Modes of Discourse
Description
Description
• To describe is to create a verbal picture. A person, a place, a
thing—even an idea or a state of mind—can be made vividly
concrete through description.
• Writing any description requires, first of all, that the writer
gather many details about a subject, relying not only on what
the eyes see but on the other sense impressions—touch,
taste, smell, hearing—as well.
• From this list of details, the writer selects those that will most
effectively create a dominant impression—the single quality,
mood, or atmosphere the writer wishes to emphasize.
• Writers must also carefully plan the order in which to present
their descriptive details. The pattern of organization must fit
the subject of the description logically and naturally and must
be easy to follow.
• For example, visual details can be arranged spatially — from
left to right, top to bottom, near to far — or in any other
pattern: smallest to largest, softest to loudest, least significant
to most significant, most unusual to least unusual.
Description Continued
• How much detail is enough? There is no fixed answer. A
good description includes enough vivid details to create
a dominant impression and to bring a scene to life but
not so many that readers are distracted, confused, or
bored.
• Writers use description to:
– create the setting for a story
– to illustrate ideas
– to help clarify a definition or a comparison
– to make the complexities of a process more
understandable
Such descriptions should be kept short and
should include just enough detail to make them
clear and helpful.
Description Example
Consider, for example, the details Mary McCarthy uses to
evoke the dominant impression in the following passage:
“Whenever we children came to stay at my grandmother’s
house, we were put to sleep in the sewing room, a bleak,
shabby, utilitarian rectangle, more office than bedroom,
more attic than office, that played to the hierarchy of
chambers the role of poor relation. It was a room without
pride: the old sewing machine, some cast-off chairs, a
shadeless lamp, rolls of wrapping paper, piles of cardboard
boxes that might someday come in handy, papers of pins,
and remnants of a material united with the iron folding cots
put out for our use and the bare floor boards to give an
impression of intense and ruthless temporality. Thin white
spreads, of the kind used in hospitals and charity
institutions, and naked blinds at the windows reminded us of
our orphaned condition and of the ephemeral character of
our visit; there was nothing here to encourage us to
consider this our home.”
–Mary McCarthy
Description Example
Now contrast the details with those in the subsequent
example by student Dan Bubany:
“For this particular Thursday game against Stanford,
Fleming wears white gloves, a maroon sport coat with
brass buttons, and gray slacks. Shiny silver-framed
bifocals match the whistle pressed between the lips on
his slightly wrinkled face, and he wears freshly polished
black shoes so glossy that they reflect the grass he
stands on. He is not fat, but his coat neatly conceals a
small, round pot belly.” –Dan Bubany, student
The dominant impression that McCarthy creates is one of
clutter, bleakness, and shabbiness. There is nothing in
the sewing room that suggests permanence or warmth.
Bubany, on the other hand, creates a dominant
impression of a neat, polished, kindly man.
Description Model Essay
• Read the model essay entitled, “The
Corner Store” and take notice of how
she creates a dominant impression
• In your notes, answer the following
question: What dominant impression
does Welty create in her description
of the corner store? How does she
create this dominant impression?
Classroom Activity Using Description
• Make a long list of the objects and people in the
classroom as well as the physical features of the
room—desks, windows, chalkboard, students,
teacher, dirty walls, burned-out lightbulb, a clock
that is always ten minutes fast, and so on.
• Determine a dominant impression that you
would like to create in describing the classroom.
• Now choose from your list those items that
would best illustrate the dominant impression
you have chosen and write out your description,
making sure to use sensory detail to describe.