NARRATIVE and

DESCRIPTIVE
WRITING
• To write a narrative essay, you’ll need to
tell a story (usually about something that
happened to you) in such a way that he
audience learns a lesson or gains insight.
• To write a descriptive essay, you’ll need
to describe a person, object, or event so
vividly that the reader feels like he/she
could reach out and touch it.
 Tips for writing effective narrative and
descriptive essays:
• Tell a story about a moment or event that means a lot to
you--it will make it easier for you to tell the story in an
interesting way!
• Get right to the action!  Avoid long introductions and lengthy
descriptions--especially at the beginning of your narrative.
• Make sure your story has a point! Describe what you
learned from this experience.
• Use all five of your senses to describe the setting, characters,
and the plot of your story. Don't be afraid to tell the story in
your own voice.  Nobody wants to read a story that sounds
like a textbook!
 How to Write Vivid Descriptions
Having trouble describing a person, object, or event for your
narrative or descriptive essay? 

• What do you smell?

• What do you taste?
• What do you see?
• What do you hear?
• What might you touch or feel?
         
Remember:  Avoid simply telling us what something looks like--
tell us how it tastes, smells, sounds, or feels!
 Using Concrete Details for Narratives

Effective narrative essays allow readers to visualize everything that's happening, in their
minds.  One way to make sure that this occurs is to use concrete, rather than abstract, details.
 
Concrete Language… Abstract Language…
makes the story or image seem clearer makes the story or image difficult to
and more real to us. visualize.

gives us information that we can easily leaves your reader feeling empty,
grasp and perhaps empathize with. disconnected, and possibly confused.

The word “abstract” might remind you of modern art.  An abstract painting, for example, does
not normally contain recognizable objects.  In other words, we can't look at the painting and
immediately say "that's a house" or "that's a bowl of fruit."  To the untrained eye, abstract art
looks a bit like a child's finger-painting--just brightly colored splotches on a canvas.Avoid abstract
language—it won’t help the reader understand what you're trying to say!
 EXAMPLES!
• Examples:
• Abstract:  It was a nice day.  Concrete:  The sun
was shining and a slight breeze blew across my
face. 
• Abstract:  I liked writing poems, not essays. 
Concrete:  I liked writing short, rhythmic poems
and hated rambling on about my thoughts in
those four-page essays. 
• Abstract:  Mr. Smith was a great teacher.
Concrete:  Mr. Smith really knew how to help us
turn our thoughts into good stories and essays.
HOW TO WRITE A DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY
Here is a list of important rules to follow as your write this essay.
• Understand the concept
• Do your research
• Outline the paper
• Write the paper
• Re-write the paper
• Edit (outside editors)

Here are some tips to remember when writing your descriptive essay:
• Actually describe something
• Use concrete and abstract images
• Use concrete and abstract ideas
• Do not go overboard with adjectives and adverbs
• Do not go overboard with similes and metaphors
• Give it to someone else to see if your essay actually describes something
 What do you want to describe?

As you get started on your descriptive essay,

it's important for you to identify exactly what
you want to describe. Often, a descriptive essay
will focus on portraying one of the following:
• a person
• a Place
• a memory
• an experience
• an object
 How should you write your description?

If there's one thing you should remember as you write your

descriptive essay, it's the famous saying: show don't tell. But
what's the difference between showing and telling?
Consider these two simple examples:
• I grew tired after dinner.
• As I leaned back and rested my head against the top of the
chair, my eyelids began to feel heavy, and the edges of the
empty plate in front of me blurred with the white
tablecloth.
The first sentence tells readers that you grew tired after
dinner. The second sentence shows readers that you grew
tired. The most effective descriptive essays are loaded with
such showing because they enable readers to imagine or
experience something for themselves.
 VIVID DESCRIPTIONS
As you write your descriptive essay, the best way to create a vivid
experience for your readers is to focus on the five senses.

• sight
• sound
• smell
• touch
• taste

When you focus your descriptions on the senses, you provide vivid
and specific details that show your readers rather than tell your
readers what you are describing.
 PLANNING YOUR DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY

• What or who do you want to

describe?
• What is your reason for writing
your description?
• What are the particular qualities
that you want to focus on?
 Drafting your descriptive essay:

• What sights, sounds, smells, tastes,

and textures are important for
developing your description?
• Which details can you include to
ensure that your readers gain a vivid
impression imbued with your
emotion or perspective?
 Revising your descriptive essay:
• Have you provided enough details and descriptions to
enable your readers to gain a complete and vivid
perception?
• Have you left out any minor but important details?
• Have you used words that convey your emotion or
perspective?
• Are there any unnecessary details in your description?
• Does each paragraph of your essay focus on one aspect
of your description?
• Are you paragraphs ordered in the most effective way?
 Descripti ve Essay - The Owl
• A scream passing through an open window at the edge of town
rattles the settled sounds of a night tucked in, the filtering
whispers of leaves outside in the breeze interrupted, yielding to
the call of a helpless exater protected by sound walls; only the
nearby creek persists. Call of crickets resign under full moon, and
hill-riding wind halts for a moment following the cry. Slowly, the
leaves begin to whisper again, though slightly muffled, offset by
the impression of a scream when it was the last thing on the
night’s mind.

