Descriptive Paragraph

When you are asked to produce a piece of descriptive writing, you are obviously asked to describe a particular person or
place or thing. When you describe him, or her or it , you give your readers a picture in words. To make the word picture as
vivid and real as possible, you must observe and record specific details that appeal to your readers‟ senses such as sight,
hearing, taste, smell, and touch. More than any other type of essay, descriptive essay needs sharp, colourful details.
For example, “As there was no hostess (sight) on duty, only the faint odour (smell) of stale grease and the dull hum
(hearing) of an empty (sight) refrigerated pastry case greeted me.”

Descriptive essays may be written on a wide variety of topics of common interest. You might be asked to describe, for
example, a place or a person you know well or an event which you attended. These pieces of descriptive writing might be
based on some degree of personal experience.
How to write a descriptive essay
Writing Step-1: If you write an essay on a particular person or place or thing, choose the one that you can observe
carefully or that you know already. Selection is important.
Example: Public transport, My bedroom, A Dinner at Midnight

Pre-writing
Writing Step-2: Write a short single sentence in which you mention/cite the place you want to describe and the
dominant expression you want to make. Remember that a descriptive essay should have a dominant impression of the
place, thing or person you are describing.
Example: Public transports are very crowded. My bed room is always well-organised.
A dinner at midnight was not what I had expected –it was different, and lonely.
Writing Step-3: After you have written your sentence, make a list of as many details as you can or plan how you will
organise to support that general impression. Here is an outline made by the writer of „A Photo my mother sent to me’
 Subject‟s face
 Clothing and jewellery
 Story behind it
Organising ideas
Writing Step-4: Once you have written the details or you plan you have to organise them properly, using the outline as
your guide, make a list of the details that support each of your main points. Here is the list made by the writer A Photo my
mother sent to me
Face
 a bit more oval than mine with curling black hair
 large, dark, fine luminous eyes
 mouth is closed
 slightest hint of a smile on her full lips
 small, straight nose
Clothing and jewellery
 a large, square-cut gold
 eggshell-coloured satin
 light in its folds and hollows
 silver-drop earrings
 two inches long.
 white bangles
 wearing blouse and sari
Story behind it
 young woman
 father presents on her birth day
 weeks‟ salary for lively portrait
 receives from her great grand mother
 chunk of his salary to pay
 a fancy department
 best present for her
Brainstorming will be in a box
Writing Step-5: Remember that a descriptive essay must have impression of a scene or
thing or person.
Use as many senses as possible in description. Chiefly you will use sight, touch, hearing, smell, and taste so that the
reader can gain a picture of the scene from the richness of your sense impression.
Writing Step-6: Use your sketchy outline and list of details to write your first draft.

Revising
Writing Step-7: After you have completed the first draft of the essay, review it critically as if it were not your own work.
Then ask the following questions:
 Does my essay have a clearly stated topic sentence, including a dominant impression?
 Have I provided rich, specific details that appeal to a variety of senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch)?
 Is there any irrelevant material that should be eliminated or re-written?
 Have I organised my essay in a consistent manner (depending on physical order, size, time progression or reorganisation
that is appropriate to my subject?
 Have I used transition words to help readers follow the train of thought?
 Do I have a concluding paragraph that provides a summary, final thought or both?

Descriptive writing about a person

Organising idea
If you describe a person, first, decide on your own dominant impression of the person and then use only those details that
will add to it. The following questions may help you organise your idea:
 What building or stature was he/she?
 What kind of things did he/she often say to you?
 What kind of voice did he/she have?
 What kind of feelings did you have when you heard his/her voice?
 What kind of clothes did he/she wear?
 Can you describe a single favourite or typical outfit he/she wore?
 Were there any special smells associated with him/her?
 What are the most memorable activities you associate with him/her?
Then you will use sight, touch, hearing, smell, and taste so that the reader can gain a picture of the person from the
richness of your sense impression. Finally revise the draft.

