The purpose of descriptive writing is to make our readers see, feel, and hear what we have seen, felt, and heard. Whether we're describing a person, a place, or a thing, our aim is to reveal a subject through vivid and carefully selected details.
Each of the five paragraphs below responds, in its own way, to the guidelines in How to Write a Descriptive Paragraph. The writers (three of them students, two of them professional authors) have selected a belonging or a place that holds special meaning to them, identified that subject in a clear topic sentence, and then described it in detail while explaining its personal significance.