the texture of geography is that of smooth and well-shaped trees and flowers. Similarly, the building has a smooth geographic texture.

The white-painted, Aquia, sandstone furnishes the house. Hence, the physical texture of the building appears does not appear rough, even from a distance. While bricks are rough to touch, their physical texture fails to give the house much of a rough look. Nevertheless, bricks can lead to magnificent shadowing, and these bricks are no exception. The building has just enough texture, but from a distance, the house does not appear flat.

Hess, D. (2004). The White House . New York: Benchmark Books.

Yanuck, D. (2006). The White House . Mankato: Capstone Press.

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White House

By: History.com Editors

Updated: June 27, 2023 | Original: March 11, 2015

The official home for the U.S. president was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the 1790s. Rebuilt after a British attack in 1814, the “President’s House” evolved with the personal touches of its residents, and accommodated such technological changes as the installation of electricity. The building underwent major structural changes in the early 1900s under Teddy Roosevelt, who also officially established the “White House” moniker, and again under Harry Truman after WWII. Counting the Oval Office and the Rose Garden among its famous features, it remains the only private residence of a head of state open free of charge to the public.

When Was the White House Built?

Not long after the inauguration of President George Washington in 1789, plans to build an official President’s House in a federal district along the Potomac River took shape. A contest to find a builder produced a winning design from Irish-born architect James Hoban, who modeled his building after an Anglo-Irish villa in Dublin called the Leinster House.

The cornerstone was laid on October 13, 1792, and over the next eight years a construction team comprised of both enslaved and freed African Americans and European immigrants built the Aquia Creek sandstone structure. It was coated with lime-based whitewash in 1798, producing a color that gave rise to its famous nickname. Built at a cost of $232,372, the two-story house was not quite completed when John Adams and Abigail Adams became the first residents on November 1, 1800.

White House Renovations and Improvements 

Thomas Jefferson added his own personal touches upon moving in a few months later, installing two water closets and working with architect Benjamin Latrobe to add bookending terrace-pavilions. Having transformed the building into a more suitable representation of a leader’s home, Jefferson held the first inaugural open house in 1805, and also opened its doors for public tours and receptions on New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July.

Burned to the ground by the British in August 1814, the President’s House was nearly left in its smoldering remains as lawmakers contemplated moving the capital to another city. Instead, Hoban was brought back to rebuild it nearly from scratch, in some areas incorporating the original, charred walls. Upon reassuming residency in 1817, James Madison and his wife Dolley gave the home a more regal touch by decorating with extravagant French furniture.

The building’s South and North Porticoes were added in 1824 and 1829, respectively, while John Quincy Adams established the residence’s first flower garden. Subsequent administrations continued to overhaul and bolster the interior through Congressional appropriations; the Fillmores added a library in the second-floor oval room, while the Arthurs hired famed decorator Louis Tiffany to redecorate the east, blue, red and state dining rooms.

William Taft hired architect Nathan Wyeth to expand the executive wing in 1909, resulting in the formation of the Oval Office as the president’s work space. In 1913, the White House added another enduring feature with Ellen Wilson’s Rose Garden. A fire during the Hoover administration in 1929 destroyed the executive wing and led to more renovations, which continued after Franklin Roosevelt entered office.

Architect Eric Gugler more than doubled the space of what was becoming known as the “West Wing,” added a swimming pool in the west terrace for the polio-stricken president, and moved the Oval Office to the southeast corner. A new east wing was constructed in 1942, its cloakroom transformed into a movie theater.

A final major overhaul took place after Harry Truman entered office in 1945. With structural problems mounting from the 1902 installation of floor-bearing steel beams, most of the building’s interior was stripped bare as a new concrete foundation went in place. The Trumans helped redesign most of the state rooms and decorate the second and third floors, and the president proudly displayed the results during a televised tour of the completed house in 1952.

Over the course of 1969-70, a porte-cochere and circular drive were added to the exterior of the West Wing, with a new press briefing room installed inside. Following a 1978 study to assess the exterior paint, up to 40 layers were removed in some areas, allowing for repairs of deteriorated stone. Meanwhile, the Carter administration set about adjusting to a new information age by installing the White House’s first computer and laser printer. The internet made its debut in the mansion under the watch of George H.W. Bush in 1992.

The White House Today

The White House today holds 132 rooms on six floors , the floor space totaling approximately 55,000 square feet. It has hosted longstanding traditions such as the annual Easter Egg Roll , as well as historic events like the 1987 nuclear arms treaty with Russia. The only private residence of a head of state open free of charge to the public, the White House reflects a nation’s history through the accumulated collections of its residing presidents, and serves as a worldwide symbol of the American republic.

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4.14: Descriptive Essays

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• Lumen Learning

Learning Objectives

• Describe techniques for writing effective descriptive essays or effective passages with description

Description

Description is a rhetorical mode you’ll want in your toolbox because it places your reader in the scene you’re describing. You’ll likely relate this tool to fiction, because the best novels use description to capture our imagination. But description can be important in a personal narrative, a compare and contrast essay, and even a research paper.

Take a look at the detailed imagery in this example from Between the World and Me , by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

It was always right in front of me. The fear was there in the extravagant boys of my neighborhood, in their large rings and medallions, their big puffy coats and full-length fur-collared leathers, which was their armor against their world. . . . I think back on those boys now and all I see is fear, and all I see is them girding themselves against the ghosts of the bad old days when the Mississippi mob gathered ’round their grandfathers so that the branches of the black body might be torched, then cut away. (14)

Coates does so much work in this description of the young men in his neighborhood. Their coats and rings are not literally armor, but the descriptive language allows us to see these things as their armor against a fear driven by a history of lynching. In just a few carefully chosen descriptive words and images, Coates makes an emotional appeal for a different way of seeing these “extravagant boys.” He takes us both to the streets of Baltimore where these boys walk and to the “bad old days” of Mississippi where African-Americans could be lynched with impunity. Clearly, Coates’s use of language transports his reader with compelling, sensory language.

The following passage, for example, could be used in a petition to give the Jemaa el-Fnaa, a marketplace in Marrakesh, protected UNESCO status:

Vivid description can help your audience make an emotional connection to your subject, which is where the true power of the written word lies.

Like many rhetorical strategies for writing essays, description rarely stands alone. So you will be called upon to use your descriptive writing skills in many different kinds of essays.

You can’t compare two items unless you describe them. You can’t illustrate abstract concepts or make them vivid and detailed without concrete description.

We have five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. So, what does it look like, feel like, smell like, or taste like to be hot?

• “The sweat mixed with its salt stung my eyes, and it dripped from my forehead and slid down my brow.”

In concrete “show, not tell” description, leaves are not “soft” but “velvet”; sirens are not “loud” as much as they “start my Labrador to howling and vibrate the glass panes in my front door.”

Show, Don’t Tell

Russian short story author and physician Anton Chekhov succinctly demonstrates how to show rather than tell in the following quote:

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on the broken glass.

The following illustrates a progressive improvement in description:

• My friend is big.
• My friend Jamie weighs 320 pounds and is 5’10”.
• Since he would never let me risk danger on my own, Jamie scrunched his 5’10’’ frame and all 320 pounds through the narrow cave entrance and into the black tunnel behind me.

Descriptions when using abstract words or concepts are even more important when using concrete objects. For example, your instructor crooks her arm and cups her right hand, stating, “Pretend I am holding a grapefruit. Describe it.” You and your classmates shout out words: “yellow,” “juicy,” “softball-sized,” “pink and pulpy,” and so on. She then cups the left hand and says, “Pretend I am holding love. Describe it.” What would you say? And how do you qualify love and make it distinct? Yes, love is “patient” and “kind,” “sexy” and “luscious,” but these are still abstract words that can have differing meanings to different people. Does love “warm me like a cup of hot chocolate by a fire”? Does it “get up first on a cold morning to make coffee”?

Description is about creating pictures; words are your paint.

Sample Descriptive Essay

Here you’ll see a traditional or typical sample descriptive essay from a beginning writing class. In this assignment, the student was asked to write an essay describing an important day, such as a first date, and to follow MLA guidelines in the essay.

Contributors and Attributions

• Modification, adaptation, and original content. Authored by : Audrey Fisch for Lumen Learning. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Description Essay. Provided by : Boundless. Located at : courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-writing/chapter/types-of-rhetorical-modes/. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Descriptive Essay. Provided by : Excelsior College Online Writing Lab. Located at : https://owl.excelsior.edu/rhetorical-styles/descriptive-essay/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• The Chronicles of Narnia book series. Authored by : MorningbirdPhoto. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : pixabay.com/photos/books-reading-series-narnia-1141911/. License : Other . License Terms : pixabay.com/service/terms/#license

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What is a Descriptive Essay? How to Write It (with Examples)

A descriptive essay is a type of creative writing that uses specific language to depict a person, object, experience, or event. The idea is to use illustrative language to show readers what the writer wants to convey – it could be as simple as a peaceful view from the top of a hill or as horrific as living in a war zone. By using descriptive language, authors can evoke a mental image in the readers’ minds, engaging readers and leaving a lasting impression, instead of just providing a play-by-play narrative.

Note that a description and descriptive essay are not the same thing. A descriptive essay typically consists of five or more well-written paragraphs with vivid imagery that can help readers visualize the content, as opposed to a description, which is typically one or more plain paragraphs with no particular structure or appeal. If you are still unsure about how to write a compelling descriptive essay, continue reading!

Table of Contents

What is a descriptive essay, types of descriptive essay topics.

• Characteristics of descriptive essays

How to write a descriptive essay using a structured outline

Frequently asked questions.

A simple descriptive essay definition is that it is a piece of writing that gives a thorough and vivid description of an object, person, experience, or situation. It is sometimes focused more on the emotional aspect of the topic rather than the specifics. The author’s intention when writing a descriptive essay is to help readers visualize the subject at hand. Generally, students are asked to write a descriptive essay to test their ability to recreate a rich experience with artistic flair. Here are a few key points to consider when you begin writing these.

• Look for a fascinating subject

You might be assigned a topic for your descriptive essay, but if not, you must think of a subject that interests you and about which you know enough facts. It might be about an emotion, place, event, or situation that you might have experienced.

• Acquire specific details about the topic

The next task is to collect relevant information about the topic of your choice. You should focus on including details that make the descriptive essay stand out and have a long-lasting impression on the readers. To put it simply, your aim is to make the reader feel as though they were a part of the experience in the first place, rather than merely describing the subject.

• Be playful with your writing

To make the descriptive essay memorable, use figurative writing and imagery to lay emphasis on the specific aspect of the topic. The goal is to make sure that the reader experiences the content visually, so it must be captivating and colorful. Generally speaking, “don’t tell, show”! This can be accomplished by choosing phrases that evoke strong emotions and engage a variety of senses. Making use of metaphors and similes will enable you to compare different things. We will learn about them in the upcoming sections.

• Capture all the different senses

Unlike other academic articles, descriptive essay writing uses sensory elements in addition to the main idea. In this type of essay writing, the topic is described by using sensory details such as smell, taste, feel, and touch. Example “ Mahira feels most at home when the lavender scent fills her senses as she lays on her bed after a long, tiring day at work . As the candle melts , so do her worries” . It is crucial to provide sensory details to make the character more nuanced and build intrigue to keep the reader hooked. Metaphors can also be employed to explain abstract concepts; for instance, “ A small act of kindness creates ripples that transcend oceans .” Here the writer used a metaphor to convey the emotion that even the smallest act of kindness can have a larger impact.

• Maintain harmony between flavor and flow

The descriptive essay format is one that can be customized according to the topic. However, like other types of essays, it must have an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The number of body paragraphs can vary depending on the topic and available information.

It is crucial to remember that a descriptive essay should have a specific topic and goal, such as sharing personal experiences or expressing emotions like the satisfaction of a good meal. This is accomplished by employing exact language, imagery, and figurative language to illustrate concrete features. These language devices allow the writer to craft a descriptive essay that effectively transmits a particular mood, feeling, or incident to readers while also conjuring up strong mental imagery. A descriptive essay may be creative, or it may be based on the author’s own experiences. Below is a description of a few descriptive essay examples that fit into these categories.

• Personal descriptive essay example

A personal essay can look like a descriptive account of your favorite activity, a place in your neighborhood, or an object that you value. Example: “ As I step out of the front door, the crisp morning air greets me with a gentle embrace; the big chestnut tree in front, sways in the wind as if saying hello to me. The world unfolds in a symphony of awakening colors, promising a day filled with untold possibilities that make me feel alive and grateful to be born again”.

• Imaginative descriptive essay example

You may occasionally be required to write descriptive essays based on your imagination or on subjects unrelated to your own experiences. The prompts for these kinds of creative essays could be to describe the experience of someone going through heartbreak or to write about a day in the life of a barista. Imaginative descriptive essays also allow you to describe different emotions. Example, the feelings a parent experiences on holding their child for the first time.

Characteristics of descriptive essay s

The aim of a descriptive essay is to provide a detailed and vivid description of a person, place, object, event, or experience. The main goal is to create a sensory experience for the reader. Through a descriptive essay, the reader may be able to experience foods, locations, activities, or feelings that they might not otherwise be able to. Additionally, it gives the writer a way to relate to the readers by sharing a personal story. The following is a list of the essential elements of a descriptive essay:

• Sensory details
• Clear, succinct language
• Organized structure
• Thesis statement
• Appeal to emotion

How to write a descriptive essay, with examples

Writing an engaging descriptive essay is all about bringing the subject matter to life for the reader so they can experience it with their senses—smells, tastes, and textures. The upside of writing a descriptive essay is you don’t have to stick to the confinements of formal essay writing, rather you are free to use a figurative language, with sensory details, and clever word choices that can breathe life to your descriptive essay. Let’s take a closer look at how you can use these components to develop a descriptive essay that will stand out, using examples.

