Descriptive Writing: Painting Words With a Stroke of the Pen
Descriptive writing is used in all modes of writing (Expository, Narrative, and Persuasive) to create a vivid and lasting impression of the person, place or thing. Descriptive writing includes many vivid sensory details that paint a picture and appeals to all of the reader's senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste when appropriate. Descriptive writing may also paint pictures of the feelings the person, place or thing invokes in the writer.
Descriptive writing often makes use of figurative language such as analogies, similes and metaphors to help paint the picture in the reader's mind.
Descriptive writing uses precise language. Use specific adjectives and nouns and strong action verbs to give life to the picture you are painting in the reader's mind.
Descriptive writing is organized. Some ways to organize descriptive writing include: chronological (time), spatial (location), and order of importance. When describing a person, you might begin with a physical description, followed by how that person thinks, feels and acts.
"When you're writing a story, you're painting a picture in your mind and it's just the techniques that are different. Doing a painting is almost like doing a really short story – one really clear image."
-John Bramblitt, blind artist
"The Pen" by Muhammad al-Ghuzzi, from the anthology This Same Sky, edited by Naomi Shihab Nye (Aladdin, 1996). He wrote, "Take a pen in your uncertain fingers...the whole world is a sky-blue butterfly..." Reading the poem helps students to make some personal connections.
Some prompts that teachers may use when they want a descriptive piece of writing are:
- Describe a place, a person or event.
- Tell about a place, a person or event.
- Relate what happened at an event.
Long Essay Writing Assignment for TAKS
Choose one of the prompts below:
o Write an essay explaining how stories can help people.
o Write an essay about the best way to express yourself.
o Write an essay about the importance of dreaming.
o Write an essay about the importance of being yourself in a group.
o Write an essay about the importance of being generous.
o Write an essay about the power of a child’s imagination.
o Write an essay about a time someone was heroic.
o Write an essay about your own personal hero.
o Write an essay about how a single event can change the way you feel about someone.
o Write an essay about a time you helped another person.
o Write an essay about a time you felt like part of a community.
o Write an essay about why it is important to be aware of the world around you.
o Write an essay about how respect can bring people together.
o Write an essay about what community means to you.
o Write an essay about the importance of following your dreams.
o Write an essay about what makes a person interesting.
Use the following list to make your writing more exciting to the reader:
o Write at least one and a half pages—two is better.
o Focus on one example only.
o Elaborate on that sample.
o Use all your senses to describe that event.
o Start you essay by using a question, a dialogue, a quotation, a sound or a poem.
o Use metaphors, similes, foreshadowing or flashbacks.
o Use active, exciting verbs.
o Use adjectives to describe.
