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How to Write a Descriptive Essay | Example & Tips

Published on July 30, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on August 14, 2023.

A descriptive essay gives a vivid, detailed description of something—generally a place or object, but possibly something more abstract like an emotion. This type of essay , like the narrative essay , is more creative than most academic writing .

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Table of contents

Descriptive essay topics, tips for writing descriptively, descriptive essay example, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about descriptive essays.

When you are assigned a descriptive essay, you’ll normally be given a specific prompt or choice of prompts. They will often ask you to describe something from your own experience.

• Describe a place you love to spend time in.
• Describe an object that has sentimental value for you.

You might also be asked to describe something outside your own experience, in which case you’ll have to use your imagination.

• Describe the experience of a soldier in the trenches of World War I.
• Describe what it might be like to live on another planet.

Sometimes you’ll be asked to describe something more abstract, like an emotion.

If you’re not given a specific prompt, try to think of something you feel confident describing in detail. Think of objects and places you know well, that provoke specific feelings or sensations, and that you can describe in an interesting way.

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The key to writing an effective descriptive essay is to find ways of bringing your subject to life for the reader. You’re not limited to providing a literal description as you would be in more formal essay types.

Make use of figurative language, sensory details, and strong word choices to create a memorable description.

Use figurative language

Figurative language consists of devices like metaphor and simile that use words in non-literal ways to create a memorable effect. This is essential in a descriptive essay; it’s what gives your writing its creative edge and makes your description unique.

Take the following description of a park.

This tells us something about the place, but it’s a bit too literal and not likely to be memorable.

If we want to make the description more likely to stick in the reader’s mind, we can use some figurative language.

Here we have used a simile to compare the park to a face and the trees to facial hair. This is memorable because it’s not what the reader expects; it makes them look at the park from a different angle.

You don’t have to fill every sentence with figurative language, but using these devices in an original way at various points throughout your essay will keep the reader engaged and convey your unique perspective on your subject.

Use your senses

Another key aspect of descriptive writing is the use of sensory details. This means referring not only to what something looks like, but also to smell, sound, touch, and taste.

Obviously not all senses will apply to every subject, but it’s always a good idea to explore what’s interesting about your subject beyond just what it looks like.

Even when your subject is more abstract, you might find a way to incorporate the senses more metaphorically, as in this descriptive essay about fear.

Choose the right words

Writing descriptively involves choosing your words carefully. The use of effective adjectives is important, but so is your choice of adverbs , verbs , and even nouns.

It’s easy to end up using clichéd phrases—“cold as ice,” “free as a bird”—but try to reflect further and make more precise, original word choices. Clichés provide conventional ways of describing things, but they don’t tell the reader anything about your unique perspective on what you’re describing.

Try looking over your sentences to find places where a different word would convey your impression more precisely or vividly. Using a thesaurus can help you find alternative word choices.

• My cat runs across the garden quickly and jumps onto the fence to watch it from above.
• My cat crosses the garden nimbly and leaps onto the fence to survey it from above.

However, exercise care in your choices; don’t just look for the most impressive-looking synonym you can find for every word. Overuse of a thesaurus can result in ridiculous sentences like this one:

• My feline perambulates the allotment proficiently and capers atop the palisade to regard it from aloft.

An example of a short descriptive essay, written in response to the prompt “Describe a place you love to spend time in,” is shown below.

Hover over different parts of the text to see how a descriptive essay works.

On Sunday afternoons I like to spend my time in the garden behind my house. The garden is narrow but long, a corridor of green extending from the back of the house, and I sit on a lawn chair at the far end to read and relax. I am in my small peaceful paradise: the shade of the tree, the feel of the grass on my feet, the gentle activity of the fish in the pond beside me.

My cat crosses the garden nimbly and leaps onto the fence to survey it from above. From his perch he can watch over his little kingdom and keep an eye on the neighbours. He does this until the barking of next door’s dog scares him from his post and he bolts for the cat flap to govern from the safety of the kitchen.

With that, I am left alone with the fish, whose whole world is the pond by my feet. The fish explore the pond every day as if for the first time, prodding and inspecting every stone. I sometimes feel the same about sitting here in the garden; I know the place better than anyone, but whenever I return I still feel compelled to pay attention to all its details and novelties—a new bird perched in the tree, the growth of the grass, and the movement of the insects it shelters…

Sitting out in the garden, I feel serene. I feel at home. And yet I always feel there is more to discover. The bounds of my garden may be small, but there is a whole world contained within it, and it is one I will never get tired of inhabiting.

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The key difference is that a narrative essay is designed to tell a complete story, while a descriptive essay is meant to convey an intense description of a particular place, object, or concept.

Narrative and descriptive essays both allow you to write more personally and creatively than other kinds of essays , and similar writing skills can apply to both.

If you’re not given a specific prompt for your descriptive essay , think about places and objects you know well, that you can think of interesting ways to describe, or that have strong personal significance for you.

The best kind of object for a descriptive essay is one specific enough that you can describe its particular features in detail—don’t choose something too vague or general.

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Ultimate guide to writing a descriptive essay, carla johnson.

• June 14, 2023
• Essay Topics and Ideas , How to Guides

If you want to get better at writing, you should definitely learn how to write a descriptive essay. In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at what a descriptive essay is, why it’s important to write one, and what you can expect to learn from this guide.

– Definition of a descriptive essay: It is a type of academic writing that tries to give a vivid picture of a person, place, thing, or event by using sensory details, figurative language, and other literary techniques.

– Importance of writing a descriptive essay: It’s important to write such essays because they help writers improve their descriptive skills, which are important in many fields like creative writing, journalism, and marketing.

– Purpose of the guide: The purpose of this guide is to provide you with a step-by-step framework for writing a successful essay, from choosing a topic to revising and editing your final draft. By following this guide, you’ll be able to write descriptive essays that are engaging, effective, and memorable.

What You'll Learn

Understanding the Elements of a Descriptive Essay

To write a successful descriptive essay, it’s important to understand the key elements of this type of writing. Here are some of the essential elements to keep in mind:

1. Description of the subject or topic : The heart of a descriptive essay is the description of the subject or topic. This should be a detailed and evocative description that captures the essence of the subject or topic.

2. Sensory details: To make the description more vivid and engaging, a descriptive essay should incorporate sensory details, such as sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Sensory details help the reader to experience the subject or topic in a more immersive way.

3. Organization and structure : A descriptive essay should be well-organized and structured to ensure that the description flows smoothly and logically. This can be achieved through the use of descriptive subheadings, transitions, and other organizational tools.

4. Importance of vivid language: Finally, a descriptive essay should use vivid language and literary techniques, such as metaphors, similes, and personification, to bring the subject or topic to life and make it more memorable and engaging.

Choosing a Topic for a Descriptive Essay

Choosing a good topic is essential to writing a successful descriptive essay. Here are some tips to help you choose a topic:

1. Importance of selecting a good topic: A good topic is one that is interesting, relevant, and meaningful to you as a writer. It should also be a topic that you feel confident writing about.

