 A description is a word picture  Focus and concentration contribute more to a vivid description then either the size of the writer’s vocabulary or the heedless splattering of adjectives on a page.

 Description is probably the most widely used of all the rhetorical modes after narration.  Used in letters, journal entries, reports, and memos we describe places we have visited, people we have met, and adventures that we have had.

 Focus on a Dominant Impression  Vivid descriptions focus on a single, dominant impression and deliver it.  Meaning a key feature of the scene that is characteristic of it  Then support the dominant impression with specific images and details.  The dominant impression of your description should be the heart of the person,place, or scene you are attempting to describe.

 Basics of imagery include simile and metaphor  Simile – an image based on an explicit comparison  Metaphor – an image based on an indirect comparison with no obvious ling word such as “as” or “like”  Vivid images do not miraculously drip of the pen but are usually the result of the writer reworking the material repeatedly.  Less is more – If you are unhappy with a description you have written, instead of stuffing it with more adjectives, try taking some out.

 Write about how it looks, but also write about how it sounds, smells, or feels.  The best descriptions draw on all kinds of images and appeal to as many senses as are appropriate.