The essays below provide such accurate sensory detail that you can experience the subjects through words alone. You can learn how to write good description from these websites:
All writers in this collection speak for themselves—and themselves alone.
A visual representation of this collection exists on Pinterest.
Sarah Kendzior and Umar Lee, writing for Politico Magazine, describe life in Ferguson, Missouri.
Description • Times & Places • Mixed Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Kendzior | with Lee
Novelist Edwidge Danticat describes a meal that she will never forget.
Description • Times & Places • First Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
In this piece from the Los Angeles Times, reporter Garrett Therolf depicts the resting place for a victim of child abuse.
Description • Times & Places • Third Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
Reporter Chinki Sinha describes the lives of women who work in a red-light district in Mumbai, India.
Description • Love & Relationships • Third Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
Author Tiphanie Yanique describes Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, the place where her grandmother was raised.
Description • Times & Places • First Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau describes the animals that he encounters during his two-year-long experiment of living a simple life in nature.
Description • Humans & Their Animals • First Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts