for Teachers for Schools for Working Scholars
for Teachers for Schools for Working Scholars
Course Navigator
How to Write a Poem: Lesson for KidsNext Lesson 

How to Write a Descriptive Paragraph or Essay: Lesson for Kids

Chapter 9 /  Lesson 8   Transcript
Try it risk-free for 30 days
How to Write a Descriptive Paragraph or Essay: Lesson for Kids
Coming up next: How to Write a Poem: Lesson for Kids

You're on a roll. Keep up the good work!

Take Quiz Watch Next Lesson
 Replay
Your next lesson will play in 10 seconds
  • 0:01 Descriptive Writing
  • 1:57 Writing a Descriptive…
  • 3:29 Make Revisions
  • 4:06 Lesson Summary
Add to Add to Add to

Want to watch this again later?

Log in or sign up to add this lesson to a Custom Course.

Log in or Sign up

Timeline
Autoplay
Autoplay
Speed

Recommended Lessons and Courses for You

Lesson Transcript
Instructor: Heather Jenkins

Heather has a bachelor's degree in elementary education and a master's degree in special education. She was a public school teacher and administrator for 11 years.

There are many different styles and purposes for writing. One type of writing is called descriptive writing. In this lesson, you'll learn about descriptive writing and how to write a descriptive paragraph or essay.

Descriptive Writing

Let's look at a couple of sentences. Ready? Ok. Here's the first sentence:

  • The chicken was good at dancing.

Pretty straightforward. Now the second sentence:

  • Despite being an ordinary egg-laying chicken, Renaldo dazzled the cheering crowd as he peered confidently over the rims of his metallic gray sunglasses while popping, locking, and sliding across the dance floor of the barn under the glittering lights of the makeshift disco ball.

Which of these sentences would you want to read again? Did you select the second sentence? If you did, it's most likely because it was more interesting and helped to create a picture in your mind of Renaldo the disco chicken. It sounds like he is an EGG-cellent dancer!

The second sentence is an example of descriptive writing. Descriptive writing is when an author uses carefully selected words to help create a vivid picture in the reader's mind. Oftentimes, these words involve sensory details, which focus on the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings that are associated with a particular topic.

The goal of descriptive writing is for readers to feel like they are actually experiencing what an author is describing. For example, there were a few descriptions in the sentence that most likely helped you create a mental image of Renaldo's dance fever like:

  • 'cheering crowd'
  • 'he peered confidently over the rims of his metallic gray sunglasses'
  • 'popping, locking, and sliding across the dance floor'
  • 'glittering lights of the makeshift disco ball'

Now that we've learned about descriptive writing, let's hatch a plan to figure out the best way to write a descriptive paragraph or essay. Sorry, but all these chicken jokes must be cracking you up, huh?

Writing a Descriptive Paragraph

If you're going to write a descriptive paragraph or essay, there are a few things that you should keep in mind when writing.

The first thing to do is to use your senses. Once you have selected a topic to write about, it's important to start thinking about what sensory details you can include to help your readers feel like they are experiencing what you are writing. To do this, it helps to ask yourself the following questions:


Sensory details2


To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member.
Create your account

Register to view this lesson

Are you a student or a teacher?

Unlock Your Education

See for yourself why 30 million people use Study.com

Become a Study.com member and start learning now.
Become a Member  Back
What teachers are saying about Study.com
Try it risk-free for 30 days
Description

Earning College Credit

Did you know… We have over 200 college courses that prepare you to earn credit by exam that is accepted by over 1,500 colleges and universities. You can test out of the first two years of college and save thousands off your degree. Anyone can earn credit-by-exam regardless of age or education level.

To learn more, visit our Earning Credit Page

Transferring credit to the school of your choice

Not sure what college you want to attend yet? Study.com has thousands of articles about every imaginable degree, area of study and career path that can help you find the school that's right for you.

Research Schools, Degrees & Careers

Get the unbiased info you need to find the right school.

Browse Articles By Category

Browse an area of study or degree level.

Recommended Articles
You are viewing lesson Lesson 8 in chapter 9 of the course:

 Back To Course

3rd Grade English

10 chapters | 95 lessons

{{courseNav.course.topics.length}} chapters | {{courseNav.course.mDynamicIntFields.lessonCount}} lessons | {{course.flashcardSetCount}} flashcard set{{course.flashcardSetCoun > 1 ? 's' : ''}}

Ch 9. 3rd Grade English: Writing
Ch 10. 3rd Grade English: Speaking &...

How to Write a Descriptive Paragraph or Essay: Lesson for Kids Related Study Materials

Create an account to start this course today
Try it risk-free for 30 days!
Create An Account

Explore our library of over 75,000 lessons

Browse by subject
Support