How to Write a Descriptive Essay about a Place: Crucial Hints

Well-composed descriptive essays will convey a clear image of a place you have visited to the reader. It also gives you the opportunity to express your personal perspective or feeling about this place by essentially transporting your reader with concise and descriptive words that impart your vision of a location.

Here are some crucial hints you need to follow to write a great descriptive essay about a place:

Write your introduction in present tense. While you may have an anecdote to open your paragraph, it’s a better idea to keep your paragraph in the present tense by accurately describing what it is that motivated you to select your particular subject location for the descriptive essay. Don’t leave the reader guessing and be sure to mention the full name of the location.

Use adjectives to describe your five senses. Your body paragraphs should contain descriptions that convey the sights, sounds, smells, feelings and tastes you experienced while at this location. You may start by first making a list of each so that you have a wide variety of adjectives to choose from. Try choosing experiences that aren’t readily recognizable to readers who have also been to your subject location, but not too unfamiliar to alienate those readers who have not.

Restate your inspiration in the conclusion. Your conclusion should briefly restate the inspiration for the essay as well as any details of personal feelings, memories or recommendations about the location. This is your opportunity to clearly spell out your overall impression of your subject location.

Revise and edit your essay. As it is in all kinds of writing, careful proofreading is will help you find and correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes that could greatly distract your reader from enjoying your writing. Revising your essay will also help you trim away all of the extraneous information that isn’t important to the place you are describing. Remember that only details that relate to your subject location are important; don’t spend time describing your experiences or sensations that are outside of the scope of your essay.

Practice makes perfect, and it may take a few tries before you become comfortable writing descriptive essays. Take some hints from some of the experts and search for examples of travel writing and travel journals. After a reading a few you see the difference in the form. Try writing down a few sentences on your own and get the feel for setting the location down as a sort of picture.