Description of a Place

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Description of a Place
Introduction A Writers Checklist Choosing a
place to describe Gathering descriptive
details Including your thoughts and
feelings Focusing on a dominant
impression Arranging details A Writers
Model Your Turn Describe a place
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Introduction
Is there a place that is special to you?
You can describe this place in a descriptive
essay so that others can discover it too.
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Introduction
How does your special place look? Are there
sounds or smells associated with it? How does it
make you feel?
If you carefully choose the descriptive details
in your essay, you can paint a vivid picture of
your special place in your readers minds.
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A Writers Checklist
When you write a description of a place, you
should

• Choose a place that would make an interesting
  subject for description.

• Use a variety of descriptive details to show
  how the place looks, sounds, smells, and feels.

• Include your thoughts and feelings about the
  place.

• Focus on a dominant impression of the place.

• Arrange details in spatial order or by order of
  importance.

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Choosing a place to describe
Start by choosing a place to write about. As you
consider possibilities, focus on
places that you know well
places that you can visit, observe, and
experience yourself
places that are not too big to describe in detail
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Choosing a place to describe
Next, choose one place that stands out from the
others and that you feel would be most
interesting to write about and read about.
Places I know well

• not interesting

• our backyard

• might be interesting only to skateboarders

• the skateboard park

• interesting lots of people go there

• Peachtree Mall

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Writing Tip Choosing a place to describe
When writing a descriptive paper, it helps to
choose a place that is special to you.
Youll have more to say about the place.
Your enthusiasm for your subject will be
communicated to your reader.
Youre likely to remember more about the place or
to find interesting details to share with your
readers.
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Gathering descriptive details
Gather the descriptive details you need through
observation, recall, or research. If possible,
directly observe the place you plan to describe.
Watch what happens there, and take notes. Use
all of your senses in your observation, and try
to record details for all five senses.
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Gathering descriptive details
If you are describing a place that you remember
but cannot revisit, you must recall details. Shut
your eyes and concentrate on creating a mental
picture of the place, including details for all
five senses.
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Test Tip Gather descriptive details
If you are describing a place as part of a
writing test, the skill of recalling a place from
memory is essential.
Write down the descriptive details that first
come to mind, and then add to your list by
probing your memory for other details about
sounds, smells, sights, and so on.
Its always a good idea to write about a place
that you know well. You will be more likely to
recall more descriptive details.
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Gathering descriptive details
You can also do research to get more information
about a place. You can read about the place,
interview people who have been there, and so on.
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Gathering descriptive details
You will use a variety of descriptive details in
your description.
The basic types of details that writers of
descriptive essays use are
sensory details
factual details
figurative details
unique features
thoughts feelings
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Gathering descriptive details
Sensory details appeal to the five sensessight,
hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Include details
from as many senses as you can in your
descriptive paper.
The smell of the crisp bacon popping on the rusty
old camp stove made my mouth water.
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Gathering descriptive details
Factual details are things such as dates, names,
numbers, quotations, and true statements. Using
factual details grounds your description in
reality.
On sunny afternoons in the spring, members of the
high school track team practice jumping hurdles
in preparation for the annual spring track meet.
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Gathering descriptive details
Figurative details include similes, metaphors,
and examples of personification. A simile
compares two unlike things using the words like
or as.
The warm beach sun wrapped around us like a cozy
blanket.
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Gathering descriptive details
A metaphor says that one thing is another,
without using the words like or as.
The wind was an ocean wave, battering the tree
branches in the forest.
Personification describes something non-human,
such as an animal or object, as if it were human
by giving it human qualities.
The lonely ships horn gave its mournful cry in
the foggy night.
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Gathering descriptive details Including your
thoughts and feelings
Descriptive writing is often subjective writing,
so it should include your own perceptions and
feelings.
Include specific details that show your thoughts
and feelings about the place you have chosen to
describe.
Peachtree Mall is one of my favorite places to
people-watch because it is always buzzing with a
diverse group of people.
specific thought
Even though the mall is pulsing with activity, I
am relaxed and enjoying myself.
specific feeling
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Gathering descriptive details
After you have recorded a list of details about
the place, you should read over your list
carefully. Then choose only the details that you
want to include.
Make sure you have a variety of details. Have you
repeated yourself?
Do you have a balance between sensory, figurative
and factual details?
Have you included specific details that
illustrate your thoughts and feelings?
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Gathering descriptive details
Lucia is planning to write a description of the
Peachtree Mall. Here is a log listing her
descriptive details
Descriptive Detail Log

• Unique feature mall walkers of all ages.
• Filled with the sounds of the hurried footfalls
  of the walkers echoing on cold marble floors.
• Crowded escalators.
• Shoppers of diverse racial and cultural
  backgrounds.

• Sensory
• details

• The mall was built in 1992.
• There are over 5,000 visitors to the mall each
  day.

• Factual
• details

• The mall is as cold as a penguin habitat because
  of the overdone air conditioning.
• Thought/feeling The mall walkers walk so
  rapidly, pumping their arms, that they look like
  funny little chickens.
• The mall is extremely crowded with a variety of
  people.

