Descriptive Writing 102 (Guidelines to Writing Good Descriptive Essays)

Continued from last week.

2.    Select a vantage point (point of view) from which to relate events or details. We have three points of views:

a)     First person: In the subjective case, the singular form of the first person is “I,” and the plural form is “we.” “I” and “we” are called subjective case because they are both used as the subject of a sentence. “I” refers to yourself, while “we” refers to yourself and/with others.

For example: I just joined the Lagos Book Club and we are reading, “The Wonders of Africa.”

Other singular first person pronouns include the objective case (this means it is used as the object of a sentence) “me,” and the possessive case (they are used to show possession or ownership), “my” and “mine.”

Plural first person pronouns are “us” (objective case) and “our” and “ours” (possessive case).

I am certain a table will make it easier to understand.

First Person	Subjective Case	Objective Case	Possessive Case
Singular	I	Me	My
Plural	We	Us	Mine

b)  Second Person: This point of view is more appropriate in formal writing. Use the second person point of view for presentations, emails, business and technical writing.

This point of view addresses the reader. It makes use of pronouns like, “you,” “your,” and “yours.”

Second Person	Subjective Case	Objective Case	Possessive Case
Singular and Plural	You	you	your/yours

c)   Third Person: This is the most common point of view used in fiction and academic writing. The pronouns used here are “he,” “she,” and “it.”

For example: It was the best time of my life. “It” is in the singular third-person subjective case.

In addition to having singular and plural cases, the third person also has gender and neuter (a gender that refers to inanimate objects) categories.

Third Person	Subjective Case	Objective Case	Possessive Case
Singular	He (masculine)	Him (masculine)	his/his
	She (feminine)	Her (feminine)	Her/hers
	It (neuter)	It (neuter)	Its/its (neuter)
Plural	They	them	Their/theirs

3.   As you write, include vivid sensory details that paint a picture and appeal to all of the reader's senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste when appropriate. 

4.   Consider including figures of speech, such as analogies, similes and metaphors to help evoke feelings and paint a picture in the reader's mind.

5.   Use precise language. Specific adjectives and nouns and strong action verbs give life to the picture you are painting in the reader's mind. Do not use general adjectives, nouns, and, of course, passive verbs.

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Descriptive Writing 101

Descriptive writing explains, describes or defines the author’s subject to the reader in such a way that a picture is formed in the reader’s mind. 

Good descriptive writing uses sensory details to paint a picture of a person, place, scene, object or convey emotion.

Writing descriptively will make your writing more interesting and engaging to read. It also helps persuade your readers.

The reality is that there is no particular way to teach descriptive writing. Teachers can only help improve their students’ skills by encouraging them to read, read and read.

Below are a Few Guidelines to Writing Good Descriptive Essays

To write a good descriptive essay:

1.   Start by deciding on a method of organisation. Good descriptive writing is organised. Some ways to organise descriptive writing include: chronological (time), spatial (location), and order of importance.

a.   Spatial organisation works very well if your details are mainly visual. You can describe a scene using this method by:

                                     i.        Beginning from right to left or vice versa

                                    ii.        Top to bottom or vice versa

                                  iii.        Inside out or vice versa

                                  iv.        Around in a circle, starting and ending at the same place.

b.   Chronological Order presents details and events in time-order, from first to last or from the end to the beginning. When describing an event, it is best to use chronological order.

c.   Order of Importance enables you draw attention to key ideas by placing them first and placing the least important details last.

Note: When describing a person, you might begin with a physical description, followed by how that person thinks, feels and acts.

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Elements of Persuasion

To move your readers you must discover all available ways of persuasion. According to Aristotle, you can persuade your readers using three elements:

    1.   Logos: The appeal to the audience’s reason.

    2.   Pathos: The appeal to the audience’s emotions.

   3. Ethos: The degree of confidence that the speaker’s character or personality inspires in the readers.

Rational Appeal (Logos)	Emotional Appeal (Pathos)	Ethical Appeal (Ethos)
facts          case studies          statistics          experiments          logical reasoning          analogies          anecdotes          authority voices	belief in fairness          love          pity          greed          lust          revenge	trustworthiness    credibility    reliability           expert testimony           reliable sources           fairness

These three appeals can be used separately, or they can be combined to increase your persuasive effect. Whenever you argue a point in writing, you analyze your subject, topic, or issue in order to persuade your readers to think and act in a specific way.

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INTRODUCTIONS

First impressions matter, whether you are meeting someone new or opening an essay. Your introduction must:

• ·         Capture your reader’s attention.
• ·         State your purpose for writing, that is, your focus statement.

To capture your readers’ attention you can begin with:

• ·       Anecdote: anecdotes are great openings for writing biographies, informative essays, personal narratives, speeches and term papers.
• ·         Humour: this works best in “lighter” writings.
• ·         Quotations
• ·         Question: you can start an essay by turning your assignment into a question. For example, Students, they insist, should be able to speak, read, and write a second language. State your opinion for or against this proposal. You can begin this essay with the question, “Should students be required to learn to speak, read, and write a second language?”
• ·         A surprising statistic.
• ·         Descriptions (describe the environment, person)

Source: Laurie  Rozakis, PHD  

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