• Figurative language

Have you ever heard the expression “shooting for the stars”? It refers to pushing someone to strive higher or establish lofty goals, but it does not actually mean shooting for the stars. This is an example of using figurative language for conveying strong motivational emotions. In a descriptive essay, figurative language is employed to grab attention and emphasize points by creatively drawing comparisons and exaggerations. But why should descriptive essays use metaphorical language? One it adds to the topic’s interest and humor; two, it facilitates the reader’s increased connection to the subject.

These are the five most often used figurative language techniques: personification, metaphor, simile, hyperbole, and allusion.

• Simile: A simile is a figure of speech that is used to compare two things while emphasizing and enhancing the description using terms such as “like or as.”

Example: Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving – Albert Einstein

• Metaphor: A metaphor are also used to draw similarities, but without using direct or literal comparisons like done in similes.   

Example: Books are the mirrors of the soul – Virginia Woolf, Between the acts

• Personification: This is the process of giving nonhuman or abstract objects human traits. Any human quality, including an emotional component, a physical attribute, or an action, can be personified.

Example: Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world – Louis Pasteur

• Hyperbole: This is an extreme form of exaggeration, frequently impractical, and usually employed to emphasize a point or idea. It gives the character more nuance and complexity.

Example: The force will be with you, always – Star Wars

• Allusion: This is when you reference a person, work, or event without specifically mentioning them; this leaves room for the reader’s creativity.  

Example: In the text below, Robert Frost uses the biblical Garden of Eden as an example to highlight the idea that nothing, not even paradise, endures forever.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay

– Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost (1923)

Descriptive essays need a combination of figurative language and strong sensory details to make the essay more memorable. This is when authors describe the subject matter employing senses like smell, sound, touch, and taste so that the reader can relate to it better.

Example of a sensory-based descriptive essay: The earthy fragrance of freshly roasted chestnuts and the sight of bright pink, red, orange fallen leaves on the street reminded her that winter was around the corner.

• Word choice

Word choice is everything in a descriptive essay. For the description to be enchanting, it is essential to utilize the right adjectives and to carefully consider the verbs, nouns, and adverbs. Use unusual terms and phrases that offer a new viewpoint on your topic matter instead of overusing clichés like “fast as the wind” or “lost track of time,” which can make your descriptive essay seem uninteresting and unoriginal.

See the following examples:

Bad word choice: I was so happy because the sunset was really cool.

Good word choice: I experienced immense joy as the sunset captivated me with its remarkable colors and breathtaking beauty.

• Descriptive essay format and outline

Descriptive essay writing does not have to be disorganized, it is advisable to use a structured format to organize your thoughts and ensure coherent flow in your writing. Here is a list of components that should be a part of your descriptive essay outline:

• Introduction
• Opening/hook sentence
• Topic sentence
• Body paragraphs
• Concrete details
• Clincher statement

Introduction:

• Hook: An opening statement that captures attention while introducing the subject.
• Background: Includes a brief overview of the topic the descriptive essay is based on.
• Thesis statement: Clearly states the main point or purpose of the descriptive essay.

Body paragraphs: Each paragraph should have

• Topic sentence: Introduce the first aspect or feature you will describe. It informs the reader about what is coming next.
• Sensory details: Use emphatic language to appeal to the reader’s senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell).
• Concrete details: These are actual details needed to understand the context of the descriptive essay.
• Supporting details: Include relevant information or examples to improve the description.

Conclusion:

• Summarize key points: Here you revisit the main features or aspects of the subject.
• Restate thesis statement: Reinforce the central impression or emotion.
• Clincher statement: Conclude with a statement that summarizes the entire essay and serve as the last words with a powerful message.

Revision and editing:

• Go over your essay to make sure it is coherent, clear, and consistent.
• Check for logical paragraph transitions by proofreading the content.
• Examine text to ensure correct grammar, punctuation, and style.
• Use the thesaurus or AI paraphrasing tools to find the right words.

A descriptive essay often consists of three body paragraphs or more, an introduction that concludes with a thesis statement, and a conclusion that summarizes the subject and leaves a lasting impression on readers.

A descriptive essay’s primary goal is to captivate the reader by writing a thorough and vivid explanation of the subject matter, while appealing to their various senses. A list of additional goals is as follows: – Spark feeling and imagination – Create a vivid experience – Paint a mental picture – Pique curiosity – Convey a mood or atmosphere – Highlight specific details

Although they both fall within the creative writing category, narrative essays and descriptive essays have different storytelling focuses. While the main goal of a narrative essay is to tell a story based on a real-life experience or a made-up event, the main goal of a descriptive essay is to vividly describe a person, location, event, or emotion.

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How to Write a Descriptive Essay

4-minute read

• 26th February 2020

A descriptive essay, as the name may suggest, is an essay in which you describe something. The idea is to create a vivid picture of something – a person, object, place or experience – for your reader.

But how do you write a descriptive essay? We have a few helpful tips to share.

1. Brainstorming and Organizing Your Ideas

Your first step should be to brainstorm ideas . Think about the qualities of what you’re describing. As well as physical qualities, make notes about any thoughts, memories, and emotions you associate with your subject matter.

This brainstorming will give you the raw material for your descriptive essay. The next step is to create an essay outline. Typically, this will include:

• An Introduction – An outline of what you will describe and the “thesis” for your essay (i.e., a key theme that will run through your essay and guide your description). For instance, if writing about an inspirational teacher, you could mention the importance of education in the introduction.
• Main Body – A series of paragraphs in which you describe your subject. Each paragraph should cover a single main point, then lead neatly on to the next one, adding to the overall picture you’re creating for the reader.
• Conclusion – A final paragraph where you summarize your overall essay. This is also a good place to reaffirm your essay thesis, emphasizing how your description reflects this.

Before you start writing, then, make some notes about what each paragraph in your essay will include. This will then guide the drafting process, making sure your essay has a clear structure.

2. Use Vivid, Sensory Language

A descriptive essay should paint a picture for your reader. And this means you need to use vivid, exciting language rather than a formal, academic tone. Ideas for making your essay more linguistically engaging include:

• Using sensory language to evoke how something looked, smelled, etc.
• Writing in the present tense to make the situation feel immediate.
• Describing feelings and thoughts elicited by the subject of your essay.
• Looking for dynamic adjectives and adverbs to use (e.g., you could say something made you “happy,” but “elated” or “delighted” may be stronger).
• Using metaphors, similes, and other literary techniques .

Keep your introduction in mind while writing. The language you use should serve the “thesis” you set out there, drawing the reader’s attention to specific aspects of the thing you’re describing.

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3. Show, Don’t Tell

“Show, don’t tell” refers to a technique used by authors to make their writing more engaging. Essentially, all this means is using action, description, and dialogue to paint a picture for the reader rather than simply stating something in plain language. We can see the difference below:

Telling: Miss Hardy was an engaging speaker.

Showing: When Miss Hardy spoke, everyone listened. Her voice bubbled with enthusiasm, bringing even the most mundane subjects to life.

In the first sentence, we simply tell the reader that Miss Hardy was an engaging speaker. But in the second, we try to help the reader picture being in her class, listening to her speak. And by engaging the reader’s imagination like this, we can make our description more memorable.

4. Editing and Proofreading Your Descriptive Essay

Once you have a first draft, you’ll be ready to start editing. The idea here is to go back over your essay – at least once, but possibly multiple times – to look for ways you could improve it. This drafting process may involve:

• Making sure your writing is clear, well structured, and impactful.
• Rewriting passages that feel clichéd or that could be stronger.
• Reading your essay out loud to see how well it flows.
• Ensuring that the central theme of your essay is present throughout.

And when you’ve finished redrafting, go through the essay one more time to remove any typos that remain. Alternatively, you can submit your descriptive essay for proofreading . With the expert eye of a professional editor on your side, you can be confident your writing is the best it can be.

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How to Write a Descriptive Essay

This could be something as simple as your favorite flavor of ice cream or as complicated as the politics of 13th century Vienna. Different than a simple description, a descriptive essay allows the writer to really show off both their imagination as well as their writing skills.

What is a Descriptive Essay?

A descriptive essay is a type of academic writing that asks the writer to fully describe a place, person, situation, event, or thing. They can be simple or they can be very complex depending on the subject matter and audience written for. These types of essays train a writer’s ability to express themselves accurately as well as build compelling sentences and arguments.

Descriptive Essay Ideas

There is no exhaustive list of things that can be described, but these are some of the most common things you may be asked to write about. 

A Location - The goal of writing about a place is to make the reader feel as if they are there. Words, similes, and metaphors that ignite the reader’s imagination are essential. Try and immerse the reader in the sights, smells, and sounds of the place you are describing. Examples could be a city, a view, a particular building like your house, etc. 

A Time Period - Similar to writing about a location, the goal is to make the reader lose themselves in the time you are describing. This requires great research to be able to describe physical characteristics as authentically and as well as possible. This could include how you felt a year ago, an ancient time period, or the future.

An Event - The goal of describing an event is to explain a series of interesting circumstances. Typical storytelling elements like describing the plot, setting, and characters are useful, but make sure you focus on the chain of events.

An Emotion - The goal of describing an emotion is to make the reader feel the sentiments of the character you are describing. Metaphors and similes are very useful when trying to evoke an emotion in a reader along with physical descriptions that express the emotion. 

A Person - The goal of writing about a person is to make the reader understand something about that person. This includes physical descriptions of what they look like, what kind of clothing they wear, a sense of the physical presence along with their profession,  as well as how they behave. 

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Descriptive Essay Outline and Structure

Though a descriptive type of essay is quite different from a typical academic paper, it still follows a classic 5 paragraph format. Always follow any directions though, sometimes you may need more or fewer body paragraphs. This is a general structure you should keep in mind for this type of essay.

Introduction

• Introduction/background information

Body Paragraphs

• Topic Sentence
• Sensory Information
• Physical Descriptions
• Transition Sentence
• Summary of the main points
• Restate the thesis

An outline is always a good idea for any kind of writing, but it is particularly useful for this type of essay because it collects your thoughts and makes sure your essay stays on track. 

Introduction 

• Hook - The sting of salty water, the hypnotic crash of the waves, the breathtaking sunsets, the best vacation spot?
• Background information - Everyone is different and everyone likes different types of things. When it comes to vacations though, there is a place that almost everyone enjoys.
• Thesis - In my opinion, the beach is the best possible vacation spot because of the variety of ways one can enjoy it. 

Body Paragraph 1 

• Topic Sentence - The beach has many kinds of natural beauty
• Sensory information - The unlimited expanse of the ocean combined with glorious sunrises and sunsets.
• Physical descriptions -The crunch of sand below your bare feet and the crash of waves on your body.
• Transition sentence - There’s more than just natural beauty though, there are physical activities to enjoy as well 

Body Paragraph 2

• Topic Sentence - The beach has unlimited activities for physical enjoyment.
• Sensory information - The thrill of battling with the ocean, the joy of falling on the sand, the wind streaming through your hair, and the pleasant tingling of the sun on bare skin.
• Physical descriptions - Water sports like surfing, jet skiing, and the like allow you to exercise in one of the most fun ways possible. Not to mention sports like frisbee, volleyball, beach soccer, and more.
• Transition sentence - If you just want to relax, the beach is perfect for that too!

Body Paragraph 3

• Topic Sentence - The beach is ideal just to relax, destress, and take it easy. 
• Sensory information - To relax as you are massaged by either human hands or the sun is a pleasure. Lazing around might be frowned upon, but the beach is the ideal place to spend some time taking care of yourself and letting the stresses of the world melt away.
• Physical description - Whether it’s reading a book, or enjoying a refreshing beverage with umbrellas in it, you can get taken care of on the beach. Building sandcastles, painting, and meditating are other activities easily and freely enjoyed. 
• Transition sentence - The beach has so much to offer.
• Summary of the main points - Whether it’s nature, physical exercise, or simple relaxation, the beach can offer all of that and more. 
• Restate the thesis - That’s the main reason that a beach is the ideal vacation spot, it allows for diverse ways of having fun. 
• Closing statement/Clincher - Think about the last time you went to the beach, don’t you want to go again?

What is the Purpose of a Descriptive Essay?

It should leave the reader with a clear idea of the topic of the essay. The goal is to explain things in a comprehensive and interesting way so that the information stays with the reader. Let’s go into the details of how to accomplish this. 

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Writing Process & Descriptive Essay Examples

It may seem challenging to write a successful essay of this type, but if you follow the advice below, it will be a breeze. 

How to Start a Descriptive Essay

Making sure you choose the right topic is the first hurdle to cross. A topic for a descriptive essay is vital because it is the main subject you will be writing about. Spend at least 20 minutes brainstorming different topic ideas and make sure you choose a topic that you know well.

Next, create an outline to better structure your thoughts and figure out the pieces of information you need to find out more about. The more time you spend creating a well-researched outline, the better your endpaper is going to be, and you’ll end up spending less time on actually writing the paper. Now you can move on the writing the descriptive essay introduction.

How to Write a Descriptive Essay Thesis

A thesis statement is the main argument you are trying to make in your paper. It is the main point you are trying to describe. A good thesis statement for descriptive essay is particular without being too brief. It should include not only just what the topic is, but also mention why the topic is important.

How to Write Body Paragraphs

You can have as many body paragraphs as you think are necessary to achieve the goal of describing something clearly. This means you could have just one body paragraph, the standard three, or more. 

