Descriptive Writing Topics: What Are They?

What is a description? It is a paper that vividly describes something to let the reader imagine every detail of the described object, place, person, or event. Teachers usually ask their students to use the first or the third-person narrative perspective. Descriptive writing involves all five senses that people use to perceive the world. What descriptive essay topics are good to write about? This article provides prompts that might help students select the best ideas for a descriptive composition.

Descriptive Writing Ideas about People, Places, Objects, and Experience

Students often write short, 3- or 5-paragraph, descriptive essays about personalities, places, experiences, and objects. These are cool topic examples for each type.

Descriptive writing prompts about people

• Once I met a weird person

People and their tastes differ. That is why there are many individuals that call some personalities weirdos. A student’s job is to write an essay about such a person and use as many details as possible to succeed.

• A classmate I always envied

Jealousy is a bad trait of character, but we all have envied someone when we were kids. One should introduce a person by describing personal feelings and reasons for those emotions.

• My idol or person I try to copy

Every person can provide an example of a good student, wife/husband, professional, etc. A learner should describe a sample person and explain the choice.

Great topics to describe a place

• A university of the coming future

One can describe a university packed with technology or an institution with minimum civilization and technology use but maximum learning efforts.

• Paradise

What place can you name a paradise? Is it near the river or in the mountains? Is it abroad or in your native town?

• Heaven and Hell

How do you imagine heaven and hell? Who lives there? Is there any transfer place between heaven and hell?
Good Ideas for an Object Description

• Talisman

A person describes an object that brings luck and stories connected with it.

• Project

A student describes a thing that he or she has created in class and got an A or F.

• Art

One describes a picture, a dance, a speech, architecture, or a sculpture and related personal feelings.

New Topics for Experience Description

• First time alone

Students describe feelings connected with the day they stayed alone at home or in an unknown place.

• My reaction to the pandemic

Students describe their feelings and emotions when they learned about the lockdown and the virus.

• What things make me cry/ laugh

Movies, art, dances, sad or happy stories, and other things make people laugh and cry. One should describe feelings and things that evoke such emotions.

A topic selection must be done smartly. It is necessary to search for ideas that can intrigue the target reader. Besides, one needs to find facts, quotes, evidence, or statistics to make the writing spicier.

NB! Before you proceed to the task, make sure that you know the meaning and goal of this essay type and how to structure and write it using five senses.