2. Tips for choosing a topic: To choose a good topic, start by brainstorming a list of potential subjects or topics that you find interesting or important. Then, narrow down your list by considering factors such as feasibility, relevance, and potential for descriptive detail.

3. 50 Descriptive essay topics: Here are some topic ideas to inspire your descriptive essay writing:

– A favorite childhood memory

– Your first love

– A memorable trip or vacation

– Your favorite place in nature

– A special possession or object

– A person who has had a significant impact on your life

– A favorite food or meal

– A significant life event

– The inside of a favorite room or building

– A work of art that inspires you

– A favorite book or movie

– The view from a favorite spot

– A unique hobby or passion

– An important historical or cultural site

– A special moment in time

– A favorite animal or pet

– A childhood game or toy

– A favorite sport or athletic activity

– A dream or aspiration

– A favorite holiday or celebration

– A special talent or skill

– A favorite season or weather event

– A significant life lesson

– A favorite song or piece of music

– A favorite color or aesthetic

– A favorite smell or taste

– A significant relationship or friendship

– A favorite type of architecture or design

– A moment of personal growth or transformation

– A favorite mode of transportation

– A favorite element of nature (e.g. water, fire, wind)

– A favorite type of plant or flower

– A favorite type of weather phenomenon (e.g. thunderstorm, snowfall)

– A favorite type of landscape (e.g. mountains, beach, desert)

– A favorite type of cuisine or food culture

– A favorite type of clothing or fashion trend

– A favorite type of technology or gadget

– A favorite type of musical instrument

– A favorite type of literature or genre

– A favorite type of film or television genre

– A favorite type of art or artistic style

– A favorite type of vehicle or machine

– A favorite type of recreational activity

– A favorite type of job or profession

– A favorite type of building or structure

– A favorite type of holiday or celebration

– A favorite type of animal or pet

By choosing a topic that is interesting and relevant to you, and by incorporating descriptive details and sensory language, you can create a memorable and engaging descriptive essay that captures the essence of your chosen subject or topic.

Research and Gathering of Information

Research is an important part of writing a successful descriptive essay. Here are some key considerations to keep in mind when conducting research for your essay:

1. Importance of research in writing a descriptive essay: Research can help you to gather information and insights that will support and enhance your descriptive essay. It can also help you to find interesting and engaging details that will make your essay more memorable and impactful.

2. Sources of information for research: There are many different sources of information you can draw upon when researching your descriptive essay. These might include books, articles, interviews, personal experiences , and observations.

3. Evaluating sources: It’s important to evaluate your sources carefully to ensure that they are reliable and trustworthy. When evaluating a source , consider factors such as the author’s credentials, the publication’s reputation, and any potential biases or limitations.

Creating a Descriptive Essay Outline

Creating an outline is an important step in the writing process , and can help you to organize your thoughts and ideas in a clear and logical way. Here’s what you need to know about creating a descriptive essay outline:

1. Importance of creating an outline: An outline can help you to structure your essay , ensuring that you cover all the key points and details you want to include. It can also help you to identify any gaps or weaknesses in your argument, and to revise and refine your essay more easily.

2. Elements of a descriptive essay outline: A descriptive essay outline typically includes an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Within each of these sections, you may include subheadings or bullet points to further organize your ideas.

3. Examples of a descriptive essay outline: Here’s an example of a basic descriptive essay outline:

I. Introduction

   A. Hook

   B. Thesis statement

   C. Background information

II. Body Paragraphs

   A. Topic sentence

   B. Sensory details and description

   C. Supporting evidence and examples

   D. Analysis and interpretation

III. Conclusion

   A. Summary of main points

   B. Restatement of thesis

   C. Final thoughts and implications

By using an outline to guide your writing, you can create a descriptive essay that is well-organized, engaging, and impactful.

Writing the Introduction of a Descriptive Essay

The introduction of a descriptive essay is an important part of the writing process. Here’s what you need to know about writing a strong introduction:

1. Importance of an introduction: The introduction sets the tone for your essay and provides readers with an overview of what they can expect to read. A strong introduction can grab the reader’s attention and make them want to keep reading.

2. Elements of an introduction: A strong introduction should include a hook to grab the reader’s attention, background information to provide context, and a thesis statement that previews the main points of your essay .

3. Examples of a descriptive essay introduction: Here’s an example of an introduction for a descriptive essay about a favorite place:

“Standing at the edge of the cliff, I look out over the vast expanse of blue water below. The sun is just beginning to dip below the horizon, casting the sky in shades of pink and orange. This is my favorite place in the world, a place where I feel at peace and in awe of the beauty around me. In this essay, I will share my experiences and emotions about this special place, exploring the sensory details that make it so memorable.”

Developing the Body Paragraphs of a Descriptive Essay

The body paragraphs of a descriptive essay are where you will provide the bulk of your descriptive details and analysis. Here’s what you need to know about developing strong body paragraphs:

1. Importance of body paragraphs: The body paragraphs are where you will provide the sensory details and descriptions that bring your essay to life . They should be well-organized and focused, with each paragraph covering a single main point or idea.

2. Elements of body paragraphs: Each body paragraph should include a topic sentence that previews the main point of the paragraph, sensory details and descriptions that support that point, and analysis and interpretation that help to explain the significance of those details.

3. Examples of a descriptive essay body paragraphs: Here’s an example of a body paragraph for a descriptive essay about a favorite place:

“The sound of the waves crashing against the rocks below is one of the things that makes this place so special to me. It’s a rhythmic, soothing sound that seems to wash away all my worries and cares. As I stand here, I can feel the mist from the waves on my face, and I can taste the salty air on my tongue. These sensory details help to create a vivid, immersive experience that makes this place feel real and tangible to me. But it’s not just the sensory details that make this place special – it’s also the memories and emotions that are associated with it. Every time I come here, I feel a sense of peace and contentment that I can’t find anywhere else.”

By developing strong body paragraphs that incorporate vivid sensory details and analysis, you can create a descriptive essay that is engaging, memorable, and impactful.

Crafting the Conclusion of a Descriptive Essay

The conclusion of a descriptive essay is the final impression you leave on your reader. Here’s what you need to know about crafting a strong conclusion:

1. Importance of a conclusion: The conclusion should provide closure to your essay and leave a lasting impression on the reader. It should summarize the main points of your essay and leave the reader with a sense of significance and importance.

2. Elements of a conclusion: A strong conclusion should include a summary of the main points of your essay , a restatement of your thesis statement, and a final thought or reflection that leaves the reader with something to think about.

3. Examples of a descriptive essay conclusion : Here’s an example of a conclusion for a descriptive essay about a favorite place:

As I stand here, watching the sunset over the water, I am reminded of the beauty and wonder that exists in the world around us. This place, with its sensory details and memories, has become a part of who I am and what I value. It is a reminder to slow down, to appreciate the simple things in life, and to find beauty in the unexpected. As I leave this place, I carry with me the sense of peace and contentment that it brings, and I am grateful for the memories and experiences that have shaped me into the person I am today.

