descriptive writing
Painting with words
Descriptive writing is prose that emphasizes vivid sensory detail—how things look, sound, smell, taste, or feel.
The goal is to create a mental picture or atmosphere rather than advance a plot or argue a point: Her descriptive writing made you feel the humidity of the bayou.
The term appears most often in writing instruction, where it names one of several modes alongside narrative, expository, and persuasive writing.
- sensory detailPerceptible descriptive element
- imageryVivid descriptive language
- show don't tellWriting principle favoring demonstration
- character sketchesBrief personality descriptions
- slice of lifeRealistic everyday depiction
metaphor · scene-setting · sense of place · tone · diction · figurative language · symbolism · literary devices · sensory language · word painting · poetry · whisper · glow · flowery · shadow · murky · lyrical · alliteration
- writing practicefreewriting, drafting, revision, prompts, Arabic script
- writing skillshandwriting, spelling, words, letters, style guides
- descriptive languagevivid language, vivid detail, sensory language, sensory detail, sensory details
- descriptive writingimagery, sensory details, word picture, word painting, visual imagery
- imageryvisual imagery, metaphor, symbolism, allegory, sensory detail
- writing instructiondrafting, revising, editing, prewriting, proofreading
descriptive writingexpository writing
Prose that explains or informs
argumentative writing · persuasive writing · analytical writing · narrative summary · technical writing