- Begin with a subject that interests you

- For example, if you are asked to describe an important place in your life, you could write about your hometown.

- Narrow your subject until you could cover it within your page/word limit

- In the paper about your hometown, you clearly could not cover every bit of it in 2-3 pages or 400-500 words. Instead, begin to think about one small part of your hometown that was important to you. It could be your bedroom, the woods, a football stadium...anything you want.

- Make sure that your thesis states a dominant impression about what you are describing. Don't worry about refining the sentence right away.

- The statement "The subject of this paper will be my childhood bedroom" is not a good thesis statement. To check if your thesis has a point, ask yourself "so what?" Why does it matter that the subject of your paper is your bedroom? Instead, you should write something about your bedroom. For example, "My childhood bedroom was a warm, safe place."


Proceeding with a Descriptive Essay

After you have a good thesis statement, these guidelines will help you to develop your ideas into an essay:

- Make a list of as many details as you can that support the general impression.

For example:

Bright colors

Throw pillows

Lamps

Posters

Pictures of family and friends

Stuffed animals

Bookshelves filled with books and games

- Organize your paper according to one or a combination of the following:

- Physical order - move from left to right, or far to near, or in some other consistent order

- Size - begin with large features or objects and work down to smaller ones

- A special order - use another order that is appropriate to the subject

- Appeal to as many senses as possible when describing a scene

* Chiefly, you will use sight, but try to include touch,...