How to Write a Descriptive Essay & an Essay About a Location
Purpose: To Create an Impression
Don't merely describe. Have a point to your description. If you describe a meal, create a favorable or unfavorable impression. Disgust us with the worst meal you had or tempt us with the most delicious meal you've eaten. Anger us or soothe us. Frighten us or please us. Construct your images to evoke a specific feeling or groups of feelings. Don't have these feelings contradict unless you have a specific goal in mind (to show irony, for instance).
Use concrete & specific nouns. Don't write: The steak tasted great. Instead, write: My knife melted into the two-inch cut of New York steak, lightly charred on the outside, still blood red on the inside.
Use active & specific verbs. Don't write: I walked through the woods. Instead, write: I hurried, sauntered, galloped, strolled, meandered. . .
Use similes and metaphors. Don't write: The water had many ripples. Instead, write: The water ripped like a dragon's back, like a serrated edge of a steak knife, like the teeth of a saw, like the ridge line on a mountain range.
Use all five senses. Don't write: The steak tasted good.
Instead, write: The steak tasted of charcoal, smelt of mesquite, felt warm and juicy on my tongue. I heard my stomach rumble with hunger.
Tastes: bitter, sweet, acrid, tart, sour, hot // peppery, salty, sugary, spicy tastes of. . . lemons, cinnamon, oranges, peppermint, mustard (look at the spice rack in your house).
Textures: smooth -- velvety, silken, watery, buttery, sanded, fine. Rough -- sandpapery, coarse, bristly, sharp-edged, brittle, saw-toothed
Smells: here, refer to tastes. Something can taste of oranges and smell of oranges.
Sounds: Here, use specific metaphors or similes. Don't merely write, "Her voice sounded soft." Instead, write, "Her voice was soft like that of a child just waking from a nap," or, "Her voice was silken," or "Her voice was poured honey," or "Her voice lulled me into her story. Her lies sounded like Gospel, her tempo like that of a metronome, hypnotic yet making itself felt."
Sights: Again, be concrete and specific. Don't write, "I saw a bird." Instead, write, "I saw a redtail hawk, its wings fanned and outstretched, gliding like a runaway kite."
Some suggestions:
Write about the most memorable dinner you've had, the worst meal in a restaurant you've had, a walk in a natural setting, a walk in an urban setting, an athletic event you participate in (a ski down a slope, a series of downs in a football game), an athletic event you observe, your room, lunch in the commons, the SI locker room, a shopping center, a particular store in a shopping center, a hick town, a small town you'd like to live in, an office, a classroom, a kitchen, another planet (caution: write about things you know), an ethnic district in SF (Chinatown, Japantown, the Mission District, North Beach, Bayview, etc.) a Sunset District.
Some more suggestions:
If possible, go to the place you want to describe. Bring pen and paper and jot down both impressions and sensory details. Go to Chinatown and notice the restaurant windows. Write about the skinned & plucked, gutted & beheaded animals hanging from the windows, write about the pungent smell of ginger and hot mustard coming from the shop, the choking smell of gas and diesel exhaust fumes, the smell of water in the gutters steaming off the hot asphalt; write about the sounds of the cars, the tens of voices rising and falling, intoning Cantonese and Mandarin like music from 100 phonographs; write about the crispy, sesame taste of the fried won tons, the sweet & sour taste of hot mustard and honey, the ginger and garlic buttering the prawns, and the doughy dim sum stuffed with stir-fried beef still smelling of the soy from the wok. Write about the touch of the buildings you walk past, the rough brick sand papering your fingertips, the smooth glass, cold against your flat palm, the silk dresses, smooth as warm water running through your open fingers.
HELP YOUR READERS SEE, HEAR, TASTE, TOUCH, & SMELL and build your sensory details to ONE CLEAR IMPRESSION, either positive or negative, or carefully mixed.