descriptive text examples

Good descriptive writing creates an impression in the reader’s mind of an event, a place, a person, or a thing. The writing will be such that it will set a mood or describe something in such detail that if the reader saw it, they would recognize it.

“I was born in an empty sea, My tears created oceans
Producing tsunami waves with emotions
Patrolling the open seas of an unknown galaxy
I was floating in front of who I am physically
Spiritually paralyzing mind body and soul
It gives me energy when I’m lyrically exercising
I gotta spit ’til the story is told in a dream by celestial bodies
Follow me baby”

by Jeremy Burden

“Inside, the school smelled smartly of varnish and wood smoke from the potbellied stove. On gloomy days, not unknown in upstate New York in this region south of Lake Ontario and east of Lake Erie, the windows emitted a vague, gauzy light, not much reinforced by ceiling lights. We squinted at the blackboard, that seemed far away since it was on a small platform, where Mrs. Dietz’s desk was also positioned, at the front, left of the room. We sat in rows of seats, smallest at the front, largest at the rear, attached at their bases by metal runners, like a toboggan; the wood of these desks seemed beautiful to me, smooth and of the red-burnished hue of horse chestnuts. The floor was bare wooden planks. An American flag hung limply at the far left of the blackboard and above the blackboard, running across the front of the room, designed to draw our eyes to it avidly, worshipfully, were paper squares showing that beautifully shaped script known as Parker Penmanship.”

In social studies, descriptive writing can help students describe an important historical figure or event more clearly. Writing rich in detail will create vivid depictions of people and places and help make history come alive.
This resource from Greenville County Schools in South Carolina provides several ideas for writing in math class. Writing and mathematics are similar in that they both require gathering, organizing, and clarifying thoughts. Writing can assist math instruction by helping children make sense of mathematics and by helping teachers understand what children are learning.

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Here, we not only know the elf was crying but we also get a clear picture of the elf’s face with the phrase “poured down its cheeks” – this is much more descriptive than simply saying the elf was crying. We also know why the elf was crying and what that scene around it looks like. This is a great example of a descriptive sentence that gives a reader a clear image of what is happening rather than just telling them. The more details you share about what is happening, the more descriptive your text will be.

• The sunset filled the entire sky with the deep color of rubies, setting the clouds ablaze.
• The waves crashed and danced along the shore, moving up and down in a graceful and gentle rhythm like they were dancing.
• The painting was a field of flowers, with deep and rich blues and yellows atop vibrant green stems that seemed to beckon you to reach right in and pick them.
• The old man was stooped and bent, his back making the shape of a C and his head bent so far forward that his beard would nearly have touched his knobby knees had he been just a bit taller.
• His deep and soulful blue eyes were like the color of the ocean on the clearest day you can ever imagine.
• The soft fur of the dog felt like silk against my skin and her black coloring glistened as it absorbed the sunlight, reflecting it back as a perfect, deep, dark mirror.

“It was a cold grey day in late November. The weather had changed overnight, when a backing wind brought a granite sky and a mizzling rain with it, and although it was now only a little after two o’clock in the afternoon the pallor of a winter evening seemed to have closed upon the hills, cloaking them in mist.”

References:

http://www.thoughtco.com/model-descriptive-paragraphs-1690573
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/descriptive_writing
http://www.mometrix.com/academy/descriptive-texts/
http://rescuewriting.org/featured/writing-descriptive-text/
http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/descriptive_writing