Start every paragraph with a topic sentence that explains what the main purpose of the paragraph is. Next fill in sensory details, describing the emotions before moving on to describing the actual physical details. End each body paragraph with a transition sentence that helps each paragraph flow into the other. Not only does this make your writing stronger, but it also helps you create an immersive experience.

How to Write the Conclusion 

Summarize the main points of your essay and make sure that you reiterate the thesis statement. This reminds people of the point of your essay and ensures that when writing, you don’t stray too far from the point. 

Descriptive Essay Format 

There are 3 main formats of citation types for essays. Though the most common one is MLA, it is possible that you may have to use APA or Chicago Style citations. 

MLA stands for Modern Language Association and is used primarily for the arts and humanities.  MLA uses in-text parenthetical citation in the format of (Author, Page). The page at the end that contains all the sources is called the Works Cited page. The format of these entries is unique to MLA but is easy to make with a citation generator. 

APA stands for American Psychological Association and is used mostly for the sciences and social sciences. APA uses in-text parenthetical citations in the format (Author, Date). The page at the end that contains all the sources is called the References section

Chicago Style is used primarily for Business, History, and the Fine Arts. In-text citation can be either as footnotes or parenthetical citation in the format (Author, Date). The page at the end that contains all the sources is called the Bibliography. 

Most descriptive essays will follow the MLA style of citation, but if you need any more help, find a guide on Studyfy.com for more information about citation styles in general. 

Descriptive Essay Topics

The topic is crucial, because all the research you do, and the entire paper, will specifically be about describing the topic. Here are some descriptive essay prompts to inspire you!

The person you’ve most admired in your life

A movie scene that made you feel strong emotions

The time period you would travel to if you had a time machine

Why a beach is better than the mountains for a vacation (or vice versa)

The taste of a drink when you are incredibly tired

An author that inspired you 

Your favorite cuisine

The best place in the world to be by yourself

The best Christmas morning you’ve ever had

An accent that you really enjoy 

A time when you wanted something so much it burned

Describe the day in the life of your favorite celebrity 

The joy of escaping into a video game

What dancing means to you 

A life philosophy you believe in 

The feeling of holding a baby in our arms

The sound of crashing waves

Standing in front of a gorgeous view

A vacation that was meaningful 

Why fireworks are magical 

The first time you cosplayed 

How it feels to listen to music that you hate 

The best thing you have ever eaten in your life

What would it be like to live 100 years in the future

Why hearing people laugh is beautiful 

A day in the life of your favorite animal 

A strange superstition you believe in

The strangest person you’ve ever met

Your favorite tv show 

Playing your favorite sport 

What it’s like to be in love

Descriptive Essay Tips

Before we end, let’s go over some of the key points of information in this article.

• Use figurative language including metaphors and similes 
• Use your senses
• Choose appropriate words
• Show don't tell 
• Focus on specific details
• Spend time choosing the right topic
• Create a detailed outline
• Forget about the purpose of the essay
• Submit your first draft
• Make it too complicated
• Ignore your audience 
• Ignore any directions

In addition to the information provided in this article, there are various resources available to help with your writing needs. If you are struggling to write your descriptive essay, you can turn to professional writers and editors for assistance. You may consider hiring a research paper writing service or seeking help from dissertation writers .

Additionally, if you need someone to " write my admission essay ", there are various options available. You can hire a writer for a custom writing service or seek help from online tutors and teachers. Furthermore, if you need to write a strong admission essay, there are services available that specialize in providing guidance and assistance with this type of writing.

It is important to note that before submitting any work, it should be proofread and edited thoroughly to ensure its quality. Studyfy offers a range of services to help with this, including professional proofreaders and editors who can check your work for grammatical errors and ensure that it meets academic standards.

In summary, there are various resources available to help with your writing needs, including professional writing services, proofreaders, and editors. By utilizing these resources and following the guidelines outlined in this article, you can write a successful descriptive essay that effectively conveys your ideas and engages your readers.If you are looking for the query " I need someone to write an essay for me ", Studyfy has got you covered

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How to Write a Descriptive Essay

Working on a descriptive essay is like handing your reader a pair of magical glasses – it allows them to see, feel, and experience what you're describing. It's not just about listing facts – it's about immersing your reader in a sensory adventure. Fun fact: Studies show that our brains respond to vivid imagery as if we're actually experiencing the described scene. So, by painting a detailed picture with your words, you're not just telling a story – you're triggering a sensory response in your reader's brain, making the whole experience more memorable and engaging. It's like turning your essay into a mini-vacation for your reader's mind. In this article, students who haven’t delegated their tasks to essay writers yet will find a detailed explanation of descriptive writing with the definition, tips, and examples. Stay tuned!

What Is a Descriptive Essay

A descriptive essay is a form of writing that employs vivid language and sensory details to create a vivid picture or experience for the reader. Unlike other types of essays that may focus on analyzing, persuading, or narrating, the primary goal of this type of an essay is to paint a compelling and detailed picture in the reader's mind. It often involves the writer using descriptive words, metaphors, and other literary devices to convey a sensory experience, allowing the reader to visualize, feel, hear, smell, and taste what is being described. The purpose is to evoke a strong emotional response and engage the reader's imagination, making them feel like they are part of the depicted scene or moment.

In this type of an essay, the writer carefully selects and organizes details to convey a specific impression or mood. The subject matter can range from a personal experience to observing a place, event, or object. The effectiveness lies in the writer's ability to create a vivid and immersive experience, enabling the reader to connect with the described subject on a deeper level. Ultimately, a well-executed descriptive essay leaves a lasting impression by bringing words to life and making the reader experience the depicted elements in a tangible and memorable way. You can also consult a reflection paper example for additional writing hints.

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Description vs. Descriptive Essay

Description and descriptive essays are related concepts, but they differ in scope and form. Description is a broader term that refers to the act of detailing the characteristics or features of something, someone, or a specific situation. It can be a component of various types of writing, not limited to essays. Description can be found in narratives, expository writing, and even technical or scientific writing, where clarity and precision in detailing are crucial. In essence, description is a tool used in writing to enhance understanding and create a vivid mental image.

On the other hand, a descriptive essay is a specific genre of writing that focuses entirely on painting a comprehensive and detailed picture using descriptive language. It is a more concentrated form of expression, where the writer's primary objective is to engage the reader's senses and emotions. Our custom writers suggest that a descriptive essay typically centers around a particular theme, experience, or subject, and it employs vivid imagery, figurative language, and sensory details to create a captivating narrative. Unlike a simple description, a descriptive essay has a more structured and narrative-oriented format, often with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

What to Describe in Your Essay

You have the opportunity to portray a particular subject vividly, and the key is to engage the reader's senses and imagination. Here are some ideas on what you can describe:

• Scenic Locations. Transport your reader to a specific place – a serene beach, a bustling city street, a lush forest, or an ancient castle. Describe the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings associated with that location.
• Memorable Experiences. Share a personal experience that left a lasting impression on you. It could be a significant event, a life-changing moment, or even a routine activity that holds special meaning.
• People. Describe a person who has had a profound impact on your life or someone you find intriguing. Focus not only on their physical appearance but also on their personality, quirks, and the emotions they evoke.
• Objects. Choose a specific object, whether it's a cherished possession, a historical artifact, or something mundane yet interesting. Explore its significance and how it makes you feel.
• Seasons and Weather. Capture the essence of a particular season or weather condition. Whether it's the warmth of a summer day, the crispness of autumn, or the sound of raindrops on a window – make the reader feel the atmosphere.
• Animals or Pets. Bring to life a beloved pet or an encounter with a fascinating animal. Describe their appearance, behavior, and the emotions they evoke in you.
• Cultural Events. Attend a cultural event, festival, or celebration, and describe the vibrant colors, sounds, and traditions. Explore how these events make you feel and their cultural significance.
• Art and Creativity. Choose a piece of art, a sculpture, or a creative work that captivates you. Dive into the details, uncovering the emotions it evokes and its impact on your perception.

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Two Approaches to Writing a Descriptive Essay

There are generally two primary approaches to writing a descriptive essay, each emphasizing a different aspect of the subject. These approaches help shape the overall tone and purpose of the essay:

Objective Approach. In the objective approach, the writer strives to provide a detailed and accurate portrayal of the subject without injecting personal emotions or opinions. This method is often employed in academic and technical writing. The focus is on presenting an unbiased, factual description that allows readers to form their own opinions. For example, if describing a historical monument, the writer would focus on architectural details, historical context, and other observable features without interjecting personal feelings.

Subjective Approach. Conversely, the subjective approach encourages the writer to infuse personal experiences, emotions, and opinions into the description. This approach is often used in creative writing, personal narratives, or essays that aim to evoke specific emotions in the reader. When using a subjective approach, the writer might vividly describe how the subject makes them feel, drawing on personal memories and sensory experiences. For instance, if describing a favorite childhood place, the writer might delve into nostalgic emotions and memories associated with that location.

The choice between these approaches depends on the writer's goals and the intended impact on the reader. Some essays may even blend elements of both approaches, providing factual details while also conveying the writer's emotional connection to the subject. The key is to be intentional in choosing the approach that best serves the purpose of the descriptive essay. Or, you can buy cheap essay to avoid the trouble now and save valuable free time.

Descriptive Essay Topics

Choosing topics for descriptive essay can greatly benefit students by helping them improve their writing skills and unleash their creativity. These assignments allow students to dive deep into a subject and practice using colorful language, vivid descriptions, and creative imagery. By focusing on details, students learn to observe the world around them more closely and appreciate the nuances of their surroundings. 

Exploring various topics also allows students to expand their knowledge and understanding of different cultures, experiences, and environments, fostering empathy and a broader perspective. In essence, topics provide students with a valuable opportunity to develop their writing abilities while gaining a deeper appreciation for the power of language and observation.

• A day at the beach.
• My favorite childhood memory.
• The cozy corner of my room.
• A rainy day in the park.
• The bustling farmer's market.
• An unforgettable family gathering.
• The charming old bookstore.
• My pet's quirky habits.
• The perfect pizza slice.
• Sunrise over the city.
• A peaceful forest glade.
• The hectic school cafeteria.
• A quiet Sunday morning.
• Exploring a hidden trail.
• The enchanting winter wonderland.
• The lively street fair.
• Inside Grandma's kitchen.
• A colorful autumn day.
• My favorite room in the house.
• The first day of school.
• A historic landmark in my town.
• Sunset on the lakeshore.
• The adorable neighborhood coffee shop.
• A vibrant street art mural.
• My most comfortable outfit.
• The quaint village square.
• A walk through the botanical garden.
• The excitement of a carnival.
• A quirky antique shop.
• Sunday afternoon picnic.

If you need more ideas, consult our guide on narrative essay topics .

Descriptive Essay Outline

An outline for a descriptive essay serves as a roadmap for organizing and structuring the content of your essay to ensure a coherent and engaging narrative. Here's a simple breakdown of the typical components of an outline:

Descriptive Essay Introduction

• Hook. Begin with a captivating opening sentence to grab the reader's attention.
• Thesis Statement. Clearly state the main idea or purpose of your essay.

Body Paragraphs (usually three to four)

• Topic Sentence. Start each paragraph with a clear topic sentence that introduces the main point.
• Details and Descriptions. Elaborate on the topic sentence by providing vivid and specific details, using sensory language to engage the reader's senses.
• Transitions. Use smooth transitions between paragraphs to maintain the flow of the essay.
• Restate Thesis. Recap the main idea of the essay without introducing new information.
• Summarize Key Points. Briefly revisit the main details discussed in the body paragraphs.
• Closing Statement. End with a concluding thought that leaves a lasting impression or provokes further reflection.

Review and Revise

• Check for Consistency. Ensure that your descriptions are consistent and align with the overall theme.
• Grammar and Style. Review your essay for grammatical errors and refine your writing style.
• Peer Review. If possible, seek feedback from others to gain different perspectives on your essay.

Remember, this is a flexible writing framework, and the number of body paragraphs can vary based on the specific requirements of your assignment. The key to how to write a descriptive essay is to maintain a logical and organized structure that guides the reader through a rich and immersive experience of the subject you're describing.

Stages of Writing a Descriptive Essay

Writing a descriptive essay involves several stages, each crucial to the development of a vivid and engaging narrative. Here's an overview of the key stages:

• Choose a Topic. Select a subject that is meaningful, interesting, and conducive to detailed description.
• Brainstorming. Generate ideas related to the chosen topic, jotting down sensory details, emotions, and specific experiences associated with it.
• Thesis Statement. Develop a clear thesis statement that conveys the main purpose or impression you want to leave with your readers.
• Introduction. Craft an engaging introduction that hooks the reader and includes the thesis statement.
• Body Paragraphs. Develop each paragraph around a specific aspect of your topic, providing detailed descriptions and utilizing sensory language.
• Organization. Arrange your paragraphs logically, using a chronological, spatial, or thematic structure to guide the reader through the experience.
• Transition Sentences. Use transitional sentences to ensure a smooth flow between paragraphs and ideas.
• Content Review. Evaluate the effectiveness of your descriptions, ensuring they contribute to the overall theme and purpose of the essay.
• Clarity and Coherence. Check for clarity and coherence in your writing, ensuring that readers can follow your narrative easily.
• Sensory Language. Enhance the use of sensory language, making sure that your descriptions evoke vivid images and engage the reader's senses.
• Thesis Refinement. Fine-tune your thesis statement to reflect any adjustments made during the drafting process.

