Descriptive Writing Techniques

Through description, a writer helps the reader use the senses of feeling, seeing, hearing, smelling, and tasting to experience what the writer experiences. Description helps the reader more clearly understand the people, places, and things about what you are writing. It is the most common form of writing. You will find descriptive writing in newspapers, magazines, books, and most other forms of written communication.
Descriptive writing portrays people, places, things, moments and theories with enough vivid detail to help the reader create a mental picture of what is being written about.

Things to Consider as You Write Your Descriptive Essay
• Think of an instance that you want to describe.
• What were you doing?
• What other things were happening around you? Is there anything specific that stands out in your mind?
• Where were objects located in relation to where you were?
• How did the surroundings remind you of other places you have been?
• What sights, smells, sounds, and tastes were in the air?
• Did the sights, smells, sounds, and tastes remind you of anything?
• What were you feeling at that time?
• Has there been an instance in which you have felt this way before?
• What do you want the reader to feel after reading the paper?
• What types of words and images can convey this feeling?
• Can you think of another situation that was similar to the one you are writing about? How can it help explain what you are writing about?
• Is there enough detail in your essayto create a mental image for the reader?

Conventions of Descriptive Essays Illustrated by Sample Paragraphs
Appealing-to-the-Senses Description: Let the reader see, smell, hear, taste, and feel what you write in your essay.

The thick, burnt scent of roasted coffee tickled the tip of my nose just seconds before the old, faithful alarm blared a distorted top-forty through its tiny top speaker. Wiping away the grit of last night's sleep, the starch white sunlight blinded me momentarily as I slung my arm like an elephant trunk along the top of the alarm, searching for the snooze button. While stretching hands and feet to the four posts of my bed, my eyes opened after several watery blinks. I crawled out of the comforter, edging awkwardly like a butterfly from a cocoon, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. The dusty pebbles on the chilled, wood floor sent ripples spiraling from my ankles to the nape of my neck when my feet hit the floor. Grabbing the apricot, terri-cloth robe, recently bathed in fabric softener and October wind, I knotted it tightly at my waist like a prestigious coat of armor and headed downstairs to battle the morning.

This example and website has made it clear for me to understand descriptive writing. This style for me has been the easiest to understand as I feel the detail required for this writing style relates to my role of a dancer/dance teacher.

Descriptive writing is like telling a story and expressing to the reader the interesting details to help create it and feel like your part of it. When dancing and choreographing I like to use a story/theme and like to express it with costumes, characters and the music. I feel that these elements help create my stories and that’s why I think I not only find it easy to understand but also interesting to write about.

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/descriptive.html