• Figurative
• details

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Focusing on a dominant impression
After organizing your descriptive details, focus
on the dominant impression. A dominant impression
is a kind of main idea to which all of your
descriptive details point.
Dominant Impression
Descriptive Details
Descriptive Details
Descriptive Details
You may not state a dominant impression
explicitly, but it should be clear to readers of
your description.
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Focusing on a dominant impression

• A good method for figuring out the dominant
  impression of your descriptive paper is to
• Jot down some descriptive details of the place
  you have chosen. Then look at how the details
  you have collected are related to one another.

• Mall walkers of all ages
• Over 5,000 visitors each day
• Shoppers of many different racial and cultural
  backgrounds
• Noisy

• Lots of clothing stores
• Smells from food court of many types of ethnic
  cuisine
• Cold marble floors
• Crowded escalators

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Focusing on a dominant impression

1. Identify at least one descriptive thread that
   runs through your assembled details.

I have included several details about the mall
being very crowded and busy with people from a
variety of racial and cultural backgrounds.
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Focusing on a dominant impression

1. Write down a sentence that clearly states a
   dominant impression based on the descriptive
   details that you have identified.

If I had to the describe the Peachtree Mall and
what it means to me in a few phrases, it would be
bustling and crowded with a variety of people
from diverse backgrounds.
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Arranging details
Arrange the details of your descriptive paper in
an order that supports the dominant impression
and shows a logical progression of your ideas.
There are two common ways to arrange details
spatial order and order of importance.
Order of importance
Spatial order
top to bottom, bottom to top
left to right, right to left

• 1

• 2

near to far, far to near
inside to outside, outside to inside

• 3

• 4

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Arranging details
Spatial order, or ordering details according to
how they are arranged in space, is used mostly
with details which concern sight. You could
describe how the place you have chosen to write
about looks from a distance and then zoom in and
describe how it looks up close.
far away
up close
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Arranging details
Order of importance is a good method to use when
you have some details that are more important
than others. You can start with your least
important details and build up to your most
important details or the other way around.
least important
next important
most important
most important
next important
least important
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A Writers Checklist
Use the checklist as you look at the following
Writers Model and then evaluate and revise your
own description of a place

• Choose a place that would make an interesting
  subject for description.
• Use a variety of descriptive details to show
  how the place looks, sounds, smells, and feels.
• Include your thoughts and feelings about the
  place.
• Focus on a dominant impression of the place.
• Arrange details in spatial order or by order of
  importance.

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The Peachtree Mall Do you enjoy watching
people? People have fascinated me ever since I
was a small girl, and I love to observe them. One
of my favorite places to people-watch is the
Peachtree Mall. Diversity, bustle, and a jumble
of activity permeate the place. Everywhere I go
offers a new sensory treat.
interesting opening
thoughts and feelings
dominant impression
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A person visiting the Peachtree Mall for the
first time might notice, among the bustling
variety of people, the regular group of morning
mall walkers. As they walk up and down and around
they move so rapidly and pump their arms so
furiously that they look like funny little
chickens. With over 5,000 visitors to the mall
each day, there is an amazing assortment of
different, entertaining people to watch.
sensory details
figurative detail
factual detail
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Sitting in the food court of the mall, I can
detect the scent of pizza, drifting from an
Italian restaurant. I watch as a young mother,
waiting in line for fast food, struggles to get
the jacket off of her squirming toddler, who
looks like a tiny bundled Eskimo. Suddenly, a
businessman wearing a three-piece pin-stripe suit
rushes past me on a lunchtime errand so quickly
that I can literally feel a blast of air pass by
with him.
sensory and factual details
figurative detail
sensory details
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As I leave the food court area and take the
crowded escalator to the lower level, I notice a
group of young teenage girls, gathered around a
cell phone, looking intently at the phone. One of
the girls squeals excitedly. She is dressed
almost entirely in pink. She is a Pepto-Bismol
bottle, and I feel slightly nauseated looking at
her. Fortunately, there are plenty of other
people to watch.
sensory details
figurative detail
thoughts and feelings
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Stepping off the escalator and on to the lower
level, I notice a creepy clown in the courtyard
area, which contains benches for tired shoppers.
Bozo is trying to charm the cranky children and
tired mothers gathered there. One small child
screams and buries her face in her mothers shirt
front, trying to escape Bozo. It appears that the
child actually believes that if she cant see the
clown, then he cant see her.
factual detail
sensory details
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After many captivating and entertaining visits I
now take it for granted that there will be an
intriguing person or group of people to watch at
Peachtree Mall. It is a bustling place, with
thousands of visitors every day. If you find
yourself getting bored sitting in one place, you
can simply look in another direction or take a
short walk and find a whole new scene to interest
you.
wrap-up and conclusion
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Your Turn Describe a place
Respond to one of the prompts below by writing a
descriptive essay about a place. Remember to use
the Writers Checklist and Writers Model as
guidelines when writing your paper.
Write a description of a favorite outdoor
location.
Write a description of your favorite place to
relax.
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The End