Editing and Proofreading

• Grammar and Punctuation. Review your essay for grammatical errors, punctuation issues, and proper sentence structure.
• Consistency. Check for consistency in tense, point of view, and overall writing style.
• Word Choice. Ensure that your vocabulary is precise and contributes to the richness of your descriptions.
• Final Check. Conduct a final proofread to catch any remaining errors, typos, or formatting issues.
• Peer Review. If possible, seek feedback from peers or instructors to gain additional perspectives on your essay.
• Structure. Ensure your essay has a clear structure with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
• Font and Font Size. Adhere to any specific formatting guidelines provided by your instructor, including font type and size.
• Margins and Spacing. Check and adjust margins and line spacing according to the formatting requirements.
• Title and Headings. If required, include a title and headings, making sure they are appropriately formatted.
• Citations. If using sources, ensure proper descriptive essay format according to the citation style (APA, MLA, etc.).

By following these stages, you can systematically develop and refine your essay, creating a compelling and immersive experience for your readers.

Descriptive Essay Examples

A descriptive essay example is like a practical guide for students, showing them how to write in a way that really grabs people's attention. They help students see how to use colorful language and organize their thoughts. By looking at the examples, students can understand how to make their writing more engaging and bring their ideas to life. They also inspire students to get creative and find their own unique style. Examples are like a roadmap, navigating students who google ‘ do my homework ’ through the writing world and making them more confident and expressive communicators.

Example 1: "A Tranquil Morning at Sunrise Cove"

This descriptive essay paints a vivid picture of the enchanting Sunrise Cove, capturing the serene and captivating atmosphere that unfolds during the early morning hours. From the magical transformation of the landscape bathed in the warm hues of dawn to the melodic symphony of nature's sounds, the cove emerges as a tranquil haven untouched by the hustle and bustle of modern life. Beyond its picturesque beauty, Sunrise Cove provides a space for introspection and reflection, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in the peaceful ambiance and find solace in the quietude of the moment. Ultimately, the essay celebrates the profound beauty and respite offered by this hidden sanctuary as the sun continues its journey across the sky, leaving the cove awash in warmth and tranquility.

Example 2: "The Enchanting Serenity of Moonlit Beaches"

This descriptive essay explores the enchanting beauty of moonlit beaches. It vividly depicts the scene of a beach illuminated by the soft glow of the moon, emphasizing the visual, auditory, and emotional elements that contribute to its allure. The essay is structured into three main paragraphs: the silvered canvas, the symphony of silence, and a tapestry of emotions. Each paragraph delves into a specific aspect of the moonlit beach experience, from the shimmering reflections on the sand and water to the peaceful silence that reigns during the night and, finally, the emotional resonance that the scene evokes. The overall theme highlights the transformative and serene nature of moonlit beaches, portraying them as a timeless sanctuary for introspection and contemplation.

Learning how to write this type of an essay is a powerful tool that empowers students to express themselves vividly, sharpen their observational abilities, and communicate with precision. The ability to create a sensory-rich experience on paper not only enhances academic performance but also cultivates a lifelong skill set essential for effective communication in various aspects of life.

They encourage students to delve into their surroundings, tap into their creativity, and paint a detailed picture with words. The process of carefully selecting and arranging descriptive details not only refines their writing abilities but also hones their critical thinking skills. As students engage in this form of expression, they learn to appreciate the nuances of language, fostering a deeper connection to the written word. Need help with this assignment? Use our descriptive essay writing service right now!

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Think of the last time you were completely captivated by a good story. What made it so enthralling? What caused it to take your attention from everything else? Most likely, it was the author’s use of descriptive language that helped you feel like you were actually a part of the story. You could probably imagine what it would have looked or felt like to be in each place the book described. Descriptive essays do much the same thing. They’re essays meant to engage the readers to paint a descriptive picture of the words on paper.

Let's say you are assigned to write a descriptive essay about a place, and you’re wondering where to begin. How do you make sure your essay is captivating, and passes with flying colors? In this blog, we’ll show you exactly how to write an all-star descriptive essay about a place, by covering the steps involved in writing, and the elements of how to write a great descriptive essay.

First, we will review the purpose of descriptive essays, then discuss why they are important, and we will end by sharing pro writing tips to help find the right words.

What are descriptive essays?

The goal of a descriptive essay is to be captivating, including sensory-oriented details of a person, place, experience, or object. Include this in your essay and the reader's imagination will go wherever is being described. These essays accomplish this by using vivid language, specific adjectives, and clear explanations so that the reader can personally relate. Descriptive essays are written so that readers can imagine and understand the feelings, sensations, visualizations, and sounds the author is describing.

Related how-to guide— How to write a narrative essay .

Why are descriptive essays important?

A detailed description helps readers empathize with your experience and, as an author, you can communicate this meaning. This is important because much of our academic and professional success depends on our ability to clearly, and specifically, communicate our experiences to others. We may not be writing a descriptive essay each time we communicate our experiences, but writing descriptive essays definitely strengthen our ability to convey specific details in compelling ways.

For example, writing a descriptive essay about a place can strengthen your ability to communicate your work expertise to your next potential employer; or to write your life experiences in a compelling way in your next scholarship essay (learn how to write a scholarship essay ).

Perhaps you’d like to write your own book some day or craft your own advertising campaigns using your business degree—both of which are more successful when the reader can empathize with your writing. You’ll use descriptive language to succeed at both!

Choosing a descriptive essay topic

Descriptive essays can be written about many topics. One of the most common assignments you may receive is to write a descriptive essay about a place. Here are a few descriptive writing example topics you might choose:

Who writes descriptive essays?

Being able to write well is a skill for any career you're pursuing whether it be business, arts, marketing, education, or even medicine!

Students in these areas will be assigned to write a descriptive essay at some point during their high school or undergraduate careers:

• Language arts students
• Literature and cultural studies students
• Social studies students
• Psychology students

Finding the right words for an engaging essay can be challenging. Plus, many students are pressed for time, juggling work, family, and extracurricular activities on top of trying to complete assignments. If you can identify, this blog will help get you started.

When your future career depends on it, you want to feel confident and proud of your work instead of overwhelmed by it. Practicing smart time management and finding the writing help you need, when you need it, is important.

Elements of a great descriptive essay

Before we dive into how to write a descriptive essay, let’s review some key elements that will help you paint a picture in writing:

Clear organization

Effective descriptive essays are clearly organized. In other words, the reader is able to easily understand why she or he is reading the essay, the place the essay will describe, and what the purpose of the description is. This is accomplished by organizing the essay into and introduction, body and conclusion.

Introduction: A captivating hook

The opening of your essay is one of the most important parts because it interests readers. Start with a captivating introductory paragraph. One way to do this is by using anecdotes to grab readers’ attention. Anecdotes are short stories that can be used literally or metaphorically to help readers relate to what you’re going to write about.

For example, an anecdote that opens an essay with descriptive words about what it’s like to be working in the middle of busy production factory might read:

“Imagine every appliance in your house is turned on—your vacuum cleaner, your blender, your fans—and imagine on top of all that, you hear airplanes and helicopters flying overhead and cars buzzing by outside. Meanwhile, you’re trying to focus on your tasks…”

This type of anecdote accomplishes two key things: First, it engages the reader and helps them personally relate to your essay by asking them to imagine. Second, it immediately clarifies the type of place you’re going to write about.

Build your essay with strong imagery. Capture the time, date, weather, and mood of the place.

The introduction paragraph should end by explaining the place the rest of the essay is going to describe and why. This includes any key setting logistics like time, specific location, and who’s involved.

Body: Full of specifics and adjectives

Anecdotes are also helpful in the body paragraphs of a descriptive essay, for the same reasons noted above. The body of a great descriptive essay about a place should be packed full of vivid, sensory language. During the body of a descriptive essay, the reader gains a clear image and understanding of the place being described, as if he or she were actually there. To accomplish this, the body paragraphs use descriptive adjectives and colorful phrases such as, “The chaotic, clashing noise was deafening,” or, “The scent of freshly fallen rain cleansed the sunlit air, and I could see the horizon for miles.”

Use one or two strong adjectives to convey descriptions in your sentences. This creates a flow throughout the entire essay. Be sure to note, not every sentence requires an adjective or adverb.

If you’re having trouble with finding adjectives and adverbs, use strong action verbs instead.

Conclusion: Reminding readers of the meaning

Just as the introduction of a descriptive essay previews what place will be written about and why, the conclusion reminds readers of what was just described and why it’s important. The key is to not sound redundant. For instance, while the introductory paragraph hooks readers and then tells them what they can expect to read, the conclusion summarizes what was written and leaves readers with thought-provoking ideas to consider, helping them to understand how the essay may relate to their lives, or why it’s important to the reader.

Revisiting the production factory introduction example, the same essay’s conclusion may summarize with a statement highlighting the essay’s takeaways, such as, “The chaos and noise of the factory made it difficult to focus, but after working there for five years, I learned how to overcome that challenge. Now I can focus in even the most noisy of places.”

Steps to writing a great descriptive essay

1) choose a topic.

Depending on the purpose of your descriptive essay assignment, you may have varying flexibility in terms of what place you can choose to write about. Nonetheless, try to choose a topic that vividly stands out in your memory. The more you can remember about a place and how it felt, the better your descriptive paper is likely to be. For example, if you’re assignment asks you to write about a place you’ve traveled to, what destination comes to mind first? Perhaps it’s a foreign country. Or, if you haven’t traveled much, it could even be a different town.

2) Observe the details

If you’re writing about a place you’re currently at or can easily visit, spend time observing the details. Watch what the scenery looks like, including colors and objects. What sounds do you hear? What’s the temperature? What scents do you notice? How do you feel being there? All these questions will help guide your descriptive flow writing process (step six).

If you’re writing about a place you visited in the past, ask yourself the same questions. Perhaps look at old photos to jog your memory. Finally, if you’re asked to describe a place you’ve never been, use your imagination to answer similar questions. The more time you take to list details about what your place feels like, the easier the next steps will be.

3) Understand why your place is important

Ask yourself why you think it is important to share this with your readers. Having a clear understanding of your essays’ importance will not only help you write your introduction and conclusion, but it will also help you stay focused on describing the details that matter most.

4) Outline and organize your writing

Now it’s time to begin the actual descriptive writing process by organizing your ideas into an outline . Your outline doesn’t have to be formal; just a simple numbered list of points to include in your introduction, body and conclusion will suffice. This will guide your writing process and keep you focused.

5) Start with the introduction

Remember step number one and three, “your topic ” and “why your place is important?” Those are the two main highlights you’ll want to make clear in your introductory paragraph. When writing your introduction, be sure it explains what you’re about to describe and why you’re going to write about it.

6) Write the body in free-flow style

The body paragraph of your essay can sometimes be the most difficult part, depending on length, a great way to start is by free-flow writing. This means that you simply start writing your detailed description of the place you’re writing about, without editing or analyzing as you write. This often helps to overcome writer’s block while making sure that all the critical details you jotted down in step two, “observe the details,” get down on paper and into the body of your essay. You’ll be able to go back later and edit the body of your paper for organization, flow and grammar. As long as you start your free-flow within the bullet points of the outline you created, the process will be relatively simple and easy.

7) Revise the body of your essay

Now it’s time to go back and be sure all the free-flow writing you just did is clear, makes sense and follows your original outline. You may need to re-arrange a few sentences or even paragraphs. This is also a great time to check for spelling and grammar errors.

Next, read the body paragraph of your essay and pretend you’re someone else reading it for the first time. How does it sound? Does it make sense and flow? If not, ask yourself what would make your descriptions more understandable for the reader. Finally, remember that not every sentence of your descriptive essay needs to sound fancy, artistic, or be long. Vary your sentence length, breaking up long sentences with short sentences to make reading easier. Use exciting language, but don’t over-do it or adjectives will lose their power.

8) Finish your essay strong

Writing a strong conclusion is key to leaving a lasting impression with your readers. A great way to conclude your descriptive essay about a place is to reiterate, in a new way, how the place you’re describing impacted you and why you believe it’s important. You can also describe what you hope readers may learn from your essay.

9) Proofread your work

You can never re-read your essay too many times. Proofread your work at least twice for spelling and grammar errors. It’s often helpful to read your writing out loud, since that slows the reading process and helps us catch errors we may otherwise overlook.

Also, don’t be afraid to ask a friend to proof your work. If you’re still stuck or need help, the writing center has tons of resources just for you like expert advice, essay examples, and more.

Final words of wisdom

Like what you read? Check out our guide on how to write a persuasive essay .

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How to Write a Descriptive Essay

More than many other types of essays, descriptive essays strive to create a deeply involved and vivid experience for the reader. Great descriptive essays achieve this affect not through facts and statistics but by using detailed observations and descriptions.

What do you want to describe?

As you get started on your descriptive essay, it's important for you to identify exactly what you want to describe. Often, a descriptive essay will focus on portraying one of the following:

• an experience

Ultimately, whatever you can perceive or experience can be the focus of your descriptive writing.

Why are you writing your descriptive essay?

It's a great creative exercise to sit down and simply describe what you observe. However, when writing a descriptive essay, you often have a particular reason for writing your description. Getting in touch with this reason can help you focus your description and imbue your language with a particular perspective or emotion.

Example: Imagine that you want to write a descriptive essay about your grandfather. You've chosen to write about your grandfather's physical appearance and the way that he interacts with people. However, rather than providing a general description of these aspects, you want to convey your admiration for his strength and kindness. This is your reason for writing the descriptive essay. To achieve this, you might focus one of your paragraphs on describing the roughness of his hands, roughness resulting from the labor of his work throughout his life, but you might also describe how he would hold your hands so gently with his rough hands when having a conversation with you or when taking a walk.

