What Does It Look Like?

Select the video below to see a presentation which will provide you with a basic outline for developing a description essay.

Video Transcript
Outline for a Five Paragraph Description Essay

In a basic five paragraph description essay, you will follow a traditional structure common to most academic essays. You will have an introduction, plus body paragraphs, plus your conclusion.

In this example outline for a description essay, we will use the topic Favorite Place to Study.

Remember, a good thesis in a traditional essay always makes some kind of assertion. A good description thesis that might work well within this topic would be: Although many people prefer the library as a favorite place to study, my living room is my favorite place to study for college.

Now, we will take a look at how we could outline our introduction using our thesis with the goal of writing a description essay. A good introduction provides background on a topic, transitions to the thesis, and then presents the thesis.

In this example, we would first provide background on our topic by explaining that being in school means one needs to study.

We would then transition into why one needs a good place for that studying.

We would then transition to our thesis by discussing how one might pick the best spot for studying and then present our thesis.

When you write a description essay, it is important to constantly think about details you might add that would appeal to the five senses.

The body paragraphs for our description essay might look something like this.

First, we will provide detail about the living room and then explore how preparation for studying takes place.

In our final body paragraph, we should provide detailed reasons about why the living room works best for this.

As we develop each body paragraph, try to think of examples that would describe what things look, smell, feel, sound, and taste like.

A good conclusion will generally reinforce information from the body of the essay and remind readers of the thesis. In the outline for our conclusion, we should remind our audience about the need for a good place to study, the key benefits of studying in the living room, and then conclude with a good reminder about our thesis.

Remember, you should not repeat the exact words of your thesis in your conclusion, but you should emphasize the main idea.

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