A descriptive rhetorical style is one that uses the five senses (touch, taste, sight, sound, smell) and other details to provide the reader with a vivid idea or picture of what is being represented. Your professors may ask you to write short, descriptive essays in some classes, but, most often, you’ll want to add a descriptive style to different types of essays. Narrative essays should generally be quite descriptive, for example. Still, you may encounter assignments in which you are asked to maintain a descriptive style for most of the essay.