How should you write your description?

If there's one thing you should remember as you write your descriptive essay, it's the famous saying: show don't tell. But what's the difference between showing and telling?

Consider these two simple examples:

I grew tired after dinner. As I leaned back and rested my head against the top of the chair, my eyelids began to feel heavy, and the edges of the empty plate in front of me blurred with the white tablecloth.

The first sentence tells readers that you grew tired after dinner. The second sentence shows readers that you grew tired. The most effective descriptive essays are loaded with such showing because they enable readers to imagine or experience something for themselves.

As you write your descriptive essay, the best way to create a vivid experience for your readers is to focus on the five senses.

When you focus your descriptions on the senses, you provide vivid and specific details that show your readers rather than tell your readers what you are describing.

Quick Tips for Writing Your Descriptive Essay

Writing a descriptive essay can be a rich and rewarding experience, but it can also feel a bit complicated. It's helpful, therefore, to keep a quick checklist of the essential questions to keep in mind as you plan, draft, and revise your essay.

Planning your descriptive essay:

• What or who do you want to describe?
• What is your reason for writing your description?
• What are the particular qualities that you want to focus on?

Drafting your descriptive essay:

• What sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures are important for developing your description?
• Which details can you include to ensure that your readers gain a vivid impression imbued with your emotion or perspective?

Revising your descriptive essay:

• Have you provided enough details and descriptions to enable your readers to gain a complete and vivid perception?
• Have you left out any minor but important details?
• Have you used words that convey your emotion or perspective?
• Are there any unnecessary details in your description?
• Does each paragraph of your essay focus on one aspect of your description?
• Are you paragraphs ordered in the most effective way?

Related Essay-Writing Articles

• How to Write the College Admissions Essay
• Narrative Essays
• Persuasive Essays
• Writing a Conclusion for an Essay

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How to Write a Descriptive Essay: Writing Tips & Examples

Imagine painting a vivid picture with words, capturing the reader’s imagination, and transporting them to a different world. That’s the power of a well-written descriptive essay. But how does one harness that power and create a masterpiece? In this comprehensive guide on how to write a descriptive essay, we’ll explore the intricacies of descriptive essays, from understanding their purpose to mastering the language, and everything in between.

Table of Contents

Descriptive Essay Writing: Key Takeaways

• Descriptive essays strive to create a vivid experience for the reader through concrete details and sensory language.
• The purpose of descriptive writing is to provide an engaging representation of the subject, aiding in forming understanding.
• Through self-review, peer feedback and editing tools one can craft a polished essay that leaves a lasting impression on readers.

What is a Descriptive Essay?

Descriptive essays are more than just a simple narration or description of a subject. They aim to provide a detailed and vivid depiction of a subject using concrete details and figurative language, engaging the reader’s senses. Whether it’s describing a family member, a favorite food, or a memorable experience, the goal is to paint a picture so vivid that the reader feels as if they’re experiencing it firsthand. A good descriptive essay achieves this by striking the perfect balance between narration and sensory details.

To achieve this, writers must use vivid language and create a strong sense of imagery. They are.

Purpose of a Descriptive Essay

The primary objective of a descriptive essay is to create a clear and detailed picture of a subject, allowing the reader to visualize and understand it. It’s about immersing the reader into the world the writer has crafted, much like an argumentative essay, which seeks to convince readers of a particular viewpoint.

A descriptive essay, however, focuses on creating a sensory experience, engaging the reader on a deeper level with the subject, rather than just communicating facts.

Characteristics of Descriptive Writing

Descriptive writing possesses certain key characteristics, which include organization, detail, sensory language, factual information, and the abstention of opinions. Organization is crucial as it helps the reader comprehend the essay and follow the writer’s line of reasoning.

Detail and sensory language bring the subject to life, creating a vivid image in the reader’s mind, while factual information and the absence of opinions ensure an accurate and unbiased portrayal of the subject.

Choosing Descriptive Essay Topics

The beauty of descriptive essays lies in the versatility of their subjects. From people and characters to places, objects, emotions, and experiences, there’s a whole world of topics waiting to be explored. When selecting a topic, consider aspects of your own experience, things that interest you, or subjects that hold personal significance.

The key is to choose a subject that you can describe in detail, allowing your reader to immerse themselves in the vivid world you create.

People and Characters

Descriptive essays about people and characters allow you to dive deep into the intricacies of their personalities, traits, and relationships. You can focus on family members, friends, teachers, or even fictional characters. When writing a personal essay about a person, consider aspects such as their physical appearance, personality, behavior, habits, and accomplishments.

This provides a comprehensive and engaging portrayal of the entire essay that will captivate your reader.

Places and Settings

Places and settings provide a rich canvas for descriptive essays. They can be real or fictional locations, such as hometowns, schools, or imaginary worlds. When describing a place, focus on its physical characteristics, cultural significance, or historical importance. This will create a multi-dimensional image that transports your reader to the location and enables them to experience it as if they were there themselves.

By focusing on the details of the place, you can create a vivid and engaging description.

Objects and Items

Descriptive essays about objects and items give you the opportunity to examine everyday items or objects with personal significance in a new light. From a cherished family heirloom to a simple household item, the possibilities are endless.

To create a vivid description, focus on sensory details such as texture, color, smell, taste, and sound. By exploring these aspects, you’ll breathe life into the object and make it come alive for your reader.

Emotions and Experiences

Emotions and experiences are a goldmine for descriptive essays. By delving into your own feelings and personal reflections, you can create an intimate and powerful portrayal of an emotion or experience. Consider topics such as love, fear, happiness, or sadness, as well as personal experiences, memories, and favorite things.

Through sensory details and reflection, you’ll create a palpable connection with your reader, allowing them to share in your emotional journey.

Crafting a Descriptive Essay Outline

An outline is an indispensable tool in crafting a descriptive essay. It helps organize your thoughts, create a smooth flow, and ensure that your essay is structured coherently. A typical descriptive essay outline consists of an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

By following this structure, you’ll ensure that your essay flows seamlessly from one section to the next, making it easy for your reader to follow along and understand your message.

Introduction

A strong descriptive essay introduction, also known as an introductory paragraph, is essential for capturing your reader’s attention and setting the stage for your descriptive essay. It should be brief, engaging, and introduce the subject you’ll be describing. The introduction should also include a well-crafted thesis statement, which provides a succinct overview of the main arguments of your essay.

By starting with a compelling introduction, you’ll entice your reader to continue reading and immerse themselves in the world you’ve created.

Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs of your descriptive essay should focus on specific aspects of your subject, using vivid language and sensory details to create a rich and immersive experience for your reader. Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that encapsulates the main idea of the paragraph and connects it to the overall thesis statement. By following the descriptive essay format, you can ensure a well-structured and engaging piece of writing, such as a five paragraph essay.

Remember to use transition words to guide your reader through your essay and maintain a logical flow. These words can help you to move from one idea to the next, and to connect the ideas.

In the conclusion of your descriptive essay, it’s important to restate your thesis statement and provide a brief reminder of the topics you’ve covered. This helps to reinforce your main points and bring your essay full circle.

Consider leaving your reader with something to ponder or a memorable phrase that encapsulates the essence of your essay. A strong conclusion will leave a lasting impression on your reader, ensuring that your descriptive essay is not soon forgotten.

Mastering Descriptive Language

The key to a captivating descriptive essay lies in the language you use. Mastering descriptive language involves harnessing the power of figurative language, sensory details, and strong word choices to create a memorable and vivid description. By employing these techniques, you’ll not only paint a vivid picture for your reader, but also evoke their emotions and engage their senses, creating a truly immersive experience.

Using figurative language, such as metaphors and similes, can help you to create a vivid visual.

Figurative Language

Figurative language, such as metaphors and similes, can add depth and creativity to your descriptive essay. These literary devices help convey unique perspectives and create memorable effects. For example, instead of simply describing a park as green and lush, you could use a metaphor to compare it to a paradise or a simile to liken it to an oasis.

By using figurative language, you’ll breathe new life into your descriptions and leave a lasting impression on your reader.

Sensory Details

Sensory details are the secret ingredient that makes your descriptive essay come alive. By appealing to your reader’s senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell, you’ll create a vivid and immersive experience that goes beyond mere description. For example, instead of simply saying that a room is warm, you could describe the gentle caress of the sunlight on your skin, the soft hum of the air conditioner, and the faint scent of cinnamon in the air.

By incorporating sensory details, you’ll transport your reader into the world you’ve created.

Word Choice

The words you choose can make or break your descriptive essay. Precise and original words can help you avoid clichés and create a strong impression on your reader. Be mindful of your word choice, and consider using a thesaurus to find alternative words that better capture the essence of your subject.

By selecting the right words, you’ll not only create a vivid image in your reader’s mind, but also convey your unique perspective on the subject.

Reviewing and Revising Your Descriptive Essay

The final step in crafting a captivating descriptive essay is to review and revise your work. This process involves self-review, peer feedback, and the use of editing tools to ensure that your essay is polished and error-free.

By carefully reviewing your work and incorporating feedback, you’ll ensure that your descriptive essay is the best it can be, leaving your reader with a memorable and vivid experience.

Self-Review

Self-review is an essential part of the revision process. Start by taking a break from your essay to gain a fresh perspective. Then read your essay aloud, listening for awkward phrasing or unclear sections.

Ask yourself questions to ensure clarity and coherence, such as “Does the essay make sense?” and “Are there any areas that require additional clarification?” By critically evaluating your work, you’ll be able to identify areas for improvement and make the necessary changes.

Peer Feedback

Peer feedback is another valuable resource in the revision process. Sharing your essay with classmates, friends, or family members can provide fresh insights and suggestions for improvement. Be open to constructive criticism and consider the feedback you receive before making any revisions.

Remember, the goal is to create the best possible version of your descriptive essay, and sometimes an outside perspective can help you see areas for improvement that you might have missed.

Editing Tools

Finally, consider using editing tools to help polish your descriptive essay. Programs like Grammarly can help you identify and correct grammatical errors and improve the overall quality of your writing.

By using editing tools, you can ensure that your essay is not only engaging and vivid, but also polished and professional.

Descriptive Essay Examples and Analysis

Analyzing descriptive essay examples can provide valuable insights into effective writing techniques and strategies. By examining the work of others, you’ll gain a better understanding of how to craft your own descriptive essay and learn new approaches that can help you bring your subject to life.

In this section, we’ll look at two different examples of descriptive essays and discuss the techniques used to create vivid and memorable descriptions.

Consider this descriptive essay example, which showcases classic approaches to descriptive writing: “The small, sunlit room was filled with the scent of freshly brewed coffee and the sound of soft jazz playing in the background. Every surface was covered in a layer of paint splatters, a testament to the artist’s dedication and passion.

The large canvas in the center of the room captured the essence of a summer day, with vibrant colors and bold brushstrokes. This example employs vivid sensory details and strong word choices to create an engaging and memorable description that transports the reader into the world of the artist.

In this second example, the writer takes a different approach to descriptive writing: “The city was a maze of towering skyscrapers, their reflections shimmering in the glassy surface of the river below. The buzz of traffic echoed through the canyon-like streets, while the aroma of street food vendors wafted through the air.

It was a place where dreams and realities collided, each vying for dominance in the ever-changing landscape.” Here, the writer uses figurative language and a more poetic style to convey the atmosphere and energy of the city, creating a vivid and captivating description that leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do i start a descriptive essay.

To start a descriptive essay, begin by describing an event, place, object, or person in the opening sentence to engage the reader’s attention. Then provide relevant information to support your description, compile pertinent information on the topic, and create an outline prior to writing body paragraphs and a conclusion summarizing the essay.

Lastly, look for ways to enliven your language to make it more vivid and compelling.

How can I write a good descriptive essay?

To write a good descriptive essay, focus on a specific topic and compile information to create an outline. Use vivid details, figurative language, precise language and thoughtful organization to make your writing come alive for the reader.

Include a hook sentence in the introduction, a clear thesis statement and make sure to end with a summarizing conclusion.

What is the format of a descriptive essay?

A descriptive essay is a written account of a particular experience, with a good thesis statement at the beginning of the introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

It is written in a coherent style using formal language.

What are the 4 components of descriptive writing?

Descriptive writing typically employs sensory detail, vivid imagery, figurative language, action-packed verbs, and an overall evocative tone to create an engaging narrative for readers.

This type of writing can help readers visualize the story and feel as if they are part of the action. It can also help to draw readers in and keep them engaged with the text.

What is the main goal of a descriptive essay?

The main goal of a descriptive essay is to provide the reader with a vivid and detailed picture of the subject, enabling them to visualize and understand it.

By using descriptive language and sensory details, the writer can create a vivid image in the reader’s mind. This can be done through the use of metaphors, similes, and other literary devices. Additionally, the writer should use vivid verbs.

In conclusion, writing a compelling descriptive essay requires a combination of organization, detail, sensory language, and strong word choice. By understanding the purpose and characteristics of descriptive writing, selecting engaging topics, crafting a well-structured outline, and mastering descriptive language, you’ll be well on your way to creating vivid and memorable essays that captivate your reader.

Remember to review and revise your work, taking advantage of peer feedback and editing tools to ensure a polished final product. With practice and dedication, you’ll soon be painting vivid pictures with words, transporting your readers to new worlds, and leaving a lasting impression.

How to Write a Descriptive Essay about a Place

If you’re not sure what exactly a descriptive essay is and how to write one, you’ve come to the right place. I’m Tutor Phil, and in this tutorial I’ll explain how a descriptive essay works and how to write it, step by step.

