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Writing@CSU Writing Guide Using Descriptive Detail This Writing Guide was downl

Writing@CSU Writing Guide Using Descriptive Detail This Writing Guide was downloaded from the Writing@CSU website at Colorado State University on September 25, 2021 at 1: 50 AM. You can view the guide at https://writing.colostate.edu . Copyright information and a /guides/guide.cfm?guideid=91 citation can be found at the end of this document. Introduction T his guide will explore the various uses and applications of description. Its purpose is to demonstrate the effectiveness of writing which includes descriptive details. Definition of Descriptive Detail Uses of Descriptive Detail Types of Descriptive Detail A Definition of Descriptive Detail Descriptive details allow sensory recreations of experiences, objects, or imaginings. In other words, description encourages a more concrete or sensory experience of a subject, one which allows the reader to transport himself or herself into a scene. Writing that lacks description is in danger of being plain or overly general. Uses of Descriptive Detail There are many different uses of descriptive detail. Although most commonly associated with creative writing, description enhances a wide variety of subjects. Writing which effectively uses descriptive detail will allow a reader to do more than merely see words on a page. Original description gives writing a sense of honesty and believability, while concise details can help enhance your focus. Descriptive details cause a reader to feel, to hear, to taste, to become intimately connected with the images and experiences being recreated. Fiction Poetry Narrative Essay Persuasive Writing Summary/Response Fiction Cara McDonald, GTA - Department of English Look. Your reader is a bored, tired little person, maybe sitting at a bus stop. Take care of them. Transport them. Let them smell your mom's coffee, let them see the ugly flowers on that dress you had to wear on the first day of Sunday School. Mary Kate Perry, GTA - Department of English One of my favorite ways of explaining the importance of vivid description in fiction writing is E.L. Doctorow's "Not that it's raining, but the of being feel rained upon." You don't tell your reader that it's rainy, because they won't care. They won't identify. You have to make them care through speaking to their senses. We perceive the world through our senses. In fiction writing, it is important to make your scenes and characters as vivid as possible. One way this can be accomplished is through the inclusion of descriptive details. Fiction which incorporates original sensory description has the power to actively involve and affect the reader. Without such details, fiction is in danger of becoming listless or flat. Description is equally as important as dialogue and plot in moving forward the action of a story. Poetry Natalie Goldberg, Wild Mind "William Carlos Williams wrote a poem about standing by the water tap in his kitchen and waiting for it to freshen. You know city water: sometimes it comes out rusty and you wait for it to run clean. I've done it, but I've never thought about it until I read Williams's poem." Poetry often begins with an image. Therefore, poetry is in a unique position to explore and exploit the possibilities of language. By utilizing effective descriptive details, the language of a poem is able to achieve power over the thoughts and feelings of readers. Rhythm and meter are important to poetry, but without descriptive detail a poem cannot engage the imagination or the senses. Narrative Essay Gilbert Findlay, Departement of English All writing is an act of definition. The writer uses some terms that are key to the subject. Take for example this passage from Itabari Njeri: 'Because of my family, I learned to see and hear the complexity and grand drama that underlay the simplest of human actions.' The key terms here are 'family,' complexity,' and 'human actions.' Then, the writer is obliged to follow with descriptive detail. It must be concrete in order to 'define' these terms in . Without descriptive, contextual detail, the reader may only context understand 'family' with reference to his or her own family, while what Njeri may be promising about an understanding of culture through family may be 90 degrees off from what the reader assumes. " Persuasive Writing Karen Wuest, GTA - Departement of English There is a significant difference between choosing details simply to describe something and selecting details that not only describe, but also . This reveal is particularly true in fiction—selective details which reveal character, or which might enlighten the reader about the narrator. It is also true in general, where details often reveal some deeper issue throbbing beneath the surface. That details can be used to describe is essential and true, but they should also go beyond that. Sheer description bogged down with details lacks energy, verve. The details must carry weight, reveal something beyond just the surface they have been describing. In the , Philip K. Jason and Allan B. Lefcowitz Creative Writer's Handbook explain that "sensory experience is primary experience: we see, feel, taste, smell, and hear before we think, analyze, choose, and argue" (130). Therefore, before an argument can effectively persuade an audience, the writer must carefully select and utilize descriptive details. If a writer can effectively engage the reader's primary senses, then the audience can be more easily enticed to the validity of the argument. For example, an feel argument which provides a plea to end deforestation is far more moving when it includes an emotional and sensory depiction of the desolate environment, the ravaged wilderness, the displaced animals. Descriptive details can cause emotional triggers which are key when attempting to persuade an audience. Summary/Response Gilbert Findlay, Department of English The human mind cannot communicate in abstractions. If I write, 'communication is the most crucial element in contemporary society,' you, the reader think, 'gotta talk to my girlfriend.' But if I am more specific and write, 'Instant technological transfer of information from the World Wide Web to in-progress network reports of delicate diplomatic negotiations require that we reevaluate the way we respond to communications in contemporary society' then you, the reader, think, 'Oh! This writer is focusing on communication by the electronic media.' Bingo! Descriptive detail means clear communication. Summary response writing is not exempt from the need to include descriptive detail. A descriptive summary/response essay will be effective if it includes both objective and subjective details. Objective details refer to concrete facts, while subjective details stress feelings about facts, places, people, and events. A balance between objective and subjective details will help the essay involve the emotions of the reader, while still relating the important facts. Overall, a descriptive essay will focus upon one clear, dominant impression or idea. This dominant idea should be made clear in the thesis, and should guide the writer's selection of detail. Although the summary is not an appropriate place for a large amount of description, the main idea in the response can be effectively emphasized through the addition of clear creative and critical descriptive detail. Types of Descriptive Detail There are many different ways in which descriptive detail can be included in writing. Whether to describe, persuade, illustrate or demonstrate, the descriptive details you include in your writing should serve a purpose not just pad your writing with more words. Sensory Detail Characterization Observational Writing "Showing" versus "Telling" Simile Sensory Detail It is important to remember that human beings learn about the world through using the five senses. They are our primary source of knowledge about the world. Therefore, writing which incorporates vivid, sensory detail is more likely to engage and affect the reader. The following writing sample uses sensory detail to create concrete images. Because the most effective way to incorporate sensory detail is to use all five senses in harmony, this sample provides an effective example of how sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste work together to strengthen writing. Each of the views highlights exactly how each sense is involved in improving the paragraph's imagery. View the Example Paragraph Without Sensory Detail Add Sight Add Sound Add Smell Add Touch Add Taste Example Text: Paragraph Without Sensory Detail Grandmother Workman reached over and grabbed her grandson's arm. He was nervous because the staircase was so steep, but she leaned against him and they began to climb. These are the beginning sentences of a paragraph which Comment: describes a boy helping an elderly woman up a flight of stairs. The scene seems simple enough, but it leaves the reader with many unanswered questions. Without the inclusion of sensory detail, the writing seems vague and non-specific. How might the author use descriptive detail to make the scene more vivid? Example: Add Sight Gandmother Workman lurched over and grabbed the pale skin of . The folds and creases Randal's thin forearm with her leathery hand beneath her skin coiled themselves out like electrical wiring, like the bloated, roughly-textured relief map of the world that his mother just posted above his bedside table. Randal looked ahead toward the winding spiral staircase, fidgeted with a small hole in , and bit his lip. His mouth filled with the sweet, uploads/Litterature/ guide-91.pdf