Why description is important in writing

Put your subject directly before the verb. To slow down the motion in other words, to add emphasis , shorten the sentence.

If you want to bring things to a stop, try replacing a conjunction with a comma: The fields are barren now, deserted. Avoid summary in your descriptions. Offer concrete information, engage us with moment-to-moment details, tell us about each detail, and how they affect the senses. One of the most practical — and indeed, easiest — ways of laying out a descriptive foundation is to envision each scene before you write it.

Literally close your eyes, see the scene and then write it down. Now — to establish storytelling authority — make sure the description is told from the proper subjective viewpoint: tell us how the character or narrator would see things from the POV you've established. But this was intended to be a work of fiction. Example better : The heat is oppressive, sweltering and exhausting, it sticks to the skin and makes ovens out of parking lots. Do they make us participants in the story instead of mere observers?

Not only is this new sentence more specific, it brings in a few common experiences associated with heat sticky skin, broiling parking lots , thereby placing readers into the action and increasing the chances of an empathic response. More often than not, they actually abstract a thought, so sentences that rely on modifiers for descriptive strength are building on faulty foundations. When you edit your work, spend considerable time scrutinizing your sentences to make sure the action maximizes full descriptive potential.

Example bad : They arrived at the house just behind the streaming line of fire trucks, their street alive in the opulent glow of lights and sirens, their house ablaze in a perennial bloom of orange and yellow. Unfortunately, this story was published before I possessed the wherewithal to edit such obtuse overwriting. Looking at it five years later, the sentence would have been fine if I simply cut down on the modifiers and let the action breathe. Example better : They arrived at the house just behind the fire trucks, the street alive in a glow of lights and sirens, their house ablaze.

Notice how this version places an emphasis on the verbs. In the first version, the sentence ends with a description of the colors of the blaze, hardly essential information. Now emphasis is placed on the most important information in the sentence and in this case, the entire story : the burning house. If you want to draw extra emphasis to anything, put it at the end of the sentence.

Placing it at the beginning is a close second. Never bury important information in the middle. Ever wonder why metaphor and analogy are such powerful — not to mention, popular — tools? Figurative language is an unmatched ally in descriptive pursuits.

It gives the writer a chance to deconstruct a specific, subjective event and recast it into something familiar. I've done it, but I've never thought about it until I read Williams's poem. Poetry often begins with an image. Therefore, poetry is in a unique position to explore and exploit the possibilities of language. By utilizing effective descriptive details, the language of a poem is able to achieve power over the thoughts and feelings of readers.

Rhythm and meter are important to poetry, but without descriptive detail a poem cannot engage the imagination or the senses. Gilbert Findlay, Departement of English All writing is an act of definition. The writer uses some terms that are key to the subject.

Take for example this passage from Itabari Njeri: 'Because of my family, I learned to see and hear the complexity and grand drama that underlay the simplest of human actions. It must be concrete in order to 'define' these terms in context. Without descriptive, contextual detail, the reader may only understand 'family' with reference to his or her own family, while what Njeri may be promising about an understanding of culture through family may be 90 degrees off from what the reader assumes.

Karen Wuest, GTA - Departement of English There is a significant difference between choosing details simply to describe something and selecting details that not only describe, but also reveal. This is particularly true in fiction—selective details which reveal character, or which might enlighten the reader about the narrator. It is also true in general, where details often reveal some deeper issue throbbing beneath the surface. That details can be used to describe is essential and true, but they should also go beyond that.

Sheer description bogged down with details lacks energy, verve. The details must carry weight, reveal something beyond just the surface they have been describing. Jason and Allan B. Lefcowitz explain that "sensory experience is primary experience: we see, feel, taste, smell, and hear before we think, analyze, choose, and argue" Therefore, before an argument can effectively persuade an audience, the writer must carefully select and utilize descriptive details.

If a writer can effectively engage the reader's primary senses, then the audience can be more easily enticed to feel the validity of the argument.

For example, an argument which provides a plea to end deforestation is far more moving when it includes an emotional and sensory depiction of the desolate environment, the ravaged wilderness, the displaced animals. Descriptive details can cause emotional triggers which are key when attempting to persuade an audience. Gilbert Findlay, Department of English The human mind cannot communicate in abstractions. If I write, 'communication is the most crucial element in contemporary society,' you, the reader think, 'gotta talk to my girlfriend.

