DESCRIPTION
AZALEA
ARVINDAN
NUR HUSNA
NADIAH BEGUM
DESCRIPTION
Abstraction
details
Specific
details
Physical
details
ABSTRACTIONS & SPECIFIC
DETAILS
• Abstract = to remove
• Abstract words = some general quality or condition,
not to a specific object.
e.g: beauty
• Specific statement = e.g: “She walks in beauty, like
the night of cloudless climes and starry skies.”
(the word beauty refers to ‘she’)
• Abstract statement = a generalization that is arrived
at by observing many specific cases.
e.g: “There is a charming innocence in children.”
(The sentence is making a general observation
about children and not a comment about a
specific child)
• Aphorisms and proverbs are generalizations too.
e.g: “As we grow older we grow both more foolish
and wiser at the same time.”(La Rochefoucauld)
• Abstractions are important when we write fiction,
poetry, and drama.
• In descriptive writing, we are advised to avoid
abstractions and are encouraged to use specific
details .
• As a writer, we need to use abstract language when it
is appropriate and specific language when it is more
effective.
PHYSICAL DETAILS
• It is important for writers to develop the habit of
perception.
• Perception involves the systematic observation of
people from head to toe and listing of descriptive
details and what they reveal about a person.
• E.g: character of a hair
-how you wear it = portrays message
-long hair became a sign of protest
-punk hairdos have announced rebellion
• A writer must learn to make use of all the five
senses when writing description:
SIGHT
SMELL
SOUND
TASTE
TOUCH
SIGHT
• Anything that is seen, a percept that arises from the
eyes; an image in the visual system.
• Visual appeal is often dominant in poetry and fiction.
• E.g : “She wore a dark striped dress reaching
down to her shoe tops, and an equally
long apron of bleached sugar sacks,
with a full pocket…” (A Worn Path –
Eudora Welty)
SOUND
• The auditory effect of sound waves that is
transmitted and recorded by the sound system.
• E.g1: Emily Dickinson: “I heard a fly buzz – when
I died – “?
• E.g2: Sound of the sea on a calm night by
Matthew Arnold in his excerpt from “Dover
Beach”:
Where the sea meets the moon – blanched land,
Listen! You hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
SMELL
• To perceive the odor or scent of through the nose by
means of the olfactory nerves.
• E.g: “About seven o’clock, as much of Seattle was
finishing its dinner, a dense, hot, rustic odor
swept through the street, and as if it had one
mind, one nose, the crowd spontaneously
panicked.”
TASTE
• To distinguish the flavor of by taking into the
mouth.
E.g: “the salty taste of anchovies; the pungent
flavor of sour milk; the zesty relish of the
salsa; the savor of rich chocolate; the
fresh tang of lemonade that filled my
refrigerator.”
TOUCH
• Requires the ability to feel such as texture, heat
and cold.
e.g: “From the first time I met you,
Everything has changed in my life,
Even as I walk on hard bricks,
They feel like soft smooth sheets of linen,
Under my feet.”
FIVE SENSES PRODUCE A POWERFUL
EFFECT
• Using all the five senses in writing can draw us into
the experience.
E.g: “Love is blind
Rumbling thunder before the storm
Fresh like the earth after morning rain
Smells like purple lavender
Tastes like tart sweetness of strawberries
It feels like soft, smooth sheets of linen
Love is blind, but sees into the heart.”
SELECTION
• Selectivity is necessary in description.
• Too many or too little description in writing
may result in confusion.
• Poets and fiction writers are very selective and
tend to use only significant details in their
works.
• Significant details = contain meaning within
the context of the work.
E.g: “The man is tall and bald; his head shines
dimly as he and his wife cross the shaft of
light from an open doorway. She is smaller,
with pale hair; she walks fast to keep up
with her husband. She is wearing gold chains,
and they, too, shine in the light. She carries a
a small bag in which there could be- more
gold? Money? some interesting pills?”
• The details above are carefully selected to reveals
something significant about the characters and the
situation in which they find themselves.
• There is no need to mention certain details that are
unnecessary.
E.g: when we introduce a character
“John Sherman was twenty-two years old,
five feet eight, and had blue eyes and
blond hair.”
The reader wants to know something about his
defining qualities, something that brings him to life
as an individual, not a list of statistics.
LANGUAGE CHOICE
• Good description involves using the right
words.
• It is essential when it comes to writing
description.
• Factors in choosing the right words:
- Sound of the words
- Shades of meaning
- Images the words evoke
- The use of figures of speech
• Sounds of the words
E.g : “And now Miss Emily had gone to join
the representatives of those august
names where they lay in the
cedar -bemused cemetery among the
ranked and anonymous graves of Union
and Confederate soldiers who fell at the
battle of Jefferson.”
The cemetery where she lies is described as “cedarbemused,” which may sound odd but somehow feels
appropriate.
• Shades of meaning
e.g: “And now Miss Emily had gone to join
the representatives of those august
names where they lay in the
cedar -bemused cemetery among the
ranked and anonymous graves of Union
and Confederate soldiers who fell at the
battle of Jefferson.”
The word “ranked and anonymous graves” is a very
effective way to describe the burial place of soldiers, in
this case, soldiers who fell in the Civil War.
• Images the words evoke
e.g: “It was a big squarish frame house that
had once been white, decorated cupolas
and spires and scrolled balconies in the
heavily lightsome style of the seventies,
set on what had once been our most
select street.”
- The word “heavily lightsome style of the
seventies” suggest both decay and nostalgia.
- The word “lightsome” is a literary word that means
lighthearted. The house was, therefore, heavily decorated,
but expressed the lighthearted spirit of the times.
• The use of figures of speech.
E.g: “But garages and cotton gins had
encroached and obliterated even the
august names of that neighbourhood;
only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting
its stubborn and coquettish decay above
the cotton wagons and the gasoline
pumps-an eyesore among eyesores.”
The word “stubborn and coquettish” suggest a
Southern belle, a vivid piece of personification.
CONCLUSION
• Description should be selective, significant
and using the right words.
• It should also appeal to the five senses :
sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.