Editing and Revising a Descriptive Essay

Editing and revising are essential steps in the writing process. Here’s what you need to know about editing and revising your descriptive essay:

1. Importance of editing and revising : Editing and revising can help you to identify and correct errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling, as well as to refine and improve the overall quality of your essay . This process ensures that your essay is polished and ready for submission.

2. Tips for editing and revising: Some tips for editing and revising your descriptive essay include taking a break between writing and editing, reading your essay out loud to catch errors and inconsistencies, and getting feedback from others to identify areas for improvement.

3. Examples of edited and revised descriptive essays: Here’s an example of an edited and revised paragraph from a descriptive essay about a favorite place:

Original: “The beach was beautiful. The sand was warm and the water was blue. I liked going there.”

Edited and Revised: “As I walked along the shoreline, the warm sand between my toes and the cool water lapping at my ankles, I felt a sense of peace and tranquility that I couldn’t find anywhere else. The sun was setting behind me, casting the sky in shades of pink and orange, and the sound of the waves crashing against the shore was rhythmic and soothing. This was my favorite place in the world, a place where I could escape from the pressures of everyday life and just be. I will always cherish the memories and experiences I have had here, and I look forward to returning again and again.”

By taking the time to edit and revise your descriptive essay, you can ensure that it is polished, engaging, and impactful.

Frequently Asked Questions about Descriptive Essays

1. what is a descriptive essay.

A descriptive essay is a type of essay that uses vivid language and sensory details to describe a person, place, object, or event. The goal of a descriptive essay is to create a vivid and immersive experience for the reader.

2. What are the elements of a descriptive essay?

The elements of a descriptive essay include a description of the subject or topic, sensory details, organization and structure, and the importance of vivid language.

3. How do I choose a topic for a descriptive essay?

To choose a topic for a descriptive essay, consider your personal experiences and interests , focus on sensory details, and consider the audience you are writing for.

4. What is the structure of a descriptive essay?

The structure of a descriptive essay typically includes an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Within each of these sections, you may include subheadings or bullet points to further organize your ideas.

5. What is a descriptive essay thesis?

A descriptive essay thesis is a statement that previews the main points or ideas that will be covered in the essay. It typically appears at the end of the introduction and helps to guide the organization of the essay .

6. What are some common mistakes to avoid in writing a descriptive essay?

Some common mistakes to avoid in writing a descriptive essay include using vague language, overusing adjectives and adverbs, and failing to provide sufficient sensory details.

10 Inspiring Descriptive Essay Examples

1. “The Beauty of Autumn” by John Keats

2. “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson

3. The Grand Canyon” by John Muir

4. The Eiffel Tower at Night” by Ernest Hemingway

5. “The Great Barrier Reef” by David Attenborough

6. “The Northern Lights” by Jack London

7. My Childhood Home” by Maya Angelou

8. The Streets of New York City” by E.B. White

9. “The Serengeti Plains” by Jane Goodall

10. “The Taj Mahal” by Rabindranath Tagore

These 10 inspiring descriptive essays showcase the power of vivid language and sensory details to create a memorable and immersive experience for the reader. Each essay offers a unique perspective on its subject, from the natural beauty of the Grand Canyon to the bustling streets of New York City.

Lessons to be learned from these examples include the importance of using sensory details to create a vivid and immersive experience for the reader, the power of language to evoke emotion and convey meaning, and the value of personal experiences and perspectives in shaping our understanding of the world around us.

In conclusion , writing a descriptive essay requires careful attention to detail, a focus on sensory details and language, and a clear and well-organized structure. By following the guidelines outlined in this guide, you can create a descriptive essay that engages and immerses your readers in the subject matter. Remember to choose a topic that resonates with you, use sensory details to create a vivid experience for your readers, and revise and edit your work to ensure that it is polished and impactful.

Whether you’re describing a favorite place, a meaningful experience, or a unique perspective on the world, a descriptive essay can be a powerful tool for communicating your thoughts and ideas. By taking the time to craft a well-written and engaging essay , you can inspire and connect with your readers in meaningful ways.

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How to Write a Descriptive Essay

Last Updated: February 24, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,514,162 times.

A good descriptive essay creates a vivid picture of the topic in the reader’s mind. You may need to write a descriptive essay as a class assignment or you may decide to write one as a fun writing challenge. Start by brainstorming ideas for the essay. Then, outline and write the essay using vivid sensory details and strong descriptions. Always polish your essay and proofread it so it is at its best.

Brainstorming Ideas for the Essay

• You could also choose a fictional person to write about, such as a character in a book, a story, or a play. You could write about a character on your favorite TV show or video game.

• Another take on this option is to write about a made-up place or object, such as the fantastical school in your favorite book or the magic wand from your favorite TV show.

• You could also choose a more specific emotion, such as brotherly love or self-hatred. These emotions can make for powerful descriptive essays.

• For example, if you were writing about a person like your mother, you may write down under “sound” : “soft voice at night, clack of her shoes on the floor tiles, bang of the spoon when she cooks.”

Writing the Essay

• If you are writing the essay for a class, your instructor should specify if they want a five paragraph essay or if you have the freedom to use sections instead.

• For example, if you were writing a descriptive essay about your mother, you may have a thesis statement like: “In many ways, my mother is the reigning queen of our house, full of contradictions that we are too afraid to question.”

• For example, if you were writing the essay about your mom, you may start with: “My mother is not like other mothers. She is a fierce protector and a mysterious woman to my sisters and I.”
• If you were writing an essay about an object, you may start with: "Try as I might, I had a hard time keeping my pet rock alive."

• You can also use adjectives that connect to the senses, such “rotting,” “bright,” “hefty,” “rough,” and “pungent.”
• For example, you may describe your mother as "bright," "tough," and "scented with jasmine."

• You can also use similes, where you use “like” or “as” to compare one thing to another. For example, you may write, “My mother is like a fierce warrior in battle, if the battlefield were PTA meetings and the checkout line at the grocery store.”

• For example, you may write about your complicated feelings about your mother. You may note that you feel sadness about your mother’s sacrifices for the family and joy for the privileges you have in your life because of her.

• For example, you may end a descriptive essay about your mother by noting, “In all that she has sacrificed for us, I see her strength, courage, and fierce love for her family, traits I hope to emulate in my own life.”

Polishing the Essay

• You can also read the essay aloud to others to get their feedback. Ask them to let you know if there are any unclear or vague sentences in the essay.

• Be open to constructive criticism and feedback from others. This will only make your essay stronger.

• If you have a word count requirement for the essay, make sure you meet it. Add more detail to the paper or take unnecessary content out to reach the word count.

