RHETORICAL DESCRIPTION

1. RHETORICAL DESCRIPTION Dr. Stephen Ogden LIBS 7001

2. 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 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 • 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. • 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. 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 • 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. 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