Descriptive Essay

Definition of Descriptive Essay

A descriptive essay, as the name implies, is a form of essay that describes something. In this genre,
students are assigned the task of describing objects, things, places, experiences, persons, and
situations. The students use sensory information to enable readers to use their five senses of touch,
taste, smell, hearing, and sight to understand the topic of the essay.

Qualities of a Descriptive Essay

Clear and Concise

Use of Images

Use of Five Senses

As far as clear and concise language is concerned, it is necessary to describe things precisely.
Imagery is used to make things seem real and remarkable. The use of the five senses creates the
imagery, or a mental picture, for each reader.

Difference Between a Description and a Descriptive Essay

A description could be just a paragraph, or it could be longer, as needed to fully describe the thing.
However, a descriptive essay has five paragraphs. It is written in a coherent way with a good thesis
statement at the end of the introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Examples of Descriptive Essays in Literature

Example #1: The Corner Store (by Eudora Welty)

“Our Little Store rose right up from the sidewalk; standing in a street of family houses, it alone
hadn’t any yard in front, any tree or flower bed. It was a plain frame building covered over with
brick. Above the door, a little railed porch ran across on an upstairs level and four windows with
shades were looking out. But I didn’t catch on to those. Running in out of the sun, you met what
seemed total obscurity inside. There were almost tangible smells — licorice recently sucked in a
child’s cheek, dill pickle brine1 that had leaked through a paper sack in a fresh trail across the
wooden floor, ammonia-loaded ice that had been hoisted from wet croker sacks and slammed into
the icebox with its sweet butter at the door, and perhaps the smell of still untrapped mice.”

This description of the “Little Store” is not only clear and concise, but also has images and sensory
information about the store building.

Example #2: And the Orchestra Played On (by Joanne Lipman)

“The hinges creaked when I opened the decrepit case. I was greeted by a cascade of loose horsehair
— my bow a victim of mites, the repairman later explained. It was pure agony to twist my fingers
into position. But to my astonishment and that of my teenage children — who had never heard me
play — I could still manage a sound.

“It turned out, a few days later, that there were 100 people just like me. When I showed up at a local
school for rehearsal, there they were: five decades worth of former students. There were doctors
and accountants, engineers and college professors. There were people who hadn’t played in
decades, sitting alongside professionals like Mr. K.’s daughter Melanie, now a violinist with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra. There were generations of music teachers.”

In the first paragraph of this descriptive excerpt, the author clearly describes the decrepit nature of
the violin case, as well as the damage time has done to the bow. The second paragraph is a
description of the characters, and their similarities. Both use sensory information for effective
descriptions.

Example #3: Yarn (by Koyoko Mori)

“The yellow mittens I made in seventh-grade home economics proved that I dreamed in color. For
the unit on knitting, we were 1 supposed to turn in a pair of mittens. The two hands had to be
precisely the same size so that when we held them together, palm to palm, no extra stitches would
stick out from the thumb, the tip of the fingers, or the cuff. Somewhere between making the fourth
and the fifth mitten to fulfill this requirement, I dreamed that the ball of yellow yarn in my bag had
turned green. Chartreuse, leaf, Granny Smith, lime, neon, acid green. The brightness was electric. I
woke up knowing that I was, once again, doomed for a D in home ec.”

See the use of colors in this paragraph by Koyoko Mori. This is called “pure description,” in that the
description appeals to the senses. The use of word “brightness” in the last line is striking one.

Example #4: The Taj Mahal (by Salman Rushdie)

“And this, finally, is why the Taj Mahal must be seen: to remind us that the world is real, that the
sound is truer than the echo, the original more forceful than its image in a mirror. The beauty of
beautiful things is still able, in these image-saturated times, to transcend imitations. And the Taj
Mahal is, beyond the power of words to say it, a lovely thing, perhaps the loveliest of things.”

Check this short description of the Taj Mahal by Salman Rushdie. This description presents a
different picture of the Taj Mahal.

Function of Descriptive Essay

A descriptive essay presents a person, place, or thing, in a way that readers feel as if it is in front of
their eyes, or that they are tasting it, or that they can hear it, or that they can smell it. Writers use
sensory information to describe object. The object of the writer is to present a picture of something
as honestly as he can.