Outline for a Descriptive Essay

Expert Q&A

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.writeexpress.com/descriptive-essay.html
• ↑ Jake Adams. Academic Tutor & Test Prep Specialist. Expert Interview. 24 July 2020.
• ↑ https://www.iup.edu/writingcenter/writing-resources/organization-and-structure/descriptive-writing.html
• ↑ https://spcollege.libguides.com/ld.php?content_id=10168248
• ↑ https://www.butte.edu/departments/cas/tipsheets/style_purpose_strategy/descriptive_essay.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/descriptive_essays.html

About This Article

To write a descriptive essay, start by choosing a topic, like a person, place, or specific emotion. Next, write down a list of sensory details about the topic, like how it sounds, smells, and feels. After this brainstorming session, outline the essay, dividing it into an introduction, 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Open with a vivid introduction that uses sensory details, then introduce your thesis statement, which the rest of your essay should support. Strengthen your essay further by using metaphors and similes to describe your topic, and the emotions it evokes. To learn how to put the finishing touches on your essay, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Module 4: Writing in College

Descriptive essays, learning objectives.

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

Description

Figure 1 . C.S. Lewis, author of the fictitious book series, “The Chronicles of Narnia” is an expert at using descriptive writing.

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:

During the day it is predominantly occupied by orange juice stalls, water sellers with traditional leather water-bags and brass cups, youths with chained Barbary apes and snake charmers, despite the protected status of these species under Moroccan law. As the day progresses, the entertainment on offer changes: the snake charmers depart, and late in the day the square becomes more crowded, with Chleuh dancing-boys (it would be against custom for girls to provide such entertainment), story-tellers (telling their tales in Berber or Arabic, to an audience of locals), magicians, and peddlers of traditional medicines.As darkness falls, the square fills with dozens of food-stalls as the number of people on the square peaks. The square is edged along one side by the Marrakesh souk, a traditional North African market catering both for the common daily needs of the locals, and for the tourist trade. On other sides are hotels and gardens and cafe terraces, and narrow streets lead into the alleys of the medina quarter. Once a bus station, the place was closed to vehicle traffic in the early 2000s. The authorities are well aware of its importance to the tourist trade, and a strong but discreet police presence ensures the safety of visitors.

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.

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Writing a Descriptive Paragraph: Lesson Plan + Explanatory Essay

Lesson: Writing a Descriptive Paragraph

Level: Intermediate

Materials: Ticket to English 2 Coursebook (pp. 16 & 17) and a handout (describing people's physical appearance)

Lesson Plan: Download it from here .

Explanatory Essay (Procedure & Rationale):

In this writing lesson, students will bring their personal experiences into the class and write a descriptive paragraph about someone who has touched their lives in one way or another or someone they have a soft spot for.

At the outset of the lesson, I start with a quick warm-up followed by a guessing game called ‘find someone who'. I opted for this game mainly because it will help my learners review some vocabulary related to the unit in general and to the current task in particular in an authentic, funny way. The game also serves as a smooth transition to the main objective of the lesson.

The game can be done orally with high achievers and as a quick writing task with slow learners. The latter can use slips of paper where they can write some qualities of their classmates without mentioning their names and let the class guess who they are talking about. To illustrate this more, students are expected to do the task this way: “He is tall and white… He has medium-length, wavy, black hair and brown, big eyes…He is very good at Maths and Physics. Who am I talking about?”

In the pre-writing model paragraph, I added three instructions through which learners can implicitly learn that descriptive paragraphs also abide by some organization. In other words, the task prompts the students to start their paragraphs by introducing the person they describe then mention his/her different qualities and characteristics and wrap it up with what other people think of the person in question.

Likewise, through exercise 1, students will look at the model paragraph in some depth and deconstruct it into parts, and thus get a clearer idea about how to write a descriptive paragraph. Once they are done, learners resettle to study the two tables on page 17 to further learn more adjectives used to describe both appearance and character, whereupon they are provided with a handout (optional) that shows the verbs that match each type of the adjectives as well as the order they take in case more than two adjectives are used.

To check students’ understanding of the adjectives and their use before they embark on writing, they play quick exchanges, which will likely go:

A: Have you got any closest friend/What’s your favorite family member?

B: Yes, I do/ My mother.

A: What does s/he look like?

B: Well, s/he is average height and slim. S/he’s got brown eyes and straight black long hair.

A: What’s s/he like?

B: S/he’s honest, kind and friendly…

This task can be carried out in close pairs to give students a chance to decide on who to talk about or to get their peers’ prior consent before kicking off their conversations as there is a risk of asking uncomfortable questions. That is, for some reasons, students are reluctant or don’t want to talk about their families, and it is part of our job, as instructors, to be aware of that.

In the while-writing phase, students start writing their first draft, making recourse to previous activities in the lesson and some heuristic questions. As regards the last question, the teacher gives ample examples illustrating “philosophy to life”.

In the process of writing, students are encouraged to consult dictionaries or ask their classmates for help. As an instructor, I never lose sight of the fact that in addition to the target skill, students should learn other skills such as learning autonomy (consulting dictionaries) and collaboration (helping each other). Having done with the first draft, students exchange their paragraphs for peer editing. The editing checklist is kept to a minimum as this is supposedly the first writing classroom experience in the school year.

After they finalize their paragraphs, some students read out their pieces of writing for the sake of giving other learners the chance to reflect and suggest adjustments in case anything is missing or unbefitting. Moreover, by recognizing their peers’ efforts and help, students are likely to develop some emotional intelligence and gratitude, which is one of the important soft skills. It is worth noting that the instructor makes it clear from the very beginning that the best outcomes will be published in the third issue of the English Club’s Magazine to trigger some competitiveness among learners, for it has always been a major point of pride for a student to see his/her piece of writing along with his/her picture feature in any medium for other people to read.

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Descriptive writing lesson plan for differentiated learning

by Divya Pandanda | 11 Jan 2016

This detailed lesson plan provides teachers with an introductory lesson to the unit on developing descriptive writing skills. it takes into account the fact that different learners learn differently, thus incorporating Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences. It also includes the resources that one could use the classroom, at the same time allowing teachers the flexibility to tweak it to cater to the needs of their students.

Resource Type: Lesson Plan

Audience: Secondary

Audience Language Proficiency: Intermediate

Duration: 2 x 40 mins

• iTunes audio of sea waves
• Extract from Roald Dahl's, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
• Pictures of a haunted house, market scene, garden, zoo.
• Projector, A4 sheets and coloured pens
• Descriptive writing toolkit

By the end of the lesson/s the students will be able to:

• Identify 2-3 types of imagery as used to describe some scene/person/object
• Comment on the imagery/word choice in terms of the effect created
• Focus on and analyze the effect of the word choice made by an author in a given passage
• Use language acquired or by referring to the toolkit to create a short piece.

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to realize the importance of appropriate word choice to create a certain effect- one of the key tenets to creating effective descriptive pieces. They will recognize how a simple word change can create a different effect. Through discussions with one another, they will also see that a certain word or image may have different connotations for different people depending on their experience and learning style. The idea is to make them feel empowered about the word choices they make individually.

