Descriptive and narrative essay styles are the most commonly used forms of academic writing by students. A descriptive essay paints a clear picture by using vivid details and sensory language, descriptive enough to convey the ideas. Narrative essays present a structured story with a start, middle, and end.
Knowing the difference between descriptive vs. narrative essay styles can help you choose the right essay type and communicate your ideas effectively.
Note
Descriptive and narrative essays are structured so that a deliberate effort can be made to portray a specific meaning to drive the reader’s perception. This is usually in a style that alters the meaning of something that one perceives.
What’s the Difference Between Descriptive and Narrative Essays?
| Feature | Descriptive Essay | Narrative Essay |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | To describe a scene, emotion, or object. | To share a story or sequence of events. |
| Structure | Focused on sensory details, not a defined plot-driven. | Focused on a defined plot containing introduction, conflict, and resolution. |
| Language | Vivid imagery, sensory detail. | Dialogue, emotional engagement. |
| Ideal Use | To write travelogues or artistic critiques. | To write personal anecdotes or fictional stories. |
| Example Topic | Paint the scene of a rainy 10th Downing Street. | Share the journey of your first music concert. |
| When to Use | When a description is required of any object. | When narrative flow is required for information and entertainment. |
What are Descriptive Essays Used for?
Descriptive essays are used to share experiences and events with readers so that they can experience the same feelings. You should express the subject-object relationship so that the readers feel so close to the experience that it is like they went through it themselves.
How to Write Descriptive Essays?
There are two main approaches to a descriptive essay. The personal essay will require you to talk about your feelings and responses. This is the type of essay where you will use evocative and vivid language in order to describe an experience and gain empathy from your readers.
A more academic descriptive essay that describes, for example, political or historical events, will likely require writing in more formal or academic language. This type of essay will describe in detail something that is not connected to you personally. The essay can still be engaging, as long as it is not excessively formal.
Examples of Themes Used in Descriptive Essays
There are different themes that you can be instructed to write about in a descriptive essay:
1. Personal
- Describe someone who has had an impact on your life.
- Describe a situation or experience that changed your opinion on something.
Topics like these will require you to draw from your own experience and memory. The aim is to show the reader how something impacted your life or how an experience taught you a valuable lesson. In doing so, you should work to make this as real as you can for your readers.
2. Imaginative
- Describe the experience of a slave in 18th-century USA.
- Describe how it might feel to have to flee your home country because of war.
Themes like these are likely to be outside of your lived experience, and as such, you will have to portray them best using your imagination.
3. Conceptual
- Describe the feeling of inspiration.
- Describe what it is to be in despair.
Describing feelings and emotions in detail can be quite challenging, and many students struggle with essay writing. People know the meanings of the words, but it will be down to your writing skills to convey them to your reader. How can this be done without writing something that appears like an extended dictionary definition?
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What are Narrative Essays?
Narrative essays focus on narrating a story to the readers, often from a personal perspective. For example, how one has missed being caught in the Twin Towers attack. Unlike descriptive essays that concentrate on imagery and details, narrative essays follow a defined plot or sequence of events that highlight a beginning, conflict, and resolution.
Narrative essays are focused on taking readers on a journey so they can experience the story as it happened to them personally. This academic writing type is more about sharing lived experiences rather than fictional stories.
How to Write Narrative Essays?
There are two main approaches to a narrative essay, usually followed by students or academics writing an essay. A personal narrative prose, which is kind of an anecdote, usually draws upon your life experiences, life-changing moments, challenges, or growth opportunities.
Writers are required to use storytelling elements such as plot, characters, conflict, and resolution. While ensuring to maintain a reflective tone that reveals what you learned or already know. An academic narrative essay usually requires students to recount a historical, political, or cultural event like the “Treaty of Westphalia”, “Dismantling of Soviet Russia”, “Rise of Feminism in Europe”
These essays are more formal in language and structure and are knitted around the plot.
Examples of Themes Used in Narrative Essays
You may be asked to cover different themes in your assignment that are related to the narrative style of writing. Some of them are mentioned below.
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Personal
- Write about a turning point in your professional life.
- Share an experience that taught you an important lesson.
These types of essays require reflection and minute details from the author. Your goal should not be only to tell the story but also to highlight the meaning behind it. Focus on explaining why it matters and how it shaped you.
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Imaginative
- Narrate the life of a traveller in a futuristic city in China.
- Write a story from the perspective of someone who survived a great historical event.
These essays are not based on your personal life but rather on the creativity and imagination that a writer pours into the words. They require strong storytelling skills to make readers immerse themselves in the fictional journey of the author.
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Conceptual
- Narrate a story that symbolises the struggle for freedom among minorities.
- Create a narrative around the concept of hope or despair among students.
These essays are knitted around abstract ideas that can’t be measured or quantified in the story form. The author needs to personify or dramatise the concept or ideas in a way that actually hooks the readers emotionally. Instead of explaining the idea directly, you need to use a storyline to embody it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, an essay can combine descriptive and narrative elements. A well-crafted essay can use descriptive language to vividly portray scenes and events while incorporating a narrative structure to tell a story, engaging readers on both sensory and storytelling levels for a richer experience.
Descriptive essays focus on sensory details and imagery to evoke the emotions or feelings of the readers. At the same time, narrative essays tell a story with predefined characters encompassing an introduction to conclusion without disturbing the sequence of events.
You can use descriptive essays when required to provide immersive details, like scene-setting or the mood of the topic being discussed. On the other hand, narrative essays are aimed at recounting historical events or experiences using a structure and flow.
