1. RHETORICAL DESCRIPTION
Dr. Stephen Ogden
LIBS 7001

2. LIBS 7001: Critical Reading and Writing
DESCRIPTION
Sharply etches word pictures of objects, persons, scenes, events, situations
Can be determinate in action:
Description of a conflict setting can determine judgement
five eyewitnesses to the same event describe five different events
In business, professional, personal, or academic settings:
describe patient’s condition for a chart
vivify product in an advertisement
detail site conditions in a report
can create mood
can stimulate understanding
can lead to action

3. Two Types of Description
LIBS 7001: Critical Reading and Writing
Two Types of Description
Functional
“just the facts”: denotative
purpose: to explain, clarify
allegedly objective, observed from a distance
common in lab reports, formal reports
logical order of ideas
perspective: description of parts, materials, functions
Emotional
impressionistic: connotative
purpose: to convey ideas, moods, impressions
impressionistic, subjective
common in everyday life, and in artistic writing
highly variable order of ideas
different perspectives possible

4. Overview of Description Rules
Use clear and concise language.
Chose words carefully, particularly for their relevancy in relation to that which you are intending to describe. Less is more.
Choose vivid language.
Why use horse when you can choose stallion? Why not use tempestuous instead of violent? Or why not miserly in place of cheap? Such choices form a firmer image in the mind of the reader and often times offer nuanced meanings that serve better one’s purpose.

5. Description Rules, Con’t
3. Use your senses
Remember, if you are describing something, you need to be appealing to the senses of the reader. Explain how the thing smelled, felt, sounded, tasted, or looked. Embellish the moment with senses.
4. What were you thinking!
If you can describe emotions or feelings related to your topic, you will connect with the reader on a deeper level. Many have felt crushing loss in their lives, or ecstatic joy, or mild complacency. Tap into this emotional reservoir in order to achieve your full descriptive potential.

6. Description Rules, Con’t
5. Leave the reader with a clear impression.
Necessary to evoke a strong sense of familiarity and appreciation in the reader. If your reader can walk away from the essay craving the very pizza you just described, you are on your way to writing effective descriptive essays.
6. Be organised
It is easy to fall into an incoherent rambling of emotions and senses when writing a descriptive essay. However, you must strive to present an organised and logical description if the reader is to come away from the essay with a cogent sense of what it is you are attempting to describe.
Mode of arrangement question

7. Description Rules, Con’t
7. Be precise…unless the situation demands vagueness
Not negative but….harmful, demeaning, abusive, weakening
Not positive but….
Not different but…older, faster, varied, larger, foreign
Not better but…superior, efficacious, more valuable, enduring, well- trained
Not worse but…
Not random but…unexpected, unpredictable, shocking, rare, uncharacteristic, clever,

8. Elements of Description
LIBS 7001: Critical Reading and Writing
Elements of Description
To help drive home your points vividly in an essay or speech, carefully use these five elements of description:
Sensory Impression
Dominant Impression
Vantage Point
Selection of Details
Arrangement of Details

9. Sensory Impression, cont.
LIBS 7001: Critical Reading and Writing
Sensory Impression, cont.
Sight: bright, dull, fast, open, near, red,
Sound: loud, faint, mellifluent
Smell: overpowering, pungent, foul, appetising
Taste: sweet, foul, bitter, acrid
Touch: hot, hard, yielding, sharp,
Invoke or combine sense impressions:
familiar, nostalgic
“Ah…fresh bread” (last frame of Pekar essay)
Synæsthetic:
Soft music; sharp taste; piercing smell, high sound

10. LIBS 7001: Critical Reading and Writing
2. Dominant Impression
Identify audience and purpose: situation & context
mood or feeling: joy, anger, terror, distaste, etc
May be identified or left unnamed
Can be developed throughout the description
“Yet, the overriding sensation I had was of always being out of place.”
“Not long ago a former friend and soon-to-be acquaintance called me up to tell me how busy she was.” (Ehrenreich, 9)
Influenced by vantage-point
Heatherwick’s ‘olde London’

11. 3. Vantage Point - two obvious types
LIBS 7001: Critical Reading and Writing
3. Vantage Point - two obvious types
fixed: observer remains in one place
“Boil water in a saucepan (bubbles mean it is boiling!)” (Nabokov, 38)
moving: observer views things from different positions
from a vehicle
from a peripatetic state
narrating over time [description & narration are closely related]
your own state past present future
from a watchman situation
across people in various institutional positions [HBO Chernobyl]
cinematic

12. LIBS 7001: Critical Reading and Writing
4. Selection of Details
Identify audience & determine purpose [situation]
Select details pointing toward the result—including mood or feeling--to be created.
Exclusion is as important as inclusion.
How does a writer suggest stillness or nothingness?
What are the implications of leaving out certain details? Are there limits to a writer’s creative license? What’s a writer’s ethical responsibility when using description & narration?

13. 5. Arrangement of Details
to guide reader and fulfill purpose, use a clear pattern or organization - e.g.,
spatial
sequential
contrast
can start with a striking central feature