Description

PRESENTS – the DIMENSIONS of a person, place, circumstance, or idea; relies upon SENSORY APPEAL: SIGHT, SOUND, TOUCH, TASTE, SMELL

ORGANIZES – SPACE (or at least appeals to the concrete experience of space); relates: an IMPRESSION, an EMOTION, or a MEMORY

STRATEGIES – SPACIAL and LOGICAL

SPACIAL: top to bottom, left to right, back to front, inward to outward

LOGICAL: least to most – dominant feature, significant characteristic, important

consideration

Objective description –

Presents a subject with detachment or impartiality

goal: to supply information about a subject

language: impersonal, empirical words – scientific (measurement, space, construction)

Subjective description –

Presents a subject through personal reactions to or evaluations of it

goal: to supply a feeling for or express an attitude toward a subject

language: expressive, suggestive words – poetic (simile, metaphor, personification,

irony)

*Both types, however, rely on selective details to keep the reader’s attention focused.