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/descriptive-writing-experience

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/directions-writing-descriptive-essay-middle-school-9294.html

http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/922   30 ideas to teach writing

http://www.ehow.com/how_2197270_descriptive-writing-middle-school-students.html

https://prezi.com/a-akkjpgnn9p/descriptive-writing-for-middle-school-students/

Supporting Files: Descriptive Writing Lesson Plan For Differentiated Learning 01.pdf Descriptive Writing Lesson Plan For Differentiated Learning 02.pdf Descriptive Writing Lesson Plan For Differentiated Learning 03.pdf Descriptive Writing Lesson Plan For Differentiated Learning 04.pdf Descriptive Writing Lesson Plan For Differentiated Learning 05.pdf

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8 Descriptive Writing Activities to Hone Your Students’ Language Skills and Creativity

These sentences get the point across: 

I could smell the peppers. It was dinner time. I washed my hands. 

But we can make them more detailed and engaging :

The sweet, burnt scent of roasting peppers hung in the air. I knew dinner was almost ready. I washed my hands, watching the dirt swirl around the sink and disappear. 

How do you get your ESL students from the first example to the second? By introducing them to the wonders of descriptive writing!

The descriptive writing activities listed in this post can be adapted for any age group and all levels of ESL learners. With a little guidance from you, your students will be writing wonderfully descriptive sentences in no time.

8 Activities for Introducing ESL Students to Descriptive Writing

1. transform non-descriptive sentences to descriptive, 2. describe a painting or picture, 3. describe an object, 4. describe a restaurant, 5. describe your best friend or family member, 6. describe a favorite food, 7. describe your favorite room at home, 8. describe your best or worst vacation, why teach descriptive writing to esl students, how to make students aware of descriptive writing, literary devices, the five senses, reading for imagery.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Here are some descriptive writing activities that will encourage your students to get creative with the English language! You can even tweak any of them to focus on certain categories of vocabulary words, such as food or travel. 

Prepare a worksheet with sentences that are rather basic and lacking description. Students must transform these sentences into more descriptive sentences. Remind your students to use their five senses and literary devices.

For example:

It was cold.→The air was frigid and I couldn’t feel my ears.

The car was red and fast.→The car was apple-red and could easily go 120 miles per hour.

Students can work individually or in pairs. They should share their sentences at the end of class.

Print out a selection of images. You can use famous paintings or photographs.

Assign a different image to each student, then ask them to describe it using their five senses, literary device and adjectives.

Give them a sufficient amount of time to think about it. Then, collect the images again and display them in front of the classroom. Students will then read their descriptions, and the rest of the class will try to determine which image the student is describing.

Let students choose an object and write a description of it for 10 minutes. Set a word minimum or maximum limit as needed and encourage them to be as descriptive as possible.

You can implement different guidelines. For example, “you can’t use any color names” or “you must use all five senses” or “you must use one literary device.”

Once they’re ready with their descriptions, students take turns reading their descriptions. The rest of the class must try to guess the object their classmate describes.

For this activity, challenge your students to write their own descriptive paragraphs. 

Have them describe their favorite restaurant. In a restaurant, all your senses are turned on and sight may be overwhelmed by smells and sounds .

At the end of class, ask for students to volunteer to share their descriptions before you collect their work.

This activity is great for focusing on other types of descriptions. In addition to describing appearances, students may also describe things such as mannerisms, feelings and characteristics .

Students should share their descriptions with the class.

I like this activity because it’s easy for students to simply describe the taste or sight of their favorite food, but they should also work on describing the smell of the food as it is prepared and the  texture  of the food in their mouths.

You can introduce different vocabulary related to food such as: salty, bitter, sweet and spicy.

Again, make sure you save time at the end of class for students to share their descriptions.

Another nice activity that gets students thinking is describing their favorite room in their home.

Students should think about size, colors, the atmosphere and furniture, among other things. Make sure you ask them to say why it’s their favorite room.

Save time at the end of the lesson for them to share what they wrote if they want.

This activity encourages students to bring their reader into the vacation. They must describe the setting, order of events and the people who were with them.

If you have time, encourage them to write about both a great vacation and an awful vacation, which will make them work with descriptions and words of both positive and  negative connotation.

Descriptive writing can be summed up in one short statement: Show, don’t tell. 

Descriptive writing creates a clear image in the reader’s head. It describes something or someone accurately and in a way that makes it come alive for the reader.

For ESL learners, practicing descriptive writing can not only enhance their writing but also be a fun and creative way to practice English. After all, descriptive writing exposes them to some of the more subtle and beautiful aspects of the English language, such as diverse vocabulary and literary devices like similes and personification.

Begin with explaining some of the general ideas of descriptive writing. Before students can write descriptively, they must understand the basics of descriptive writing.

Aside from having a solid list of adjectives and adverbs at their fingertips, they should be familiar with the following concepts:

Descriptive writing is more than just using adjectives and adverbs. Literary devices can help writers write descriptively.

Here’s a sample list of useful literary devices. Choose what you want to introduce depending on the level of your students: 

• Alliteration: The repetition of a sound or letter in words close to each other.
• Imagery:  The visual description of something.
• Onomatopoeia: Words that sound like the sounds they describe.
• Personification: Giving inanimate objects living attributes.
• Simile: Comparing two things with the words “like” or “as.”

Practice using these devices by having students create individual sentences for each. Give students a chance to share their sentences with the whole class.

Another key element to good descriptive writing is using all five senses . Most of the time, students get into the habit of describing only what can be seen. However, it’s important to incorporate all of the senses: taste, touch, sight, smell and sound.

Write the five senses on the board, and list down relevant adjectives under each. Encourage students to share as many adjectives as they can think of.

Then ask your students to think of different ways to describe the classroom using different senses. What do they see? What do they hear? What does the classroom smell like? What does it feel like to sit in the classroom? Since the classroom has no taste (hopefully), for the taste column you can ask students to describe what they ate that morning.

Ask your students to write a few sentences individually and give them a chance to share with the class.

Another great way to introduce the idea of descriptive writing to your students is to have them read some examples. Read a descriptive passage (either your own or one you found online) and have students identify the literary devices and senses that are used.

Alternatively, you can give them two passages to compare and contrast, one that’s lacking descriptive language and one that describes the same thing, but more creatively.

Take it one step further by removing some of the descriptive language and asking students to use their own words to complete the passage.

These activities will really get your students thinking about writing and writing descriptively. And remember, get creative yourself! Descriptive writing can be applied to just about any topic.

Happy writing!

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Descriptive Essay

Young scholars review previously written essays, draw pictures of shapes, and write descriptive essays.

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Classroom in the Middle

Language arts activities for middle school and upper elementary..

Descriptive Text Structure and Revising – Pairing Reading and Writing Topics

The descriptive text structure seems to be the one that is often overlooked, and that is a shame because there are so many fun and interesting lessons that you can do with descriptive writing.  Teaching students to take note of this text structure prepares them perfectly for working to add more description to their own writing as they revise – a great combination for a middle school or upper elementary language arts lesson if you ask me!

Just teaching this simple text structure can be a stumbling block – ironically because it seems SO simple.  After all, what new can you offer middle graders about describing something?  Well, let’s see . . .

GUESS THE OBJECT A fun lesson is identifying objects (or people, or places, or animals) from their description.  Kind of like a game of 20 questions without the questions.  Kids read the description and look for clues.  