We’ll write one together, so you’ll have a great example of a descriptive essay.

What Is a Descriptive Essay?

A descriptive essay is a piece of writing in which the author describes a place, a person, an object, an animal, or a process. The purpose of a descriptive essay is to move the reader to some kind of a revelation, conclusion, or decision about the subject.

It is very important to note that a descriptive essay is not an argumentative essay. You’re not presenting an argument and doing whatever it takes to support it.

In a descriptive essay, your intention should be to describe the subject in such a way that the reader would create her own impression of it. 

At the same time, your essay is not neutral because it is colored by your own perception or experience of the subject. 

In other words, you are implying and suggesting, not blatantly pushing an opinion.

You want to let the reader see, hear, touch, smell, and taste the place you’re describing. And that experience should lead the reader to an appropriate impression or conclusion. 

Writing a Descriptive Essay Is a 6-Step Process

Step 1. choose the subject.

Maybe your instructor has already chosen the subject for you. If not, choose a country, city, or a place within a city or a geographical location that you are familiar with.

Ideally, it is a place that you have been to and have a good memory of it. A descriptive essay about a place should not rely solely on research, in most cases. 

The real value of your essay is that you know that place, and perhaps it has a special meaning for you or evokes feelings that no other place can evoke. 

So, unless you have to write about a specific place where you have never been, choose a location that has a special place in your heart. 

Sometimes, your subject can be a place with which you may have negative associations. But most likely, it is a beloved place that has left an indelible impression on your heart and mind.

Criteria for choosing the place

• Ideally, this place should be dear to your heart
• It is unique. It is unlike any other place you’ve ever been to, in at least one or two important ways
• It has left a strong impression on you
• Perhaps you learned something there
• Perhaps something wonderful happened to you there, such as meeting your soulmate or discovering something about yourself
• Ideally, it has special visual qualities that stand out in contrast to what your audience is probably used to. In other words, being visually striking is a huge plus. 

I’ll give you an example. For me, one particular little spa town in Europe won me over when I first visited it many years ago. Its name is Carlsbad, or Karlovy Vary. The terms are interchangeable. One is of German origin, and the other is native Czech. 

It is located in the western part of Czech Republic, not too far from the German border. It is serene, spectacular, and magical, and I’ll choose it as the subject for our sample descriptive essay. 

By the way, Carlsbad, California was named after Karlovy Vary because of the similar mineral content of the underground waters found in the American cousin city. 

Step 2. Pick an audience

I understand that you’re probably writing this essay to fulfill a requirement for your class. In which case, your audience is your teacher or professor. 

But even if you’re writing for your instructor, you should still have a particular audience in mind because this will help you form ideas and keep your thoughts flowing. 

Knowing your audience will inform your choices of what to include and what to exclude in your descriptive essay because your reader may care about some aspects of this place but not others. 

Criteria for choosing an audience

• Your ideal reader is someone who is most likely to be interested in this place 
• It is someone who is likely to enjoy reading your essay 
• Your ideal audience is also someone who will benefit from reading about this place and derive the most value from it

Let’s come back to our example of Karlovy Vary. As I already mentioned, it is a spa town, which means that its attractiveness lies in its therapeutic qualities. 

I first visited this gem of a town back in 2004 as a result of a real academic and professional burnout. I believe I was still an undergraduate student finishing up my studies, and I also had a stressful job.

I lived in Brooklyn, which is a borough of New York City, and this metropolis is known for its stressful lifestyle. 

New York has all the disadvantages of living in a large city, such as pollution and other stressors that can really suck the life energy out of its dwellers if they are not careful.

I lived in New York for 25 years, and I love this city. I don’t want to come across as totally negative about it. 

But focusing on the negatives about my city in this case will help you see how I am choosing the audience for this essay we’ll be writing together in this tutorial. 

You see, New York City is a direct opposite of Karlovy Vary in several critical ways. 

Establishing a contrast helps define an audience

New York is noisy. Drivers here are notorious for incessant horn honking. And you can hear an ambulance or a police siren probably every 15 minutes or so. 

Conversely, Karlovy Vary is super quiet. Such a crazy hustle and bustle doesn’t exist here, and drivers don’t have a reason to honk the horn all the time. It is also very rare to hear a police or an ambulance siren. 

Air quality in New York is decent for a big city, but it is still relatively polluted . All the millions of cars and trucks produce way too much carbon dioxide. You can actually see the smog from some vantage points. 

The air in Karlovy Vary is virtually pristine. The town is surrounded by hills, and car traffic is not allowed in the city center. 

The landscape in New York is a bit monotonous and often fails to inspire. They don’t call this city “a concrete jungle” for nothing. The overall atmosphere is hardly conducive to a great mood or daily inspiration.

Conversely, Karlovy Vary offers aesthetically pleasing, relaxing, and inspiring architecture and landscape. It’s like entering a spa, only the spa is a whole town. 

Now that we have this contrast, it is easy to see who might be interested in learning more about Karlovy Vary. Our ideal audience is someone who:

• Lives in a big metropolis, such as NYC or another big city
• Can relate to being excessively stressed out 
• Is aware of noise and air pollution
• Would love an escape to relax and renew, even if only by reading an essay.

So, our essay becomes a sort of a virtual or a fantasy escape until an actual trip becomes possible. 

Your audience might have different challenges, needs, and desires. It could be someone who:

• Is nostalgic about their childhood and a place associated with it
• Dreams about a perfect place to live and work
• Plans a retirement location 

Think of these factors when determining your audience. In the meantime, because we’ve already identified our ideal reader – a stressed out urban dweller – we can move on to the next step.

Step 3. Divide the subject into subtopics

No matter what kind of an essay you’re writing, you want to divide the main topic into subtopics. In other words, you want to create some kind of a structure that will consist of parts. 

I use and teach my students to use the technique I call the Power of Three. 

What this means is that instead of having just one big topic, such as one town, we can have three aspects of this town to discuss.

Incidentally, we already talked about three major differences between NYC and Karlovy Vary. These are noise levels, air quality, and landscape. So, perhaps we can use one or more of these aspects of a city as sections of our essay.

We must keep in mind that we’re not writing a comparative essay , although that’s a possibility, too. 

We’re writing a descriptive essay. So, we need to find three aspects of the town that we can discuss one after another to put together a rich and detailed enough picture of this place.

Note that these three aspects correspond to the senses of hearing, smell, and sight. 

Let’s make a preliminary list of such aspects of Karlovy Vary:

• Quietness. Does this aspect present an interesting description opportunity? This will depend on our ability to turn it into an asset. 
• Air quality. This may be too specific. We may want to zoom out a little and discuss more than one natural asset of this city. Some of the others include water quality and the industries associated with it. 
• Landscape. This is the most conspicuous aspect of this city. The first thing you’re struck with is how beautiful this place really is. This one is definitely a winner.

If we go about writing about these three aspects of Karlovy Vary creatively, we will have three nice sections or paragraphs that will form the body of our essay. 

Note that we’ll probably use more than one sensory perception, such as sight or smell, in each section. We’ll simply use one of three senses as a primary focus in each of our three sections. 

It would make sense to begin the discussion of the city by describing it visually. So, this will be our primary focus in the first section.

Then, we can proceed to the sense of hearing. Why? Because our last section will be about air and water. And we should probably leave those for last because we can hear the water before we can taste it. That’s just the way it works in Karlovy Vary.

So, the primary sense perception in our second section will be hearing. And this section won’t be just about how quiet it is. 

In fact, the real contrast between a big city and Karlovy Vary is the quality of the soundscape, not just the simple quietness, although it’s a part of it. So, we’ll focus on all the little sounds that make this place unique. 

Finally, in the third section or paragraph, we’ll talk about the air and the water, which will correspond to the senses of smell and taste, primarily. 

Again, we’ll be using any sense perceptions we feel necessary to make the reader’s experience as real as possible. 

And now we have our place, we know our audience, and we have our three main ideas about this place that we’ll use to structure the essay. 

We can begin writing, and we’ll start with the opening paragraph. 

Step 4. Write the introduction

An introductory paragraph in a descriptive essay offers you a lot of flexibility in how you choose to write it. 

You can start off with a particular example of a sense perception, drop your reader in the middle of a town square, or begin with an abstract concept. 

I would like to suggest an easy and practical way to do it. In the first sentence or two, pull your reader from the outside world into this particular magical place you’ve chosen to write about.

Then, focus on the place you want to describe and say something general about it that would set the context or provide a perspective. 

And finally, set some kind of an expectation for what’s to follow. You can create a sense of mystery, if you like. Remember, this is not an argumentative essay. So, you have more room for creativity.

This is where we begin to put together our descriptive essay example. Let’s write our introductory paragraph.

Descriptive Essay Introduction

“When the city has worn you down, the body is tired, and the soul yearns for a respite, you can count on a little magic gem of a town that will nourish you back to life. The name of the place is Karlovy Vary, and it is nested in the heart of Europe, in Western Bohemia, a region in Czech Republic famous for its spa towns. Its beautiful architecture, therapeutic landscape, clean air, and mineral waters offer the weary a healing adventure and a feast for the senses.”

What have we done in this paragraph? 

We’ve pulled the reader into the world of this small spa town. We first descended in their world of the stressful city, and then we turned their attention to its opposite. We named the town and explained where it is located. 

And finally, we provided a glimpse of what to expect in this descriptive essay about this town. Now, we’re ready to write the body of the essay. 

Step 5. Write the body of the essay

We know our three main sections, which in this case correspond to three sense perceptions. Each section can have more than one paragraph. It all depends on how long your essay has to be. 

If you are writing an essay of about 500-600 words, then a five-paragraph structure will do the job. If you need to write 2000 words or more, then you’ll have three sections instead of just three paragraphs.

And then each section can also be divided into two or three subsections (using the Power of Three, if you like). And each subsection can be a paragraph or more. 

Just remember – the more words you need, the more dividing into subtopics you must do. The key to writing more is dividing one idea into several supporting ideas. And then you simply treat each supporting idea as a tiny essay. 

If you struggle with essay writing in general or need to brush it up, I recommend you read my tutorial on essay writing for beginners . This would be a great place to turn to next.

Now, let’s write out our body paragraphs. Since there’s quite a bit to cover, we’ll probably take two paragraphs per section to get the job done.

Descriptive essay body paragraphs

“When you stay in one of the pretty little hotels in Karlovy Vary, you are likely to be descending the hills towards the hot springs every morning. No matter which part of town you live in, you’ll be greeted with a magnificent sight of little hotels and spas whose architecture has a unifying 19th century style. At the same time, each building has its own character, color, and features. The town is situated on several hills, and the hotels are lined up along about four levels. 

The first level is down by the river Tepla, and these hotels are only a few because most of the downtown is occupied with hot springs colonnades where people gather and drink hot mineral water. The next three levels ascend from the springs, and you can either take the stairs or even use a funicular that will take you to the highest level to the Hotel Imperial. As you exit your hotel in the morning, you are greeted with a sight of a collection of small, three to four story buildings that look like birthday cakes. They are pink, green, blue, red, turquoise, and any color you can imagine. You suddenly realize how this variety of colors and shapes strewn over the hillsides all facing you and the city center makes your head spin and makes you feel like you’ve never felt before. Your healing has begun with landscape therapy.

As you descend the stairs to reach the hot springs, you notice the abundance of oxygen in the air because it has a subtle but distinct smell, a bit like the way air smells right before a rain. Then, as you pass by another hotel, and you’ll pass more than one, a light whiff of toast and fried eggs with bacon hits you, stirring your appetite. It is customary to drink a cup of hot mineral water before you come back to your hotel for breakfast. It is called a drinking cure. 

As you keep walking towards the geyser and the springs that surround it, you notice another astonishing detail. Nobody is in a rush. Nobody has anywhere to be except right here, right now. Travelers with cute little porcelain cups stroll along without a worry in the world, taking in the sights, the smells, and the sounds of the birds chirping and singing all around. Their serenity infects you. You slow down, too. You begin to look, smell, and listen. This town has got you. 

Karlovy Vary is famous for its healing mineral waters that are known to alleviate gastrointestinal issues. These waters really do have magic powers. You have your little sipping cup with you, and when you reach one of the springs, you wait for your turn to fill it up, walk off, and begin sipping. The water has a very subtle smell, but its taste is pretty strong for water. It has very high mineral content and tastes salty. Most people like the taste. Some find it too strong. But one thing is for sure – by the time you’re about half way through with your cup’s content, your digestive juices have begun to stir. 

The hot springs flow out through several fountains, each with its own intricately detailed colonnade. The mineral content of water bursting out of each fountain is identical. But the temperature of the water varies from really hot to mild and comfortable. Your “spa doctor” actually prescribes which fountains to use and how much to drink. Sipping the water out of a special porcelain cup with a built-in straw-like system is a special pleasure of its own. The point is not to rush but to take about 20 minutes to empty the cup. In the meantime, you have a chance to take in the magnificent serenity that surrounds and infuses you. When you’ve drunk your water, it is time to head back to your hotel and eat breakfast. You repeat this routine three times a day for the duration of your stay. By day three, you are serenity itself. By day fourteen, you are a brand new person.”

Step 6. Write the conclusion

A conclusion in a descriptive essay is, like the introduction, more flexible than a conclusion in an argumentative essay.

You can conclude your essay in any way you really want as long as you observe one rule. Just make sure you zoom out and write in more general terms. 

It is not the time to add specific details and examples. This is the time to wrap things up and end on a general note. 

Your conclusion can be very short – only a couple of sentences. But you can take your space and write as much or as little as you feel like. You can always go back and trim it down or beef it up.

