Exploring Topics

When writing a descriptive essay, choose a subject that leads itself to description. You should be able to describe images or objects using some of the five senses. To get in the frame of mind, try thinking about the sounds, sights, tastes, smells, and feelings you should experience in certain places, such as a busy restaurant, a hospital, a subway car, a zoo, and so on.

If you are choosing your own topic,

• Select something with which you are familiar
• Review your journal for ideas
• Talk to friends or post on Facebook to determine what readers may want to know about
• Look through old photos of trips you have taken, at art, movies, or other points of interest.

Writing Exercise: Exploring topics for a descriptive essay

Read the following questions, and write the first ideas that come to your mind. Think of two to three ideas for each topic.

Example: List some memorable events that have happened to you or someone you know.

• My trip to Costa Rica
• The time I stayed with my grandmother in Seattle
• The time a tornado tore through our town

1. What are your best friends?

2. What are some unattractive fashion trends?

3. What are your unusual food preferences?

To help gather and organize support for your topic,

• Determine what you want your description to do: create an impression or persuade a reader to act
• Identify the interest of your readers – perhaps talk to others
• Brainstorm additional details
• Link sensory impressions to details with key words
• Connect details with the dominant impression you want to make
• Map the order of your description.

After brainstorming a list of potential details, you might use branching to start accumulating sensory impressions. Below is an example of using branching to obtain and group the sensory impressions for a paragraph describing the sounds of the kitchen at breakfast time.