What It Takes To Compose An Outstanding Descriptive Essay On A Person
The Great Thing About Descriptive Essays
The fantastic thing you need to realize right now about writing descriptive essays is that they are one of the easiest types of essays to write in the world—especially if you are writing about a person you already know very well.
What it will take to write a captivating and interesting descriptive essay on a person
- A thorough knowledge of your subject gathered from knowing this person very well (a favorite teacher, your best friend, your mom or dad.
- Or, solid research into the person you want to write about: Say, President Obama, George Washington, Fidel Castro, Lady Gaga even.
How to Make Your Descriptive Essay not Just Interesting – but Outstanding
- Learning by Example
- Researching Your Subject Thoroughly
All great writers learn from the writers that they read. I do not know of one outstanding writer who was not an avid reader. It is reading great writers that create one’s wish to write themselves, after all.
So, why not Google “outstanding student descriptive essays on people” or “Award-winning student essays describing persons/people.”
I once had a creative writing teacher who was talking about the importance of research, even when writing novels or short stories. She said, say you are writing a fictional piece on a family who lived through the great Chicago fire of 1871. As she stated, “you cannot write such a piece without researching the fire through historical accounts of the fire—it would be absolutely crazy not to.”
Likewise, if you are writing about someone who is outside of your immediate circle, you must thoroughly research your topic.
Methods of Researching People
- Library Research
- Interviews
If you are writing about a historical/political figure or even a celebrity, you are going to have to do some solid reading about this person. You cannot write with authority on any subject without first checking your facts. And especially in essays about persons and their lives, you want to avoid saying anything that can be accused of slander. Ask your research librarian for the best sources for this kind of topic.
For someone in your community, for example, you could conduct an interview. These types of interviews are more common than you think. Think of all the pieces you read which interview stars and then write about the interview to help the public get to know them even better.
Conclusion
Although no one likes to tell a student what, specifically, to write about – in my experience, positively toned essays, not negative ones, are typically more successful.
