Key to the Perfectly-Written Descriptive Essay
The main purpose of a descriptive essay is to create a bright picture of a person, place or another object. One can simply confuse the descriptive essay with a narrative essay, though there is an essential difference between them. A writer of a narrative essay is aimed to reveal a purpose through the personal story and a writer of a descriptive essay has an aim to reveal the meaning through a detailed story about person or thing. Through descriptive essay, readers can feel all the brightness of the story due to details and all that senses that a writer uses during writing.
An effective descriptive essay leaves readers with the feeling that they have just met a new person or visited a new place. Also, an essay is supposed to be great if readers get a psychological connection and strong appreciation for the topic and the writer of work.
How to start writing a descriptive essay?
First of all, you should determine the topic of your story and decide exactly what you are going to describe. As a rule, writers choose to tell about the following: a person, a place, an object or event. Everything that you can feel and perceive can become the main point of your descriptive essay.
How to choose a theme of your story?
There is a great exercise to sit down and concentrate on the stream of thoughts, trying to write down the brightest, which can turn into a detailed story.
Example: Relax and imagine that your purpose is to make a descriptive essay about your friend. Remember the appearance of your friend – eyes color, voice, every mole. Think about the way that your friend uses to interact with you and other people. At the same time try to formulate conclusions that reveal the strengths of your friend’s personality, think how his body language demonstrates the emotional side. You can describe how sincere is the smile of your friend and at the same time to tell how the friend helps you in troubles, how they try to make you happy and what makes them happy. Describing it, you can show readers the deepness of your friendship, how it was born, how the feelings are growing, what you two are ready to do for each other.
What is the best way to write a description?
As your purpose is to make a descriptive essay, the best method to write a bright and live story is to use the power of five senses. Traditionally, the five senses are recognized as touch, sight, hearing, taste, and smell. These five human senses play a unique role by receiving signal information from the environment through the sense organs and relaying it to the human brain for interpretation. The brain on receiving and interpreting the information tells the body how to respond. The usage of this technique helps you not to tell the story, but to draw it, so readers can feel it.
Plan the structure of your descriptive essay
A descriptive essay requires the same structure as other essays. You should include an introduction, main body, and end the story with a conclusion.
In the main body of your essay, you have to support your statement that was given in the introduction. Here you can play with different literary figures in order to enhance the involvement of readers. Pay attention to the conclusion because this is the last opportunity for a essay writer to impress readers. You can remind what is useful for you in this essay, how important is the person or place that you are describing. If you do so, the reader can really understand that your work is sincere and every true story and feeling is worth attention. You experience can help the reader to solve one or another problem, change views, inspire or even calm down.
Examples of descriptive stories in the works of Oscar Wilde
Fairytale «The Happy Prince»
«The Swallow passed over the river, and saw the lanterns hanging on the masts of the ships. He passed over the Ghetto, and saw the old Jews bargaining with each other, and weighing out money in copper scales. At last, he reached the poor house and looked in. The boy was lying ill in bed. The mother was sleeping, she was so tired. The Swallow laid the great ruby on the table. Then he flew gently round the bed, fanning the boy’s forehead with his wings. “How cool I feel!” said the boy. “I must be getting better,” and he fell asleep.»
Fairytale «The Nightingale and the rose»
“Not a single red rose in all my garden!” the young man cried, and his beautiful eyes filled with tears. “Ah, on what little thing does my happiness depend! I have read all the books the wise men have written, and all the secrets of philosophy are mine, but I feel unhappy because I cannot find a red rose for my love.” “Here is a true lover at last,” thought the Nightingale. “Night after night I sang of him, though I knew him not; night after night I told his story to the stars, and now I see him. His hair is dark as the hyacinth-blossom, and his lips are red as the rose of his desire; but passion has made his face like pale ivory, and sorrow has set her seal upon his brow.”
Fairytale «The Fisherman and the Soul»
«Every evening he went out upon the sea, and one evening the net was so heavy that he could hardly draw it into the boat. And he laughed, and said to himself, “Surely I have caught all the fish that swim, or some dull monster that will be a surprise to men, or some thing of horror that the great Queen will desire,” and with all his strength he pulled the coarse ropes till the net rose to the top of the water. But no fish at all was in it, nor any monster or thing of horror, but only a little Mermaid lying fast asleep. Her wet hair was like gold. Her body was as white as ivory, and her tail was of silver and pearl. Like seashells were her ears, and her lips were like sea-coral.»