This writer is focusing on communication by the electronic media. Descriptive detail means clear communication. Summary response writing is not exempt from the need to include descriptive detail. Objective details refer to concrete facts, while subjective details stress feelings about facts, places, people, and events.

A balance between objective and subjective details will help the essay involve the emotions of the reader, while still relating the important facts.

Overall, a descriptive essay will focus upon one clear, dominant impression or idea. This dominant idea should be made clear in the thesis, and should guide the writer's selection of detail. Although the summary is not an appropriate place for a large amount of description, the main idea in the response can be effectively emphasized through the addition of clear creative and critical descriptive detail.

There are many different ways in which descriptive detail can be included in writing. Whether to describe, persuade, illustrate or demonstrate, the descriptive details you include in your writing should serve a purpose not just pad your writing with more words.

It is important to remember that human beings learn about the world through using the five senses. They are our primary source of knowledge about the world. Therefore, writing which incorporates vivid, sensory detail is more likely to engage and affect the reader. The following writing sample uses sensory detail to create concrete images. Because the most effective way to incorporate sensory detail is to use all five senses in harmony, this sample provides an effective example of how sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste work together to strengthen writing.

Each of the views highlights exactly how each sense is involved in improving the paragraph's imagery. Comment: These are the beginning sentences of a paragraph which describes a boy helping an elderly woman up a flight of stairs. The scene seems simple enough, but it leaves the reader with many unanswered questions. Without the inclusion of sensory detail, the writing seems vague and non-specific. How might the author use descriptive detail to make the scene more vivid? Comment: Visual details are often successfully incorporated into writing.

Details which appeal to our sense of sight ensure that the reader is able to give faces to characters, or add concrete details to a setting. For example, through adding visual detail, a room can become more than just a blank, vague receptacle. It becomes a small, oblong room with peeling maroon wallpaper and cracked ceiling tiles. The use of sensory details, then, provides you the greatest possibility of relating to your audience and thus engaging them in your writing, making descriptive writing important not only during your education but also during everyday situations.

Avoid empty descriptors if possible. Empty descriptors are adjectives that can mean different things to different people. Good , beautiful , terrific , and nice are examples. The use of such words in descriptions can lead to misreads and confusion. Whether you are presenting a new product or service to a client, training new employees, or brainstorming ideas with colleagues, the use of clear, evocative detail is crucial.

Make an effort to use details that express your thoughts in a way that will register with others. Sharp, concise details are always impressive. On a separate sheet of paper, describe the following five items in a short paragraph. Use at least three of the five senses for each description. Description essays Essays that typically describe a person, a place, or an object using sensory details. The structure of a descriptive essay is more flexible than in some of the other rhetorical modes.

The introduction of a description essay should set up the tone and point of the essay. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. A descriptive essay, in essence, attempts to create more involved and clear encounter so that the reader can understand it better.

It enables you to paint a clear picture for your readers with words. A good descriptive essay accomplishes this impact by using a more detailed observation and description.

For many people, a description is a way of explaining something using words, that is to say, you can describe the feeling, a sound, a place or even an emotion.

A descriptive essay also does exactly the same thing: they assist you to explain things in a manner that your targeted audience are able to see, sense or grasp whatever you are talking about. It makes the reader feel as if he was also in the scene. A descriptive essay also enables the essay reader to grasp the essay using descriptive language. It is important for one to sit down and clearly describe what one observes.

Nevertheless, when you decide to write a descriptive essay, you generally must have a specific motive for writing your descriptive essay. Being familiar with the reason first, will help you to be keen on your description and stimulate your choice of wordings with a visible view of emotion. Descriptive essay is of great importance, for instance, by giving an example of a descriptive essay about a place, helps one to see places they might not have gone or even they will not be able to go, and also it can bring that urge in us of wanting to go to that place.

The descriptive essay also helps us learn new things about a place, ourselves or even an. Get Access. Good Essays. Importance Of Historiographical Essay.