• Like his twisted feathers, his many scars, the reliable old owl
chose the gnarled, weather-beaten, but solid branch often—it
being a companion to the wise alone with the night and the last
branch to creak in the heaviest wind. He oft...
 APPLE!
• The next time you get a chance, pick up an apple.
Feel the weight of it in your hand. Examine it for
blemishes. What caused that little black spot? Did
the apple tenaciously hang onto the wind-whipped
tree branch as a storm dashed it into a neighboring
twig? Did a peckish bird sample the apple for
ripeness? Look at the apple again and feel it as it
warms in your hand. Anticipate the burst of flavor
as your teeth crunch through the rich redness of its
thin skin.
The above is a sample of descriptive writing and a hint
of some of the ways you can take an ordinary object
and change it into the extraordinary using words.
Writing a descriptive essay is a chance to explore your
own creativity as you use the senses to draw a picture
in words.
• Could you feel the weight and temperature of the
apple?
• Did you see the blemish and visualize the windstorm
or the bird?
• Could you hear the crunch as you bit through the
skin?
• Could you taste the explosion of flavor?
Actually, there is more than one way to write a descriptive
essay. Some descriptive essays are written objectively, using
only the facts:
Example: The apple was fully ripe, a fact supported by its
deep red color and the ease with which its dry brown stem
separated from the tree.
• Tip: Keep your essay on topic by applying descriptive text
to your subject only. Notice above that no description is
applied to the tree.
Other descriptive writing, like the first example, is subjective
in that it intends to paint a vivid picture that elicits sensations
or arouses emotion in the reader. However, in either form,
descriptive writing adds strength to your essay by adding
interesting and specific details to your composition.
• Although the first example is a descriptive paragraph,
be sure to follow the standard essay writing format of
introduction, body, and conclusion when writing your
descriptive essay. Use your introduction to both present
your subject and to tell your reader why you found it
interesting.
• Choose your details carefully. In writing a descriptive
essay, your objective is to leave your reader with just
one impression.
• For instance, if the apple was grass green instead of
rosy red, you might take some “poetic license” and
leave that fact out, selecting only the details that
support your description and convey the impression or
a ripe and juicy apple.
When writing a descriptive essay, start building your
description by brainstorming the facts:

• Red Apple
• Brown Stem
• Small black blemish near the top
• Thin skin
• Juicy
• Crunchy
• Round
• Heavy and solid
• By the time you finish this process, you’ll probably have
written an objective description and only need to put it
into sentences and insert them into appropriate
paragraphs of your descriptive essay. In writing a subjective
description, you’ll want to build on the facts by adding
adjectives to some of them and using synonyms that are
more descriptive for others. (e.g. rosy red as opposed to
red or weighty as opposed to heavy).
• Choose two or three of the descriptions you’ve built and
use them as the focal points of your descriptive essay body,
with supporting information that describes why they are
important to your overall view. (In this example, the
ripeness of the apple.)
• Conclude your descriptive essay with a summary of your
points and restate the impression you meant to create.
 PURPOSE OF DESCRIPTIVE ESSAYS
• The purpose of a descriptive essay is to
describe a person, place, or thing in such vivid
detail that the reader can easily form a precise
mental picture of what is being written about.
The author may accomplish this by using
imaginative language, interesting comparisons,
and images that appeal to the senses.
• Read this sample descriptive essay, and then
read the notes below.
1) The subject of the sample essay is fairly ordinary
—a ride on a Ferris wheel. The author makes it
interesting, however, by comparing the Ferris wheel
to a monstrous creature.
2) The author makes good use of fresh and varied
vocabulary. For example, in the first paragraph
alone, she uses verbs that create excitement like
"fascinate," "amaze," and "terrify." In the second
paragraph she uses a variety of terms to describe
the machine such as "monstrosity," "mythical
beast," "amazing dinosaur," "fire-breathing dragon."
3) The author uses her senses to describe the scene—how the
ride looks, sounds, smells, and feels. The ride is "huge, smoky,
noisy" and its engines "drone" like the roar of a dragon. On the
ride, she gets a "rush of adrenaline" and a "lump in her throat,"
she feels immobile and then weightless.
4) The essay is well organized. The introduction begins with a
general statement, "I have always been fascinated by carnival
rides," and ends with a more specific statement of what the
essay will be about, "the thrill and excitement of a carnival ride
keeps me coming back for more." The body of the essay is
composed of several paragraphs that describe the Ferris wheel,
the way it seems from the ground and the way it feels to ride
on one. The conclusion restates the main idea of the essay, that
the author continues to find carnival rides thrilling and exciting.