Let’s write our conclusion.

Our Conclusion

“Upon reading this, you may feel that this town is described as some sort of a paradise. And in a way, it is, especially if you are traveling from a big city and carrying a load of accumulated stress. But it’s not until you see, touch, smell, hear, and taste it for yourself that this European jewel will become a part of your entire being forever.”

It’s okay to be a little emotional and perhaps to even exaggerate a little in the concluding paragraph. Just notice that this one is more general than any of the body paragraphs. 

It also touches upon or mentions every sense perception evoked in the body of the essay. 

Your Key Takeaways

• A descriptive essay is much more flexible and has a lot fewer rules than an argumentative essay.
• Use the five sense perceptions – sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing – to structure your essay. 
• You don’t have to organize your essay by sense perceptions. You can divide your place into sections and walk the reader through each one. 
• You can even structure your essay as a string of paragraphs that describe one particular walk or route, from beginning to end.
• Our last body paragraph is a description of the process of drinking hot mineral water in Karlovy Vary. It is a perfect example of a description of a process, if you ever want to write that kind of an essay.
• Don’t persuade but subtly suggest. 
• Show, don’t tell, whenever you can. 

A Few Scenic Snapshots of Karlovy Vary’s Charm

I hope this was helpful. Now go ahead and write that descriptive essay about a place!

Tutor Phil is an e-learning professional who helps adult learners finish their degrees by teaching them academic writing skills.

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Background Essay: The Movement Unites (1890-1920)

Directions:

Keep these discussion questions in mind as you read the background essay, making marginal notes as desired. Respond to the reflection and analysis questions at the end of the essay.

Discussion Questions

• What are the advantages of achieving a constitutional amendment protecting women’s right to vote, rather than seeking to directly persuade a sufficient number of voters to support their mission?
• Are there limits to the will of the majority in a democracy?
• Are there limits to the will of the majority in a republic?
• Is the U.S. a republic or a democracy?

Introduction

The movement for women’s suffrage had made great strides by the end of the nineteenth century. Rooted in the ideas of the Declaration of Independence and given strength through the determined and unrelenting efforts of its supporters, the movement was on the verge of victory. The final steps included both moderate and conciliatory actions led by Carrie Chapman Catt and courageous and controversial actions led by Alice Paul. Paul, a thorn in the side of the more conservative members of the movement and of President Woodrow Wilson, exercised constitutionally protected rights to challenge injustice through civil disobedience. Her confrontational tactics alienated some but also helped galvanize the movement to finally win passage of the Nineteenth Amendment and secure the right to vote for American women.

The last decade of the nineteenth century saw the beginning of a time of healing and strengthening of the women’s suffrage movement: the two branches came back together. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) had been focused on achieving a constitutional amendment, while the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) had worked on persuading the states to give women the vote in their state constitutions. These two groups reunited and formed the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association, or NAWSA, in 1890. Since the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments had been ratified without addressing women’s suffrage, the stage was set for their combined energies and talents to finally persuade the states and the nation that denying women the vote was incompatible with the Founding principle of equality.

Women in Public Life: Labor Reform

While the NAWSA lobbied state and federal lawmakers, the suffrage movement gained strength as larger numbers of women turned to work outside the home to support themselves and their families. By 1900, over 3 million American women were working for wages. Very often, these women worked in poor and hazardous conditions. Indeed, most workers—adults and children alike—labored seven days a week for long hours in conditions that would shock most people today. In one tragic incident, 146 people, almost all of them young immigrant women, were killed when the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory went up in flames in 1911. Many were unable to escape because the doors had been locked to prevent workers from taking extra breaks or stealing. Many were convinced that women needed a more direct influence on laws governing working conditions in factories and other workplaces.

Frances Perkins was a young sociology professor in 1911, visiting with friends when they heard fire engines and screams nearby. They rushed outside to see the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in flames. Perkins later explained:

“ We could see this building from Washington Square and the people had just begun to jump [from the upper floors] when we got there. They had been holding until that time, standing in the windowsills, being crowded by others behind them, the fire pressing closer and closer, the smoke closer and closer. [As firefighters struggled to deploy a net to catch them] finally …they couldn’t wait any longer. They began to jump. The window was too crowded and they would jump and they hit the sidewalk…Everybody who jumped was killed.” — Frances Perkins, Lecture at Cornell University, September 30, 1964.

Perkins had already been a settlement house worker and a reformer lobbying for laws to improve working conditions. She described the Triangle Factory fire as a pivotal moment in her life, prompting her to devote her career to such reforms as an end to child labor, a minimum wage, unemployment insurance, and laws prohibiting unsafe work places. President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 would appoint Perkins Secretary of Labor,

making her the first female cabinet member. In Roosevelt’s administration, she went on to help draft the Social Security Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Women sought to participate in labor unions in response to dehumanizing working conditions. The Triangle Factory fire helped grow the power of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU), founded in 1900. The ILGWU, one of the first labor unions with mostly female members, negotiated for more humane working conditions and better contracts from factory owners. It and other labor unions lobbied state and federal government for stronger safety regulations. Suffragist Mary Ware Dennett said about the Triangle Factory fire, “It is enough to silence forever [the claim that] working women can safely trust their welfare to their ‘natural protectors.’… to the sort of protection, care, and chivalry that is indicated by the men who allow 700 women to sit back to back, wedged in such close rows between machines that quick exit is an impossibility; a ten-story building with no outside fire escapes… We claim in no uncertain voice that the time has come when women should have the one efficient tool with which to make for themselves decent and safe working conditions—the ballot.” A widespread suffragist slogan was, “A vote is a fire escape.”

Women in Public Life: Temperance

Women also continued to play a significant role in public life through participation in and support of such social reforms as settlement houses to help poor immigrant families, labor reform, and the temperance movement. This “Municipal Housekeeping”, an allusion to a traditional role in the home, became a popular phrase for this work in “cleaning up” towns in cities.

The efforts of Frances Willard and many others helped lead thirty-eight states to enact state-wide prohibition laws by 1915. Women also worked to change education practices and curriculum: by the early twentieth century, every state required its public schools to provide instruction on temperance. And of course, the crowning achievement of the temperance movement was nation-wide prohibition, which would go on to be enacted by constitutional amendment in 1918. The work of women involved in such social reforms over the half-century since the Seneca Falls Convention provided rich experience in mobilizing, organizing, and creation of social institutions intended to align American society with principles such as equality and inalienable rights. The suffragists capitalized on the experience and the networks created through these efforts in order to galvanize women around suffrage.

Photograph of firemen putting the fire out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, March 25, 1911, first published on front page of New York World. (ILR School, Cornell University)

Suffrage Struggling

Amid other progressive reforms of the early twentieth century were amendments to the Constitution, including income tax (1913), direct election of senators (1913), and prohibition (1919). The women’s suffrage movement, however, struggled to gain support for a constitutional amendment. Although the 1912 Progressive, or “Bull Moose” Party made women’s suffrage part of their platform, their candidate, Theodore Roosevelt, was defeated.

The United States Congress was not eager to give women the vote. In 1911, California Senator J. B. Sanford, Chairman of the Democratic Caucus, argued:

“ Suffrage is not a right. It is a privilege that may or may not be granted. Politics is no place for woman [and] consequently the privilege should not be granted to her… The mothers of this country can shape the destinies of the nation by keeping in their places and attending to those duties that God Almighty intended for them. The kindly, gentle influence of the mother in the home and the dignified influence of the teacher in the school will far outweigh all the influence of all the mannish female politicians on earth.”

A 1914 photograph of female activists next to a horse-drawn wagon with sign, “National American Woman Suffrage Association founded in 1869 supports BristowMondell Resolution drafted by Susan B. Anthony, 1874.” (Library of Congress)

Other arguments against suffrage included that women were already represented in government by their husbands, that women could not be full citizens because they did not defend the nation in war, the assertion that divorce rates and crime had risen in states with women’s suffrage, and the claim that most women did not actually want the right to vote. It is difficult to know the percentage of women who opposed women’s suffrage. While women formed national organizations advocating their right to vote as early as 1869, the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage was founded in 1911.

Suffragist Alice Paul saw that it was time to step forward. Paul had been raised by Quaker parents and had attended women’s suffrage meetings with her mother since she was a little girl. After earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from New York School of Philanthropy (now Columbia University), she went to England to earn her Ph.D. There she observed the more confrontational (but generally non-violent) tactics of British suffragists, including picketing and hunger strikes. Paul began to take a stronger leadership role in NAWSA, and decided to make her move around the time of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration

Official program – Woman Suffrage Procession, Washington, D.C. March 3, 1913, showing woman, in elaborate attire, with cape, blowing long horn, from which is draped a “votes for women” banner, on decorated horse, with U.S. Capitol in background. (Library of Congress)

1913 Women’s Suffrage Procession

Banking on the national attention that would be focused on Wilson’s inauguration, Paul convinced NAWSA to hold a procession in Washington, D.C. the day before Wilson’s inauguration. Paul and her fellow suffragists would, as the program described, “march in a spirit of protest against the present political organization of society, from which women are excluded.” On March 3, 1913, more than eight thousand marchers from all over the United States and the world joined the procession in support of women’s suffrage. The procession included floats, marching bands, and groups mounted on horses. In keeping with common segregation practice of the day, African Americans including Ida B. WellsBarnett were expected to walk in the back of the parade. Mrs. Barnett bristled at the segregation, refused to comply, and unobtrusively joined the parade flanked by white women. The marchers encountered hostile crowds who tried to disrupt and block their way. Aggressive spectators shouted insults, shoved and tripped the marchers. Violent scuffles occurred, with little action by the police to restore order. More than 100 marchers were treated for injuries. Congress later investigated the event and concluded that the procession route had not been adequately secured.

Four days later Paul and others met with President Wilson, who told them it was not the right time for a constitutional amendment. Rather than feeling dissuaded, Paul increased her efforts. She founded a new group, the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. This group distributed pamphlets and held peaceful protests, lobbying Congress to propose a constitutional amendment for women’s suffrage. Paul’s tactics of picketing and hunger strikes might seem tame in modern times, but a century ago, they were considered radical and unseemly behavior for women. In 1914 Paul was losing patience with the ability of NAWSA to effect change. She wrote in a letter, “It is better, as far as getting the vote is concerned I believe, to have a small, united group than an immense debating society.” In 1916 Paul officially split from NAWSA and formed a new organization, the National Woman’s Party, or NWP.

Carrie Chapman Catt’s “Winning Plan”

Also in 1916, Carrie Chapman Catt became president of NAWSA. Though she was not always successful, Catt worked hard to bring the movement together. She proposed working at both the state and national levels. Her plan called for an amendment to the Constitution as its ultimate goal, but it also encouraged the development of state and local initiatives. If a state offered equal voting rights, the women in that state should campaign for the federal amendment. If the state appeared open to the idea of voting rights, they would organize at the state level. All the groups working for ratification needed to work together, even if they did not see eye to eye on tactics.

When the United States entered World War I, Paul’s tactics fell under even greater scrutiny. Would women’s suffragists support the president and the country, or would they hinder the war effort? Catt decided to curb NAWSA’s petitions and instead focus on the war effort. She hoped this decision would earn favor by turning NAWSA into a symbol of patriotism and love of country.

Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party, on the other hand, did not pause their efforts because the country was at war. In fact, they claimed that the war shined a light on Wilson’s hypocrisy: The U.S. was fighting what Wilson called a war to make the world “safe for democracy,” when half the U.S. population did not have the right to vote. In 1917, the National Woman’s Party held constant, silent vigil in front of the White House, protesting throughout the day, regardless of the weather. The peaceful sentinels broke no laws. However, their continued picketing drew the criticism that they were disloyal by distracting the nation during wartime. Mobs attacked them, knocked them to the ground, and shredded their banners while the police stood by, refusing to intervene.

In October of 1917, police announced that protesters in front of the White House would be arrested. Though Paul and her companions were peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights, they were arrested and jailed on charges of blocking traffic, and subjected to brutal treatment while in the Washington, D.C. Jail and in the Occoquan Workhouse. The suffragists were housed in freezing rooms, forced to wear filthy, scratchy prison uniforms, and provided food that was often spoiled or filled with worms. The workhouse was unsanitary, and prisoners were forced to share cells, bedding, and dishes with people who had contagious diseases. As protesters were arrested, new women stepped up to picket in their places until they too were arrested. Over time, the jail sentences grew longer and physical mistreatment escalated to beatings and other forms of torture.

Paul, who was jailed for seven months and fed only bread and water, grew so weak that she was sent to the prison hospital. To protest the treatment used against the suffragists, she began a hunger strike and then was force-fed through the nasogastric method. With the prisoner restrained, a tube was forced through the nostril, down the back of the throat, and into the stomach. Then liquid food, such as raw eggs mixed with milk, was funneled into the tube. The grotesque procedure often resulted in the prisoner vomiting violently.

Public opinion had initially been against the NWP for impeding the war effort, but sympathy for Paul increased when reports surfaced regarding the ruthless treatment that she and other suffragists suffered.

