I am a ninth grade student now,  and have a certain understanding of writing essays: The essay does not have to include lots of very dazzling, gorgeous language - which means that the essay uses many complex words and sentences to make it more vivid. But when I first came into writing essays in third grade, our teacher read us a lot of sample essays, which used a lot of gorgeous language. So, at that time, I had a preliminary understanding of writing essays in my mind: writing essays is not as casual as you usually chat online, essays must be very formal, and written in gorgeous language.

Throughout third grade, the most difficult homework for me was writing essays. Because I can't think of so many gorgeous and beautiful words, it takes me a very long time to finish writing an essay every time. One day after the teacher returned the essays we wrote back, my deskmate showed me her work. Surprisingly, I found that she did not deliberately use beautiful sentences, but "casually" wrote down what she wanted to express. She told me that “essay” is just a fancy word for “article”, just needs to be a little more formal. Writing the article completely using vivid sentences is just enough. There is no need to deliberately use beautiful and gorgeous sentences. So every time I write an essay later on, I will write down stuff that I think about in my mind, and then select useful ones to write into the essay, instead of trying to figure out how to write those beautiful and gorgeous sentences. 

Before graduating from elementary school, I kept using this writing method and my writing has been mediocre most of the time. My essays usually get a B+ or an A-, and have never been read aloud by the teacher in front of the class.  In a writing assignment in 6th grade, our teacher assigned us to write about “A class that impressed me”. While I had no idea what to write, I suddenly remembered once in a geography class, our geography teacher was talking about Germany. She likened the map of Germany to a human face, big and small cities in Germany to the acne on the face, rivers and highways to blood vessels and scars... In that class, she impressed me with her vivid metaphor of Germany. Like that class, I suddenly wanted to try using many simple modifiers and rhetorical devices to intersperse the essay. The next day my essay was highly praised by the teacher.  From then on I tried to add more simple modifiers and more rhetorical devices to my essay. 

Another thing I would talk about is environmental description. Instead of using lots of gorgeous language in the essay, you could add more side descriptions to reflect the situation. Environmental description is one of them. It doesn't need to include lots of big words, just describe the current environment. When I first encountered environmental descriptions, I didn't understand why we had to learn about them, but our teacher has been emphasizing that it is important for the article. It can make readers feel like they are in the scene when they read. So I applied it to an essay. The protagonist is facing some troubles, and I add some descriptions about the violent storm outside the cabin. I found it fits very well, and it better highlights the protagonist's bad mood. 

Therefore, a good article does not need to include many beautiful and gorgeous sentences. Appropriately adding some descriptions and rhetorical devices can better embellish the article. Now, I love writing about myself, or about my own experiences. Because I have a lot of things to write, so that I won't think of what to write for a long time. Every time when writing an essay, I will list the main points first, and then write the essay according to this outline. When I write, I also add appropriate descriptions in appropriate places. This makes the essay more vivid, and it’s much better than just adding gorgeous sentences.