Descriptive Writing

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Descriptive Writing

• Some Notes
• By Brian Yablon

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Overall Purpose

• You want to create an image or series of images
  in the readers mind.
• If done well, your reader should feel as though
  he/she is experiencing the world through your
  senses -- as though he/she were transposed onto
  you.

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A Basic Skill

• Descriptive writing is a threshold skill. It
  is the basic building block of all other forms of
  writing.
• In order to write all types of essays well, you
  must write well descriptively.

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Some Specific Uses

• To entertain
• Such as an amusing description of a teenagers
  room.

• To relate an experience.
• Such as a description of your childhood home to
  convey a sense of wealth or poverty you grew up
  in.

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More Specific Uses

• To express feelings
• Such as a description of your favorite outdoor
  spot so that your reader clearly understands why
  you enjoy that place so very much.

• To inform (for a reader unfamiliar with a
  subject).
• Such as a description of a newborn calf for a
  reader who has never seen one.

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Still More Specific Uses

• To persuade, to convince readers that some music
  videos degrade women.
• Such as a description of a degrading music video.

• To clarify, to clear up a misconception.
• Such as the descriptions of two people, objects,
  places, or ideas.

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Where Can Descriptive Writing Be Found?

• By itself
• Narratives
• Exemplifications
• Comparison-contrasts
• Arguments
• Definitions
• Division-classifications
• Cause-effect

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How Do You Begin?

• First, figure out two things
• Your purpose -- what are you trying to achieve
  with this description?
• Your audience -- who are you directing your
  description toward.
• Your purpose and audience determine WHAT you say
  and HOW you say it.

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Then What?

• Generate as many ideas, details, examples, and
  images as you can -- more than you think youll
  need.

• Select which of those you want to use.
• You cannot use everything its too much -- and
  you want to avoid sounding like a laundry list.

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Focus on a Dominant Impression

• Support the dominant impression with specific,
  vivid, precise details that all lead toward that
  overall image.

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Getting Organized

• There are three ways to organize a descriptive
  essay.
• Keep in mind that organization patterns tend to
  overlap.

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Spatial Organization

• This is organizing your images in physical space
• Top to bottom
• Front to back
• Left to right
• Near to far
• Head to toe
• Bumper to bumper

13
Chronological Organization

• Sequential order
• First to last
• Morning-noon-night
• First, second, third
• Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
• September, October, November
• 1999, 2000, 2001

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Emphatic Organization

• Order of importance
• Least to most
• Most to least

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Then What?

• Express and explain your details in length and in
  depth.
• Avoid creating a laundry list of characteristics.

• Use sensory language. We are sensory creatures
  and experience our world with our senses.
• Hearing
• Taste
• Touch
• Sight
• Smell

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Be Aware of

• The power of words.
• Denotation (literal, dictionary definitions)
• Connotation (associations we make with words)
• They are often not the same -- and sometimes
  opposite!

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You Gotta Be Smooth, Baby!

• Be aware of transitions they help your reader
  move between ideas.
• Theyre connectors between sentences and between
  paragraphs.

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Do You Feel Like I Do?

• Use sensory language
• Hearing
• Tasting
• Touching
• Smelling
• Seeing
• Be aware that sensory language enlivens your
  writing but also slows it down.
• Use it well but sparingly.

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Precision, Precision

• Always be vivid, specific, and precise with
  details.
• Use concrete details instead of amorphous, vague
  ideas.

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Figurative Language

• Try to use
• Metaphors
• Similes
• Personification

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Sentences

• Vary sentence
• Length
• Short
• Medium
• long
• Structure
• Simple
• Complex
• Compound
• Compound-Complex

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Focus

• Remember that descriptive writing is focused on
  images NOT EVENTS.
• Think of it as flipping through a photo album.
  Each image is static yet tells a story.