DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH: CHARACTERISTICS, EXAMPLES - LITERATURE - 2025

A descriptive paragraph is a type of text in which the author, through the enhanced use of words, highlights the characteristics of something. This type of expressive resource can bring out the details of tangible things -such as people, environments or things-, or intangibles -such as thoughts or feelings-.

For the elaboration of a convincing textual paragraph, the lyrical emitters resort to the exaltation of the senses. They achieve this by relating these to all the obvious properties that the object in question possesses and that can be linked to vision, smell, touch, taste and hearing.

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This type of text allows, through letters, to bring people closer to realities, objects, people and environments that they have never known. The correct enhancement of the attributes and properties of the object by the authors is the determining factor to achieve an optimal characterization and, therefore, a more real experience.

These types of paragraphs are commonly used by writers of novels and stories in their different themes, in order to immerse readers in their plot.

What is described in these types of paragraphs does not necessarily have to be real. In the fiction genre, the description of non-existent objects and worlds is very common.

characteristics

Target language

One of the fundamental characteristics of this type of paragraph is that the author maintains a language devoid of subjective matters. That is, value judgments are avoided so that the appreciation of the object, the person or situation, the environment, the thought or feeling is perceived more reliably.

Although no text is totally objective, the omission of value judgments, augmentatives, diminutives and exaggerations helps to give more credibility to the writing. The writing, preferably, from a third person.

Exaltation of the senses

This is one of the key elements for writing descriptive paragraphs. Lyrical emitters must focus on bringing out the properties of the object in question that are oriented to stimulate the five senses.

By doing this the reading experience becomes more intense. The lyrical receiver, little by little, goes deeper into the text until the moment when he can visualize, feel, smell, taste and hear what the writer described.

Use of comparison to enhance qualities

After exhausting the sensory resource to get readers hooked on the text, the comparison becomes one of the most used discursive elements in descriptive paragraphs.

This medium promotes the enhancement of the qualities of the object that is being characterized in order to compare them with those of a third party. In doing so, a greater fixation of the attributes and properties of the text motif is achieved in the mind of the lyrical receiver.

High use of adjectives

It is something common in this type of text. The adjectival of the object in question is key so that the reader can perceive its qualities. The adjectives used are required to be as concise and precise as possible so as not to divert or confuse the attention of the lyrical receiver.

They also go to emotions

Just as the senses are necessary for the appreciation of the object studied, going to the emotions or feelings in the writing will achieve a broad approach of the reader to the description.

To do this, adjectives are used that enhance the intangible qualities of the object. An example might be: "A gloomy and gloomy atmosphere covered the pond."

It is drawn in the mind of the reader

In this type of text the letters are the colors of the writer and the sheet is the canvas. The reader's imagination is the world to explode. A full knowledge of the language, an excellent sense of appreciation and observation are key to achieving the objectives of this type of text.

The writer, when describing the object in question, must ensure that with each word the readers are assembling in their minds what they have felt, until they obtain the most truthful possible approach to reality.

They can make you perceive non-existent things

When the art of description is fully mastered, the writer can even achieve the perception of landscapes, objects or situations that have not existed. This is a fundamental part of writing fiction or magical realism.

Great men of letters, such as García Márquez, mastered the art of description in letters so excellently that their writings, even today in the midst of technological advances, still take more than one person to dream worlds with unreal characters so well achieved that then you can not differentiate the real from the fictitious.

Examples

Example 1

The house was small, barely 36 square meters. It had a front door and a back door. It had no wall. Her patio was the thick forest, right on the side where the sun set. It was pale white, lifeless.

Inside it was wide, much more than its numbers say. The cold of her only room was strange, it contrasted with the heat of her living room and the rain of her bathroom.

The kitchen always smelled of jasmine. Its walls, inside, were soft, like velvet. Her floor was polished concrete, as cold as the room. It had a skylight right in the center of its asbestos roof, which allowed in natural light from six to six every day.

The water in their pipes tasted sweet, like a spring. However, the one that sprouted in the key of the patio was totally brackish.

Example 2

When she got to the party, everyone turned to see her. She was wearing a long black dress, with a plunging neckline that left her entire back bare. Her hair was tied back, styled like a huge rose that rested on the left side of her head.

Her sneakers were shiny, patent, with four-inch heels that further stylized her figure. He had no makeup, save for the blood red lipstick that covered his lips.

Its aroma was a mixture of vanilla with honey and almonds. She carried with her gold jewels on her wrists, ears and neck that resonated finely with her walk.

The dress was close to her body, as if it were an extension of her skin. Her gaze, graced by those black eyes, shocked.

More than one salivated when they saw her, as if they were savoring the aroma of her perfume, until a certain blow from the companions made them come to themselves.

Example 3

The city was silent. It was covered in a ten-year-old green, from the smallest buildings to the largest skyscrapers.

The calm was only interrupted by the cry of the flocks of macaws that every so often crossed the clear sky. The scent of herbs and fruits mingled in the air.

All roads now served as streams of pure fresh water. In the past, oil and other derivatives remained blackening the streets, souring the meat of the fish and the palates. The climate remained mild, reaching very low temperatures at night.

Had they known the peace it brought, the animals would have long before wished for a war as great as that.

References

1. Cáceres Ramírez, O. (2018). Examples of descriptive paragraphs. (n / a): About Spanish. Recovered from: aboutespanol.com
2. How to write a descriptive paragraph. (S. f.). (n / a): Wikihow. Recovered from: es.wikihow.com
3. Rodríguez, L. (2007). The descriptive paragraph. (N / a): Quote. Recovered from: cita.eap.edu
4. Rugeles Duarte, F. (2012). Descriptive paragraph. (N / a): Blogger. Recovered from: mifabienblogger.blogspot.com
5. Gómez, E. (S. f.). Types of paragraphs. (n / a): Types of. Recovered from: typesde.eu