Sample Descriptive Essay Topics: 20 Good Ideas

What exactly is a descriptive essay?


Have you been given a descriptive essay to write, and yet you don't even know what that type of paper is, let alone know what subject to choose for its basis? Well, there is no need to worry because help is always available!

For the more creative students out there, writing a descriptive essay can conceivably be a very enjoyable process. As you might expect, a descriptive paper is simply asking you to describe the subject at hand. You should be able to make the reader of your paper feel as though they can touch, taste, hear and smell the subject. Whether you select a place, a structure, an object, a way of life, a particular species...whatever you choose...the description of said subject should take precedence in this paper style. The most important thing to remember about this type of paper is that your writing style should show rather than tell. These sorts of papers can also be quite enjoyable to write because you're able to write about subjects that you have a real passion for!

So what subject should I select?


Even if you have a full understanding of what a descriptive essay should be like, it may still be difficult for you to come up with a subject that fits this style of paper. After all, you can almost pick any subject for a descriptive paper.

Well, do not worry! Here are twenty good ideas for subject titles to get you started:

  1. Traveling the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.
  2. The Burj Khalifa, Dubai – the world's tallest building.
  3. United States Gay Pride parades 1990-2010.
  4. Living self-sufficiently on an eco-farm in Quebec.
  5. Modern Chinese architecture.
  6. San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
  7. Gaudi's Barcelona: designing a cityscape.
  8. Growing up in an American small town.
  9. Traditional Argentine Gaucho ranches.
  10. The Great Wall of China as a tourist destination.
  11. The great 20th century photographers: last of their kind?
  12. Growing up in the ghetto.
  13. Tokyo's cultural traditionalism and modernity.
  14. Greyhound dog racing in the United Kingdom.
  15. European windmills of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
  16. Twenty-first century sports stars as role models.
  17. The present day Sunset Strip.
  18. Journeying to the Giza pyramids and the Great Sphinx.
  19. Alpaca farming in mid-west America.
  20. Travelling by Tube: London's underground network.
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