- Hi, guys. It's Racquel, your English tutor. And today's video is going to be all about a descriptive essay. 

So what is a descriptive essay? A descriptive essay is an essay where you describe an event, an experience, an object, or even a person. What is the purpose of a descriptive essay? The purpose is to allow the reader to imagine what you are talking about, for the reader to be able to literally visualize and follow you along your writing journey. 

When you're writing a descriptive essay, it's like writing a picture instead of drawing a picture. So by the words that you choose and how you choose to position your words, the reader can create a picture instead of seeing one or taking one. 

Now, I'm going to give you some tips on how to write a descriptive essay. The first tip I'm going to give you is to write about something that you have personally experienced or you personally know. It's very, very difficult to write about something that you have no experience on or you don't have any knowledge. 

So when you're choosing your topic, choose a topic that you have information on. This will really help you while you're writing. 

When writing a descriptive essay, you're going to write it in the first person, not the third person. So a descriptive essay is written in the first person. And you're going to use pronouns such as I and we. 

The third tip is in the introduction, tell the reader exactly what you're going to do. Be very, very clear about what your essay is going to be about. If you're going to be describing a thunderstorm, let the word thunderstorm be in the introduction so that the reader knows, OK, you're going to be writing about a thunderstorm, and you're going to be describing it. 

The fourth tip I'm going to give you is be creative. Use your similes. Describe everything. Describe what things look like, smell like. 

As I said earlier on, you know, us your similes. Use your metaphors. Use alliteration. You've learned all of this stuff. Put it into your writing. 

And I'm going to end this video off with just the main features or characteristics of a descriptive essay. The first one is characters. Just like a narrative essay, your descriptive essay also needs characters. It needs people. I need to know or the reader needs to know who are the people that are in the events, or who is the person of people you're going to be describing. 

The second one is the plot. The plot is the event, like what happened. That's the real meat of your story. So make sure you have a plot, you have the main event in your story. 

The third one is the setting. When and where is this happening? When or where are you describing what is taking place? So the reader can put some type of context, as well, and know, is it in the day? Is it in the night? Which part of the month? It in the summer? Was it in the autumn or fall? 

The fourth is the theme. The theme needs to run throughout your entire essay, and it's the main idea really or the overarching idea of your essay. Then, we're going to move on to structure. Structure has to do with your paragraphs. 

When I look at this essay, does this show me a structure of a descriptive essay? Paragraphs must be clearly defined. I need to see an introduction. I need to see body paragraphs. And I need to see a conclusion. 

And then, lastly, is just your creative use of language. Throw in the synonyms. Throw in those metaphors. I keep saying this. Make this piece of writing your own and be creative.