How to Write a Descriptive Essay: Excellent Guide to Writing a Great Essay!

Once you know how to write a descriptive essay, you could liken the process to creating a musical piece, painting a pretty picture, or sculpting a masterpiece with mere words. Upon reading the essay you have written, it is important that readers have a clear and vivid picture of the object you are trying to portray.

In the event you are not sure how to write a descriptive essay, you could always seek assistance from the professional writers at Top-Writing-Services.com. Do not hesitate to get in touch with our team and our experts will provide a top-quality essay that will surpass your every expectation.

The Purpose a Descriptive Essay Serves

When you begin to understand how to write a descriptive essay, you will see that, as with other types of essay, the aim of this type of essay is to help you develop your ability to think critically as well as your writing skills. Nevertheless, this is not the only purpose of writing a descriptive essay; it also involves observing the chosen object and identifying what is notable, unique and/or different about it.

The Structure of a Descriptive Essay

When writing, for example, a descriptive art essay you should find there is little difference between the structure of this type of essay and that of a standard 5-paragraph essay. This implies your essay should be comprised of an introduction section, two or three paragraphs for the main body, and it should have a conclusion. The essay’s main idea should be set out in the introductory paragraph and this section should aim to capture the attention of readers. The main point or idea is broken down into subtopics in the main body paragraphs and they should be elaborated on in more detail. You should aim to make each body paragraph around six or seven sentences in length. The last part of virtually every type of essay is a conclusion paragraph. This section typically reiterates the ideas from the introductory section and rounds them off into a logical finale.

Tips for Writing a Descriptive Essay

Where descriptive essay format is concerned, writers usually choose one of two possible approaches:

Describe something in an objective manner – this method of description is used for technical and physical things or to report on something. This is a life-like and direct way of describing something. The writer provides their readers with solid facts. There is a distinct lack of feelings and emotions in objective descriptions. Readers are not given any idea about how the writer feels about or views the described object (similar to informative writing).

Describe something in a subjective manner (impressionistic) – this approach is the very opposite of the previous approach (the objective description). This allows readers to see the image through the writer’s eyes and to share the emotions and feelings the writer feels about the object.

The subjective description differs from the objective variety in that all human senses are used to convey the meaning the writer’s wants to convey and to achieve the desired effect. You share your attitude and view of the object (as you would in a personal-type essay). Subjective descriptions are often very thoughtful, emotional, and sensual.

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Tips on Writing a Descriptive Essay on a Painting

It is important to know how to describe a painting in detail and to know how to describe architecture or a musical piece since these assignments are the ones that students are typically given. To make the task of describing a paining easier, we recommend using the following pattern:

What title does the painting have?
Who created it?
What is the creation date of the painting? What context would you place it in from an historical perspective? (for example, marriage, personal conflict, travel, revolution, etc.) Where did the artist’s creative inspiration come from?
What epoch or artistic movement does it fit into? (for example, classicism, cubism, impressionism, modernism, purism, or another movement).
Would you describe the artistic work as abstract or figurative? What do you see and/or what feelings does the painting evoke in you?
Describe the materials used by the artist in his or her creation (e.g. pencil, oil, watercolors, oil, and so on).

The experts at Top-Writing-Services.com suggest writing your answers down on a clean or separate piece of paper and that you later organize these in full essay format in accordance with the structure described above. It may be necessary for you to use certain art-related words in your answers (refer to table A below):

Table A. Words to use when describing a painting or artwork

Abstract	Artwork of the abstract variety gives expression to the feelings of the artist or to their ideas as opposed to things or people exactly as they appear.
Accessible	When art, literature, or music and so on is described as accessible, it means it can be understood and enjoyed.
Aesthetic	This refers to items of beauty or the study of beauty-related principles, with particular reference to art.
Artistic	This relates to any art form including music, paintings, literature, dance, and acting.
Arty-crafty	Something created by a person who enjoys decorating and creating things but by someone you believe is unskilled.
Avant-garde	Art, music, and so on of the avant-garde variety is modern and has the ability to shock others due to the way it differs so vastly from its previous counterparts.
Baroque-style	This relates to an intricate style of music, art, or building popular in 17^th and early 18^th century Europe.
Cubist	Relates to a painting style that was prevalent in the early 1900s where an object or person was painted in various views in one painting, often in straight-line style.
Evocative	Evocative artworks express the subject in a very clear manner that causes the viewer to react strongly to the work.
Figurative	This type of art is based on objects, scenes, and people and does not represent ideas or feelings in the same manner as an abstract painting.
Folk	Folk traditions, art, stories, and so on were created/developed in certain regions and are now traditions in those regions.
Formal	Concerns the structure or form of some type of work e.g. music, art, or a written piece.
Freehand	This style is sketched without the use of rulers or similar drawing equipment.
Gothic	Art and buildings in Gothic styles were commonly found throughout Europe from the 12^th to the 15^th century.
Grandiose	These designs intentionally look impressive but in reality, they can look silly or artificial.
Mature	Mature works are those of writers or artists who have passed their youth and their artistic skill has been developed to an advanced or mature level.
Minimalist	Relates to work that relies on minimalism.
Monochrome	Uses various shades on one color.
Naturalistic	Naturalistic novels, paintings, and so on show objects and people in their real-life form.
Pictorial	Is made up of images/pictures
pre-Raphaelite	This style was popular in England in the late 1800s and typically used an abundance of bright coloring and intricate detail while showing life from a highly romanticized viewpoint.
Pure	Pure forms of art are not noted for serving practical purposes i.e. they do not sell anything.
Representational	Works of art and other varieties of representational works represent things as they appear in reality.
Romantic-style	Relates to a style of art, music and literature, commonly called romanticism.
Satire	Satirical art and/or criticizes things and/or people using humor to cause them to appear ridiculous.
Surreal	Relates to surrealism.
Stylized	An artificial style opposed to a realistic one (life-like).
Stereoscopic	Stereoscopic works are designed to appear real and solid when viewed through special equipment
Seminal	This type of music or writing is new, different, and has an influence on other music and literature that follows it.
Untitled	A painting, book, poem, and so on that has been left untitled.

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