TEXT BASED (DESCRIPTIVE) EVIDENCE

Another lesson idea is to have kids use written descriptions as their text based evidence as they practice or review how to answer TBQs.  

DRAW, GRAPH, OR CHART

Using just a written description, kids can draw what they “see,”  or complete a graph or chart to organize the information.  

Other possibilities include completing a graphic organizer, sorting words, or just answering questions using a descriptive passage as their source.

These are all familiar activities that kids will be able to get into easily on their own without much additional how-to instruction, but did you ever think of using them as (almost) ready made text structure lessons?

And to get back to the main point (finally!), once kids have refreshed their minds about using descriptive details that are already in a text, it’s a natural step to move into having them work on increasing their skills at using descriptive details in their own writing.  And if you can’t stand the idea of assigning one more descriptive lesson (or even if your think your kids definitely need that practice!), it’s a good bet that they can still use plenty of practice on the revising step of the writing process with descriptive details in mind.

I especially like lessons on revising with a specific goal in mind.  For example, maybe kids could revise a “What I Did Over the Summer” essay to include at least three descriptive details about a place that they mentioned and three about one of the people in their essay.  Or maybe they could revise an essay about a science topic with the goal of adding descriptive details that fit at least three of the five categories:  taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound.   Kids could revise by adding specific parts of speech: descriptive adjectives, adverbs of place, prepositional phrases about sounds or sights, or  whatever.

You could say that the descriptive text structure is actually a great one to teach – the concepts are easy, and lessons are almost ready made – sounds perfect for a set of back to school lessons, distance learning lessons for at home students, or end of the year lessons!  Next, I’ll show you some images of my Descriptive Text Structure task cards which can make teaching this concept even easier!

In the above image, a descriptive text structure card instructs the student to draw a picture and then use their picture as a prompt for descriptive writing.

Here are a few more from the set:

Here’s the link to the set of all five text structures with task cards and a slide presentation for each one:

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SHOP CLASSROOM IN THE MIDDLE

Descriptive Essay - SS1 English Lesson Note

A descriptive essay is a type of writing that uses vivid language to describe a person, place, thing, or event. The goal of a descriptive essay is to create a clear and detailed picture in the reader's mind. Descriptive essays can be about anything, but they are often about something that the writer has experienced personally. When writing a descriptive essay, it is important to use specific details and sensory imagery to bring the subject to life. The writer should also use figurative language, such as similes, metaphors, and personification, to create a more vivid and memorable description.

Here are some tips for writing a descriptive essay:

Choose a topic that you are interested in and that you can describe in detail.

Use specific details and sensory imagery to bring the subject to life.

Use figurative language to create a more vivid and memorable description.

Organize your thoughts and ideas in a clear and logical way.

Proofread your essay carefully before submitting it.

Here are some examples of descriptive essays: (i) An essay about a person could describe their physical appearance, their personality, or their experiences. (ii) An essay about a place could describe its physical features, its atmosphere, or its history.

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The Day Ram Dass Died

By Christopher Fiorello

I woke up every thirty minutes the night before Ram Dass died. Stretching my perception through the big divider that separated his study—where I lay on a narrow couch—from his bedroom, I’d count the seconds between the short, ragged breaths churning through his sleep-apnea machine.

Four years later, I still have no idea why I was chosen to watch over him that night. I was at the bottom of the caregiver pecking order when it came to things directly related to Ram Dass’s body. I lacked the size and strength to transfer him from bed to wheelchair, or wheelchair to recliner, on my own; was too much of a novice to help organize his schedule or coördinate with his doctors; and was too unfamiliar to offer intellectual comfort in the rare moments that he wanted to talk. I’d met him ten months earlier, had his voice in my head for just three years. There were people in the house, on Maui, who had known him for more than three decades.

Before arriving, I had no formal medical training, but I had done three weeks of volunteering at a hospice facility in anticipation of coming to the island. Most of it involved moving Kleenex and changing the amount of light in empty rooms. Several times I sat with the dying. It was overwhelming to look at their closed eyes, feeling the heaviness in the room, the sense of something happening or about to happen. I scanned their faces for signs of pain, of fear or bliss, of transcendence. Through the palliative haze of opioids, they were impossible to read. No one was thrashing in pain; no one was smiling, either.

But it somehow buoyed me, being so close to death. The heaviness seemed critically important to my spiritual growth. I imagined myself giving peace to the dying through my presence, and in the process conquering my own fear of leaving life behind.

During my time with Ram Dass, I flitted constantly between self-righteousness and self-pity, one day indulging in grandiose fantasies that I was the heir to his legacy, charged with scattering his ashes, and the next imagining that everyone in the house hated me. The caregivers called it the classroom or the fire—a site of purifying work, a pathway to enlightenment.

My own work, purifying or otherwise, consisted mostly of handling various chores needed to keep a six-bedroom cliffside home with a pool, guesthouse, and two-acre yard going. For the bits that mattered—the scrubbing and the laundry and the cooking—there was a team of cleaners and a rotating cast of chefs. I ended up doing a lot of the rest: separating recycling, washing dishes, and replacing cat-scratched screens. There were three other caregivers in the house, and I was given a modest salary, plus my own room, meals, and shared access to a truck. I was an employee, but most days the house felt like a family, for better or worse.

Still, this was only the second time I’d been asked to spend the night in the study. It was generally perceived as an act of intense devotion: accepting a horrible night’s sleep, on a couch that reeked of cat pee, while facing the prospect of Ram Dass dying on your watch. I hated it, but I was there to care for the guy however it was decided that he needed care.

Most of the deciding was done by a woman affectionately dubbed Dassi Ma, a seventysomething lapsed-Catholic firecracker from Philadelphia. Dassi Ma was Ram Dass’s primary caretaker, and, though she no longer did the more strenuous physical tasks, she was still in command of what he got and when, often more so than Ram Dass himself. He was eighty-eight, and his health had been steadily deteriorating owing to a host of issues, including chronic infections. When I moved to Maui to be near him, in February, 2019, he had almost died the night I arrived. He bounced back, to everyone’s surprise but his own. “It wasn’t time,” I remember him saying in his stoic way, neither relieved nor disappointed. Now he had another spreading infection, and what appeared to be a cracked rib from being transferred to and from his wheelchair.

Ram Dass’s life is the subject of multiple documentaries, an autobiography, and a docuseries in development starring “ High Maintenance ” ’s Ben Sinclair. He was born Richard Alpert in 1931 to a wealthy Boston family. His pedigree was sterling: a Stanford psychology Ph.D., tenure track at Harvard, visiting professorship at Berkeley. In 1963, after five years at Harvard—much of it spent studying psychedelics with his fellow-psychologist Timothy Leary —he was fired for giving psilocybin mushrooms to an undergraduate.

