The English language is beautiful on account of its various contradictions. There are so many conventions and rules to follow that one can feel overwhelmed. However, given a set of stimuli common to two persons, say watching a popular movie, they might describe their experiences differently. One could describe the movie in just a few words and the other could describe it elaborately, touching all of our senses. Obviously, the person who touches our five senses would be the one whose review we would enjoy more and, depending upon that review, we may decide whether or not to see the movie.
We as humans are blessed with the five senses of sight, touch, sound, taste and smell. We use these senses day in day out in our everyday life. We get perturbed when we start losing one of our senses, which normally happens with aging. Any stimulus that touches our senses creates some reaction from us – good, bad or indifferent. Descriptive writing is one of the ways to communicate ideas and it is something that should touch the reader’s senses.
The fundamental task of descriptive writing is to describe a person, place or thing in such a way that the writing captures the imagination of the reader, invoking all of the five senses he possesses. In order to do this the writer must use as many details as possible and put all of them together in a nice descriptive way. Here, the writer can use the many analogies, metaphors and similes that the language offers.
Good descriptive writing is only good when it is as specific as possible without delving on generalities. Good descriptive writing is extremely well organised especially in terms of time and space and occurrence. Vivid descriptions of persons, places or objects are examples of good descriptive writing. Any description that impacts on the reader's senses is to be considered good descriptive writing.
Take this quiz and learn how to be more descriptive in your speech and in your writing.