Throughout 1917, the National Woman’s Party held constant vigil in front of the White House. (Library of Congress)

Victory at Hand

With the change in public opinion and the end of the war (World War I ended when Germany surrendered on November 11, 1918) the suffragists were on the verge of victory. World War I increased the momentum of the suffrage movement as more women moved into the workforce to take the place of men who had gone off to fight the war. The contributions that women made to the war on the home front may have helped NAWSA when it resumed lobbying. The Progressive Movement’s call for the people to have a more direct voice in government also gave weight to the idea that women should vote. The amendment prohibiting the national government and state governments from denying the vote based on sex passed in both houses in June, 1919. President Wilson, whose attitude toward Alice Paul was hostile, respected and admired Carrie Chapman Catt. He had announced his support of the amendment in 1918. He said, “We have made partners of the women in this war. Shall we admit them only to a partnership of suffering and sacrifice and toil and not to a partnership of right?” It would then be up to the states for ratification. On August 24, 1920, Tennessee became the critical thirty-sixth state to ratify. Two days later—seventy-two years after the start of the suffrage movement—the Nineteenth Amendment was adopted.

Virginia Arnold holding Kaiser Wilson banner, 1917. Library of Congress.

On August 18, 1920, Alice Paul unfurled a banner with 36 stars, signifying ratification by 36 states and the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment. (Library of Congress)

The Nineteenth Amendment

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

REFLECTION AND ANALYSIS QUESTIONS

• How did greater participation by women in the labor force strengthen the cause for women’s suffrage?
• The Temperance Movement, led largely by women, succeeded in amending the Constitution (something that had been done only 18 times to that point in U.S. history) before most American women could cast a vote. How would you respond to someone who pointed to this fact as evidence that women did not need voting rights in order to achieve their political ends and civic objectives?
• What was Alice Paul’s background? What are some ways her upbringing and young adulthood influenced her style as a reformer?
• How did Carrie Chapman Catt work to unify the women’s suffrage movement?
• How did the U.S. entry into World War I affect the women’s suffrage movement?
• Principles: equality, republican/representative government, popular sovereignty, federalism, inalienable rights, freedom of speech/press/assembly
• Virtues: perseverance, contribution, moderation, resourcefulness, courage, respect, justice

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My House (Descriptive Essay Sample)

Table of Contents

Descriptive Essays on My House

Introduction.

When people choose their home, it also reflects other intricate details about all the people living in it.

In addition, in making their house a home, people tell the story of their cultural heritage and favorite traditions. Intentional or not, the elements we choose to adorn our home tells our story. The end result is always a visually unique “screenshot” of who you are, what you love, and what you aspire to be. It also reflects the quality of relationships that thrive within its four walls, through images, accessories, photos, even novelty items.

Indeed, every house has a story of its own that has to be told and shared. This descriptive essay about my house focuses on the inner and outer beauty of my home and how I have become attached to the significant meaning of each design detail.

For similar descriptive essays on houses and home design or inspirations on how to describe your house, check out the rest of our blog. You can also hire an essay writer that will write an essay for you on a similar topic at an affordable price. We will be happy to offer you some discount offers on such occasions.

Descriptive Essay Sample About a House

The view outside my house is a mixture of colors and beautiful scenery. First to catch people’s attention is our front yard, which features a spacious garden filled with numerous plant types such as orchids and roses. Having been professionally landscaped, it is one of the most attractive features of my home.

As visitors walk to the front porch, the walls and small fence attached to the house itself are painted white and light green, making the image strikingly attractive to the eye.

Welcome to My Home

Greeting guests, friends, and homeowners is a daintily-painted vintage blue-and-white door with a golden doorknob.  Upon entering my house, one gets a feel of the simplicity in details, punctuated by the mesmerizing smell of lavender and women’s perfume in the living room.

It is easy to see that I went with an elegant theme after taking a quick scan. A refined centerpiece table is the pièce de résistance. There is also a golden brown and white carpet with a marble vase from Canada perfectly placed on the table.

Enter the Library

There is another room on the left side leading to a library filled with vintage, classic, and modern books. The 5-story shelves painted in black feature authentic pinewood.

A brown table is also seen across the room accentuated with a calendar, picture frame, and a pointed calligraphy pen. Beside the table is a tall sculpted lamp featuring delicate flower stems and angelic figures from top to bottom.

Hovering on the wall behind the desk is a painting of a girl in a white gown underneath a tree bursting with yellow flowers.

Join Me in the Kitchen and Come Dine with Us

A quick inspection of the kitchen will show you a simple silver oven, microwave, cupboards, wooden drawers, kitchen sink, and a large refrigerator with drawings from my kids put in place by magnets.

Heading over to the dining area, a circular dining table with pink and blue chairs are thoughtfully styled to mirror the family’s love for mealtimes. Utensils and plates are shining white and glistening in the ray of the sun peeking through the open windows.

Bedrooms Are Our Sanctuaries

People would be surprised to discover that there are a couple of rooms inside my house that are not aligned with the classical theme enveloping the rest of the house.

My master bedroom is filled with collectible toys and items, housed in silver glass shelves and cabinets for people to appreciate. There is also a 32-inch flat television screen attached to the wall opposite the king-sized bed. I watch TV here nightly and make sure to save all of my favorite shows.

Posters of movies and cartoon characters from Hollywood films and stories are hoisted on the walls with glass frames, creating a gallery effect. The closet and cabinet for clothes and paraphernalia are all painted in glossy white and blue.  There’s also a shelf for designer shoes, slippers, and sandals that have been collected over the years.

The other two rooms found in the hallway going to the living room are the laundry and storage areas, featuring boxes of valuable or sentimental items collected in the past years.

Lessons from Decorating My House

From this experience, I have realized that a home is a place where the best memories are made. Therefore it is important to showcase these memories, whether childhood memories or recent special moments with loved ones.

It is important that the design direction makes people feel comfortable, whether visiting or living in it. You know that the design works when people experience your home and instantly have a favorite room or favorite place. It should be an area where they feel safe and at home. Rooms filled with personal accessories go a long way in setting a relaxing environment for family members.

My house is a mixture of both classical and modern aesthetics. This signifies how I have not forgotten my cultural heritage, at the same time showing off my appreciation for fresh and relevant designs. The variety of colors, pictures, and displays inside my house will surely surprise and pique the curiosity of the visitors.

A Short Description Essay Example About My Mansion

Our family mansion is an interesting mix of the old and the new. As you approach the entrance, you will come across a personalized wooden door with carvings of all the names of the family members on it.

Welcoming you to the living area is a generous 10-seater coach, with a beautifully stained console and coffee table surrounding it. This is a great place to host parties and intimate gatherings.

Our kitchen is a warm and cozy space where family and friends gather to eat, drink, and toast to a special occasion.

Through the kitchen is our dining room, and in the spotlight is our 12-seater dining table with a tasteful table setting. Indoor plants adorn the corners of the room, giving it a fresh and romantic vibe.

Finally, our master bedroom is a safe space and joyful haven for the family, with a large flat-screen television and mini-bar ready for a night of entertainment. I am really proud of the home that we’ve built and the people living in it. My parents invested a lot in its design and I am always happy to welcome people into our space.

How to start a descriptive paragraph about my house?

It’s important to be prepared with specific adjectives about your home. As you are taking the reader on a literary tour of your house, it is good to write in a way that “directs” their attention to each detail. Pretend you are taking them from room to room and are describing the look and feel of each one, pointing out key elements to take note of.

How to describe a house in an essay?

There are both emotional and technical descriptions to consider in writing an essay about a house. It’s important to have a mix of both. The technical descriptions literally and figuratively provide structure, while the emotional descriptions tell the story. Don’t be afraid to shine a light on the most minute details if they are an important part of the house’s narrative.

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Descriptive Writing: The Beach

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Published: Mar 20, 2024

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Guest Essay

A Dangerous Game Is Underway in Asia

By Mike M. Mochizuki and Michael D. Swaine

Dr. Mochizuki is a professor at George Washington University. Dr. Swaine is a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

This month, President Biden threw one of the most lavish state dinners in Washington’s recent memory. Celebrities and billionaires flocked to the White House to dine in honor of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, posing for photos in front of an elaborate display of Japanese fans. Jeff Bezos dropped by; Paul Simon provided the entertainment.

The spectacle was part of a carefully orchestrated series of events to showcase the renewed U.S.-Japan relationship — and the notable transformation of the United States’ security alliances in Asia. The next day, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines was also in the U.S. capital for a historic U.S.-Japan-Philippines summit, during which a new trilateral security partnership was announced.

Both events were directed at the same audience: China.

Over the past several years, Washington has built a series of multilateral security arrangements like these in the Asia-Pacific region. Although U.S. officials claim that the recent mobilization of allies and partners is not aimed at China, don’t believe it. Indeed, Mr. Kishida emphasized in a speech to Congress on April 11 that China presents “the greatest strategic challenge” both to Japan and to the international community.

China’s recent activity is, of course, concerning. Its military has acquired ever more potent ways to counter U.S. and allied capabilities in the Western Pacific and has behaved aggressively in the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and elsewhere, alarming its neighbors.

But Washington’s pursuit of an increasingly complex lattice of security ties is a dangerous game. Those ties include upgrades in defense capabilities, more joint military exercises, deeper intelligence sharing, new initiatives on defense production and technology cooperation and the enhancement of contingency planning and military coordination. All of that may make Beijing more cautious about the blatant use of military force in the region. But the new alliance structure is not, on its own, a long-term guarantor of regional peace and stability — and could even increase the risk of stumbling into a conflict.

The security partnership rolled out this month in Washington is only the latest in a string of new defense configurations that reach across Asia and the Pacific. In 2017 the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, known as the Quad, was revived, promoting collaboration among the United States, Japan, Australia and India. In September 2021, Australia, Britain and the United States began their partnership, known as AUKUS, and the United States, Japan and South Korea committed to closer cooperation in a summit at Camp David last August.

All of these moves have been motivated primarily by concern over Beijing, which has, in turn, castigated these countries as being part of a U.S.-led effort to create an Asian version of NATO designed to contain China. None amount to a collective defense pact like the NATO treaty, whose Article 5 considers an armed attack on one member as “an attack against them all.” But China will nevertheless almost certainly regard the latest agreement among the United States, Japan and the Philippines — with which it is engaged in an active territorial dispute — as further confirmation of a Washington-led attempt to threaten its interests.

It’s not yet clear how Beijing will respond. But it may double down on the expansion of its military capabilities and intensify its use of military and paramilitary force to assert its territorial claims in the region, especially regarding the sensitive issue of Taiwan. Beijing could also promote further Chinese military cooperation with Russia in the form of enhanced military exercises and deployments.

The net result may be an Asia-Pacific region that is even more divided and dangerous than it is today, marked by a deepening arms race. In this increasingly contentious and militarized environment, the chance of some political incident or military accident triggering a devastating regional war is likely to grow. This is especially likely, given the absence of meaningful U.S. and allied crisis communication channels with China to prevent such an incident from spiraling out of control.

To prevent this nightmare, the U.S. and its allies and partners must invest much more in diplomacy with China, in addition to bolstering military deterrence.

For a start, the United States and key allies like Japan should make a sustained effort to establish a durable crisis prevention and management dialogue with China involving each nation’s foreign policy and security agencies. So far, such dialogues have been limited primarily to military channels and topics. It is critical that both civilian and military officials understand the many possible sources of inadvertent crises and develop ways to prevent them or manage them if they occur. This process should include the establishment of an agreed-upon set of leaders’ best practices for crisis management and a trusted but unofficial channel through which the relevant parties can discuss crisis-averting understandings.

The immediate focus for the United States and Japan should be on avoiding actions that add to tensions across the Taiwan Strait. The deployment of American military trainers to Taiwan on what looks like a permanent basis and suggestions by some U.S. officials and policy analysts that Taiwan be treated as a security linchpin within the overall U.S. defense posture in Asia are needlessly provocative. They also openly contradict America’s longstanding “one China” policy , under which the United States ended the deployment of all U.S. military forces to Taiwan and does not view Taiwan as a key U.S. security location, caring only that the Taiwan issue be handled peacefully and without coercion.

Japan, for its part, has also become more circumspect about its own “one China” policy by being reluctant to reaffirm explicitly that Tokyo does not support Taiwan’s independence. Recent statements by some political leaders in Tokyo about Japanese military forces being ready to help defend Taiwan will almost certainly inflame Chinese leaders, who remember that Japan seized Taiwan after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 and ’95.

Washington and Tokyo should clearly reaffirm their previous commitments on the China-Taiwan dispute. Tokyo also should confirm that it does not support any unilateral move by Taiwan toward independence and resist U.S. efforts to compel Japan to commit to Taiwan’s defense. Although American officials have reportedly been prodding Japan to join military planning for a Taiwan conflict, a large majority of Japanese residents do not favor fighting to defend Taiwan. Tokyo can best contribute to deterring China by focusing on strengthening its ability to defend its own islands.

Washington and its allies should shift to a more positive approach to China, aimed at fostering accommodation and restraint. This could include working to secure credible mutual assurances regarding limits on Chinese military deployments, such as amphibious forces and missile capabilities relevant to Taiwan, in return for U.S. limits on the levels and types of arms that it sells to the island. They could also explore increasing security cooperation with China regarding cyberattacks, the defense of sea lanes and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as better collaboration to combat climate change and the outbreak of another pandemic.

China, of course, has its own role to play. In the end, Beijing, like the United States, wants to avoid a crisis and conflict in the region. Given that, it should respond to a more cooperative American and allied approach by moderating its own coercive behavior regarding maritime disputes.

None of this will be easy, given the intense suspicion that now exists between Beijing and Washington and its allies. But new thinking and new diplomatic efforts could incentivize China to reciprocate in meaningful ways. At the very least, it’s necessary to try. Focusing on military deterrence alone won’t work. Trying to find a way to cooperate with China is the best way — perhaps the only way — to steer the world away from disaster.

Mike M. Mochizuki is a professor at George Washington University and a nonresident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Michael D. Swaine is a senior research fellow focusing on China-related security topics at the Quincy Institute.

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