He bopped around for a few years, often taking obscene amounts of mind-altering substances with Leary at the Hudson Valley estate of his friend Peggy Hitchcock. In 1967, like so many other Westerners of the time, he travelled to India in pursuit of exotic answers to life’s biggest questions. He’d grown disenchanted with the psychedelic world, which had come to seem rotely defined by highs and comedowns. In India, he met a Californian hippie named Kermit Riggs and followed him to a village called Kainchi, in the Himalayan foothills, to meet Riggs’s guru.

The guru was an old, squat man named Neem Karoli Baba. Before long, an enthralled Alpert was reborn as Ram Dass, or roughly “servant of God.” He returned to America later that year, arriving at the airport dressed in white robes and with a long, scraggly beard, and began his career as a spiritual teacher. Most of what he talked about, from 1967 to his death, were the experiences he had with Neem Karoli Baba, whom he called Maharaj-ji (“great king”), and the spiritual beliefs that emerged from those experiences.

One of his main ports of call became death and dying. In 1981, he co-founded the Dying Center, in Santa Fe, an organization that described itself as “the first place specifically created to support and guide its residents to a conscious death.” The center sought, in effect, dying people who wanted to use their death to become spiritually enlightened, and staff members who wanted to use other people’s deaths to achieve the same. Even before the Dying Center took shape, Ram Dass was lecturing on the spirituality of death, its place in the natural order, and the starkly contrasting way that he believed it was perceived in the East. His teachings were rooted in a specific vision of metaphysical reality, as informed by his guru and by the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu text. Roughly, he believed in nondualism, that there existed an unchanging and absolute entity—the Hindu Brahman, which Ram Dass more frequently called God, the divine, or oneness—from which all material reality came. Included in that reality were souls (something like the Hindu atman ), which by their nature were caught in the illusion of their separateness from God, repeating a cycle of birth, suffering, death, and reincarnation until they remembered their true nature as part of the oneness—that is, until they became enlightened.

Death could be a crucial moment for remembering this nonduality, as it was when the “veil of separateness” was thinnest. In his 1971 book, “ Be Here Now ,” which has sold more than two million copies worldwide, Ram Dass summarizes his views: “You are eternal . . . There is no fear of death because / there is no death / it’s just a transformation / an illusion.”

He often spoke to crowds afraid of dying, repeating that he had “no fear of death.” He sat with people on their deathbeds and talked routinely about the power of “leaving the body,” his efforts to “quiet himself” so that the dying could see where they were in the reincarnation process and do what they could to escape it. His stories were sometimes graphic—people dying prematurely, or dying in tremendous pain—but always tinged with a lightness and humor.

Perhaps Ram Dass’s most memorable remarks about death came not from his own mind but from a woman named Pat Rodegast, who claimed she had channelled a spirit named Emmanuel from 1969 to her death, in 2012. Rodegast was working as a secretary, raising children, and practicing Transcendental Meditation when she began to see a light, which evolved into what she called telepathic auditory guidance. Some of that guidance was captured in three books published in the eighties and nineties, two of which came with forewords from Ram Dass. According to Ram Dass, when he asked Emmanuel what to tell people about death, Emmanuel replied that it was “absolutely safe,” “like taking off a tight shoe.”

I first encountered the voice of Ram Dass in 2016. I was twenty-seven and living in New York, in a Chinatown building that rattled every time an empty box truck drove down First Avenue. Each morning, I tumbled down five flights of sticky stairs and placed one of his talks deep into my ears, letting his distinct blend of scientific erudition and spiritual mysticism carry me across town.

He had a habit of segueing from psychological concepts, like attachment theory and childhood trauma, to cryptic ones, like Emmanuel’s messages and the astral plane, pausing briefly to ask listeners if they could really, truly “hear this.” He seemed to build on the insights of others who had revolutionized end-of-life care in America—thinkers such as the psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross —but also spoke in the New Age argot of Alan Watts. I gobbled it all up, feeling my spiritual life deepen exponentially by the day. His lectures made me more prosocial, more anti-capitalist, more curious, and decidedly more self-loving.

This was my second rodeo with spirituality; growing up, a rigid strain of Protestantism had been foisted on me like a chore. In Kansas City, Missouri, I was enveloped by an atmosphere of creationism, tent revivals, and anti-abortion screeds. I still recall standing on a busy street as a six-year-old and holding a sign that read “Before I Formed You in the Womb I Knew You—God.”

The teachings of Ram Dass were nothing like that. They were straight out of the hippie movement, and seemed to license a more liberal, self-directed search for meaning. As the grind and filth of Manhattan wore me down, Ram Dass’s voice became a salve, a way to “wake up to the illusion of our separateness.” I turned to his work again and again—to ease my loneliness when, walking down the street, droves of people moved around me like I was a light post, or to arrogantly tell my ex-girlfriend that we would always be “together,” even though I’d already dumped her.

After a couple of years, I learned that I could actually meet Ram Dass, for free, by signing up for one of his “Heart-to-Hearts”—a one-on-one, hour-long Skype call he offered as a sort of public service. When my time came, and the man appeared onscreen, I was stunned into silence. I had thought of him as a spry, ethereal figure who existed only in decades-old recordings. This Ram Dass was very old and lived with fairly advanced aphasia, a side effect of a major stroke he’d had in 1997. His speech was slow—in our full hour, he said roughly sixty words—but not at all ponderous. I thought it gave him a mystical quality.

There was no format to the session; Ram Dass just smiled his winning smile and listened. At one point, after I’d nervously overshared, he told me, “You take yourself pretty seriously.” That struck me as profound, at least at the time, but what endured was more feeling than words. It seemed he had arrived at a place from which he could find genuine love for strangers like me. It didn’t strike me as brand positioning, or as a form of ego; I didn’t think he loved me in the sense that he wanted to be close, or even that he cared whether we got to know each other. I just believed he saw me as another soul, and that, in his view, made me worthy of kindness.

By then, I was walking around New York, trying desperately to feel connected to anything. I wanted what Ram Dass had. So I left the city, intending, among other things, to get him to show me how to have it.

The friend I’d discovered Ram Dass with had already moved to Neem Karoli Baba’s temple, in Taos, New Mexico. I visited him for a fortnight of cooking group meals, wandering through the snowy high desert, and hobnobbing with Maharaj-ji zealots, including one white teen-ager who insisted that he was the reincarnation of Krishna, one of Hinduism’s most revered avatars. Like the young Krishna of lore, he would steal away to the temple pantry to eat pure butter until caught.

Some of this evoked my childhood church, where kids compared how quickly they could transition into speaking in tongues, or flexed the depth of their personal relationship with Jesus while leading a collective prayer. But this was my first encounter with Neem Karoli Baba devotees; I figured followers would be a bit more mellow the farther I got from his temple. Toward the end of my stay, I met a longtime friend of Ram Dass. He saw that I was eager to do volunteer work—known as seva , Sanskrit for “service”—so, when he learned of my intent to find Ram Dass on Maui, he offered to put in a good word to Dassi Ma.