Descriptive writing about a place

Organising idea
If you describe a place, first, decide on your own dominant impression of the place that you can observe well or already
done so and then, use only those details that will add to it. The following question may help you organise your idea:
 What place is it?
 What kind of person spends a lot of time there?
 What do those personalities spend so much time there?
 What colours do you associate with the place?
 What feelings does the place evoke in you?
Use descriptive adjectives, use the details, draft, and revise

Descriptive writing based on imagination

Organising idea
Descriptive writing based on imagination such as A Haunted House, A Town after earthquake etc. Decide an imaginary
place, outline, list the details etc.; use only those details that will add to it. The following questions may help you organise
your idea:
 If 1 have never been on top of a hill, I can imagine myself on one such place.
Had I been there, what would have been the experience like?
 What could have made me feel happy?
 Have I seen a picture or read a novel which helps to show what the view
from the top of a hill might be like?
 Where is this hill?
 What kind of terrain is around it?
 What do I want to imagine in my particular view?
 What will I select?
Use descriptive adjectives, use the details, draft, and revise

Descriptive writing based on abstract idea

Organising idea
Descriptive writing based on abstract idea such as Describe a room full of love. Decide an abstract topic, outline, list the
details etc., and use only those details that will add to it. The following questions may help you organise your idea:
 What things do I like which are yellow?
 Are there things which I don't like which are yellow?
 Are there things which are abstract and therefore don't have a colour for which I think yellow would be a good colour?
 As the mood or tone is not directed here, what mood or tone do I think would best suit the colour yellow?
Use descriptive adjectives, use the details, draft, and revise
Tools for descriptive writing
Person, tense and openings can all be useful tools for improving descriptive writing
Person
The nature of topics for descriptive writing means that in general it will be possible to choose between writing in the first
person (using I) and writing in the third person (using he, she or they).
Tense
The nature of descriptive topics means that it will often be possible to write either in the present or the past tense. As
always, of course, you must be directed by the actual question set, but often that will be open-ended enough to the choice
of tense up to you.
Openings
As with narrative writing, it is important to engage the interest of the reader by establishing an interesting or eye-catching
opening to your piece of writing. Not all of the guidelines laid down there apply to descriptive writing, but some of them
do. For example, a single-word opening can be effective:
 An Example of a Descriptive Paragraph
A photo my mother sent to me
My mother, who is very dear to me, sent me a photograph of herself that I had never seen before. One day she was
cleaning out the old wardrobe, she came across a photo she had taken about a year before she married my father. This
picture of my mother, a fourteen year-old girl, and the story behind it have fascinated me from the moment I began to
consider it. The face of the young woman in the picture resembles mine in many ways. Her face is a bit more oval than
mine, but the softly curling black hair around it is quite similar to mine. I was born with the same small, straight nose as it
is in the picture. My mother‟s mouth is closed yet there is just the slightest hint of a smile on her full lips. However, the
most haunting feature in the picture is my mother‟s eyes. They are the carbon copy of my own large, dark ones. Her
brows are plucked into thin lines, which are like two pencil strokes added to highlight those fine, luminous eyes.Other
particular things I have studied carefully in the picture are the clothing and jewelry. The photo was taken about fourty
years ago, yet my mother was wearing a blouse and a sari. The blouse is made of heavy eggshell-coloured satin and
reflects the light in its folds and hollows. The sari which mother wears is made of cotton but chaste in design. She is
wearing silver drop earrings which are two inches long. On her left wrist is a pair of white bangles. My mother cannot
find the original bangles now. On the third finger of her left hand is a ring with a large, square-cut gold.The story behind
the picture is as interesting to me as the young woman it captures. My mother received the picture from my father on her
birth day. My father spent almost two weeks‟ salary on the blouse and shari which he bought from a fancy department
store in India. The ring she wore was a present from her great grand mother. My father spent another chunk of his salary
to pay the photographer for the lively portrait. It was the best present my mother ever received from my father.I react in
many ways when I think about the trouble that my father went I in order to impress my mother. I laugh when I look at the
ring, which was probably worn away to make my father jealous. I smile at the deep passionate love of my father for my
mother. Sometimes, I am filled with a mixture of pleasure and sadness when I look at this frozen everlasting moment. It
is a moment of beauty, of love, and –in a way -of my own past.

Now write a paragraph on A very popular friend

Source : Authentic English Grammar & Composition for Class XI-XII and All Admission Tests

Lists of Paragraphs in light of EFT

1. Describe a Flooded Village

2. Describe a Remote Village
3. Describe an Antique Village
4. A journey by the Sea
5. A Moonlit Night in a Village
6. Aims of Colonialism
7. Aims of journey
8. Best Person/Place
9. Catching Fish in Open Water
10. A haunting Place