Writing an essay on an unfamiliar topic is always hard; it is doubly hard when it comes to a descriptive essay. By definition, a descriptive essay is supposed to recount your own experience, perception or memory – and when you don’t have anything in your life to base the description on, the problem is obvious.
What are you supposed to do in such a situation? Imagine or make things up as you go along? Probably not – there is always an opportunity to say something silly, even if you do your research.
No, in this case it is better to stick to the facts and avoid talking as if you actually experienced what you are describing. Let’s take an example – you have to write a descriptive essay about Canadian food but you have never been to Canada, eaten any Canadian dishes, or given these dishes any thought whatsoever (that’s not a problem if you’ve already seen our interesting facts on Canadian food).
Normally, a descriptive essay is based on your own five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. You recount something from your memory (or, better yet, something you have in front yourself at this very moment) and try not so much to tell about it but to show it to the reader.
Enumerate its qualities, give a detailed description of each of them and try to make the reader feel as if they see the object in front of them.
When it comes to something you’ve never seen, the task becomes different. You should collect all the information about the object (concept, person, situation, experience) you are about to write, all the factual data, and try to use it to formulate a most complete and detailed description of the subject at hand.
Of course, there is no ideal way to write a descriptive essay about something you have no actual experience of. However, vivid imagery and liberal use of verifiable facts are going to be of great help – and who knows, perhaps you will be capable of writing an even better description than those who were limited with actual memories of the subject. Feel free to get descriptive essay writing help on any topic you need. Visit our website!