That recommendation made the seemingly impossible possible. People of all ages came to the island to be near Ram Dass. Some found their way into the group texts for arranging kirtan —living-room chanting sessions at Ram Dass’s house—or beach excursions. A few found opportunities to be useful around the house, or made friends with one of the live-in caregivers, enabling them to drop by every week or so. But to be offered to help care for Ram Dass, for pay, as a virtual nobody, was exceptionally rare.

Upon arriving at the house, I found it shot through with the same quasi-religious fervor I had seen at the temple. I was quickly intercepted by another caregiver and taken to a lean-to, in a nearby pasture, so that I could silently meditate with prayer beads. It was incredibly humid, and I got annihilated by mosquitoes. I returned to the house to find a living room packed with people chanting—mostly the Hanuman Chalisa, a devotional hymn that features verses like “With the lustre of your vast sway, you are propitiated all over the universe.” A collective effervescence filled the room, and I joined along, staring at hundreds of statuettes of religious figures while fighting back the sense that I was in church.

After more than an hour of chanting, we milled about, greeting one another over chai and snacks. Attendees swapped stories of Maharaj-ji’s miracles, told me that my presence must be part of his plan, sat smiling at Ram Dass’s feet, their hands over their hearts. During my year on Maui, Ram Dass’s foundation led retreats at a local resort, where hundreds of people would gather for spiritual talks and chanting. Inevitably, someone at these events would look at me with confusion or pity when I told them my name was Christopher. “He hasn’t given you a name yet?” the person would ask. Ram Dass often bestowed a Hindu name on people: Lakshman, Govinda, Hari, Devi. I was fine with Christopher.

But there were other moments, informal and fleeting, when I witnessed the mixture of play and profundity that first drew me to Ram Dass. One autumn morning, two other caregivers and I were helping him get through his daily routine—brushing teeth and hair, putting on clothes and hearing aids, making the bed—when I turned on Doja Cat’s “Go to Town,” a song I later learned was about cunnilingus. I cranked the volume, and the four of us started dancing with illicit glee. One caregiver jumped on the bed, another swung from the divider between the bedroom and the study, and Ram Dass waved his one mobile hand with bright eyes and a rascally smile.

Another day, I was alone with Ram Dass, helping him pick out a shirt. Though I spent nearly all my time in the house, I could count the hours we had been alone together on two hands, and most of them had involved food and drink, or foot massages, ostensibly to relieve the pain that he felt from diabetic neuropathy. On this day, the house was recovering from Ram Dass having been denied psilocybin owing to his health. I felt sorrow for him; the drug was, after all, the beginning of his spiritual journey more than five decades prior. I asked him if the house ever felt like a prison. A full minute of silence passed, with me standing over him in his walk-in closet. Eventually, he tapped his temple and said, “This is the prison.”

When morning broke on December 22, 2019, and Ram Dass was still alive, I allowed myself a moment of relief. Dassi Ma came up, looking short on sleep, and took his vitals. They were horrible. We snapped into action, trying to comfort Ram Dass until one of his doctors arrived.

The infection had pooled fluid in his lungs, which made every breath a burden. Wet, rattling half-breaths were punctuated by coughs of bloody mucus. He looked wrecked, but still managed a weak smile when his Chinese-medicine doctor told a joke at his bedside.

At some point, Dassi Ma and the doctor began talking in the study; other caregivers were on an oxygen-tank-and-essentials supply run. I was on one side of Ram Dass’s bed; on the other was his longtime co-author Rameshwar Das, a friend since Kainchi. Then Ram Dass started choking.

It wasn’t that different from any of the other horrible breaths he’d taken that morning, except that he just couldn’t breathe it. When he realized this, he turned to me with a look that haunts me even now: light eyes wide as quarters, mouth open, lips a bit rounded. I immediately panicked, calling for Dassi Ma and trying to get his adjustable bed as upright as possible so that he could clear his throat. Then, when that didn’t seem upright enough, I frantically tried to lug his torso up so that his head could hang over his waist; perhaps he could vomit his throat clear.

Thirty seconds had passed since he first lost his breath. Somewhere from near his feet, the doctor snapped at me: “You have to calm down!” It jolted me into an awareness that Ram Dass was dying, right there. Perhaps it did the same for Dassi Ma, because she sprang for the study, returned with a large framed photo of Neem Karoli Baba, and commanded him to focus. “Ram Dass! Maharaj-ji! Maharaj-ji!” she said, placing the photo at the foot of the bed. She told him that she loved him, that he could go. I told him that I loved him. And then Ram Dass stopped trying to breathe.

I was the only person to leave the room. Stumbling into the study, I picked up my phone, hands quivering, and sent word to the other caregivers: “RD’s dying imminently. Like within the next couple of minutes.”

The wind was screaming outside. On Maui’s North Shore, it wasn’t unusual for it to reach thirty, forty knots, rattling the windows and throwing palm fronds across the lawn. That day, it had blown from early in the morning, under a tightly woven blanket of gray clouds. Sitting in the study, I watched it bend the trees, felt the violence of it, indiscriminate.

Ram Dass believed that fear kept us from recognizing our interconnection to all things. “Change generates fear; fear generates contraction; contraction generates prejudice, bigotry, and ultimately violence,” he said. In his teachings, he often placed fear and love on opposing sides of the human experience. Fear was the by-product of the ego; love was the by-product of the soul that remained pure, in the moment, especially at the time of death. “When we are fully present,” Ram Dass wrote, “there is no anticipatory fear or anxiety because we are just here and now, not in the future.”

And yet this binary is precisely what made watching him die so disorienting. I’ve no idea what Ram Dass felt in those final moments, what he could see or hear. I don’t even really know if that was fear I saw in his eyes, though it certainly looked like it. Perhaps it was surprise or another sensation entirely, the rush of emptiness before a huge plunge into something tremendous.

Whatever it was, its existence seemed largely absent from his teachings. There were times when he acknowledged the pain and coarse brutality of death. In his book “ Still Here ” (2000), he writes:

Dying is often not easy . . . the stoppage of circulation and starving of the heart muscle . . . the inadequate transport of oxygen to tissues, the failure of organs . . . Where can we hope to stand in our own consciousness during such traumatic conditions, in order to die with clarity and grace?

Yet the emphasis he placed, over decades of lectures, on the importance of grace during death made so little space for terror—for how fear could coexist with presence, and even with love. In the minutes after his passing, the chasm between how he died and how I thought he was supposed to die reminded me of the betrayal I’d felt when, at sixteen, I flouted my mother’s and pastor’s admonitions and stopped asking God for protection, only to discover that a similar slew of terrible and wonderful things still happened to me.

In the house, too, marching through three days of death rituals before Ram Dass’s body was removed, I felt my spirituality slip its moorings. Late on the second night, his body lay on ice in his study—a rite he’d specifically requested, hoping that it would help those around him transcend their fear. I sat on the floor and peered up at his face through candlelight, his skin whitish blue and gaunt, his mouth slightly agape. I waited for grace, for him to speak reassuringly from some other plane of reality. Instead, I was taken back to our final moments together, where fear sutured me to each passing second. Not fear of the past or some uncertain future, but fear of the vast, strange intensity of what is. ♦

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