Descriptive Writing 101

Descriptive writing explains, describes or defines the author’s subject to the reader in such a way that a picture is formed in the reader’s mind. 

Good descriptive writing uses sensory details to paint a picture of a person, place, scene, object or convey emotion.

Writing descriptively will make your writing more interesting and engaging to read. It also helps persuade your readers.

The reality is that there is no particular way to teach descriptive writing. Teachers can only help improve their students’ skills by encouraging them to read, read and read.

Below are a Few Guidelines to Writing Good Descriptive Essays

To write a good descriptive essay:

1.   Start by deciding on a method of organisation. Good descriptive writing is organised. Some ways to organise descriptive writing include: chronological (time), spatial (location), and order of importance.

a.   Spatial organisation works very well if your details are mainly visual. You can describe a scene using this method by:

                                     i.        Beginning from right to left or vice versa

                                    ii.        Top to bottom or vice versa

                                  iii.        Inside out or vice versa

                                  iv.        Around in a circle, starting and ending at the same place.

b.   Chronological Order presents details and events in time-order, from first to last or from the end to the beginning. When describing an event, it is best to use chronological order.

c.   Order of Importance enables you draw attention to key ideas by placing them first and placing the least important details last.

Note: When describing a person, you might begin with a physical description, followed by how that person thinks, feels and acts.

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Elements of Persuasion

To move your readers you must discover all available ways of persuasion. According to Aristotle, you can persuade your readers using three elements:

    1.   Logos: The appeal to the audience’s reason.

    2.   Pathos: The appeal to the audience’s emotions.

   3. Ethos: The degree of confidence that the speaker’s character or personality inspires in the readers.

Rational Appeal (Logos)	Emotional Appeal (Pathos)	Ethical Appeal (Ethos)
facts          case studies          statistics          experiments          logical reasoning          analogies          anecdotes          authority voices	belief in fairness          love          pity          greed          lust          revenge	trustworthiness    credibility    reliability           expert testimony           reliable sources           fairness

These three appeals can be used separately, or they can be combined to increase your persuasive effect. Whenever you argue a point in writing, you analyze your subject, topic, or issue in order to persuade your readers to think and act in a specific way.

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Why do I need to be persuasive?

To be persuasive means to have the power to induce action or belief. 

Persuasive writing moves readers to adopt a certain point of view or approve a course of action.

In recent years, people have learned how to use the skill of persuasive writing to gain influence in the society.

We listen to speeches by Martin Luther King, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and our actions are influenced by their words. They have simply learnt the art of persuasion.

We use persuasion:

·        In the work place, persuasion is crucial in negotiating a contract or a promotion.

·        In personal relationships, it is important to communicate our feelings and subtle aspects of compromise.

·        In marketing and copywriting, you need persuasion to engage your prospects and lead them to buy your products or services.

·        To get a good job, you need to convince your interviewer that you are worth their paycheck.

Persuasive skills are important in writing, marketing, negotiating, and even when wooing a woman.

We will discuss the elements of persuasion tomorrow.

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Abbreviations

This week we will learn how to use numbers, abbreviations and capital letters when writing. We will begin with abbreviations. 

What is an abbreviation?

An abbreviation is a shortened form of an existing word or phrase.

How do you use abbreviations?

1)   Abbreviate social titles like Mister, Mr.; Missus, Mrs.

2)   Abbreviate title of rank.
     Example: Col. Remi Ashton

Title	Abbreviation
Ambassador	Amb.
Doctor	Dr.
Colonel	Col.
Honourable	Hon.
Lieutenant	Lt.
Governor	Gov.
Major	Maj.
Lieutenant General	Lt. Gen.
Lieutenant Colonel	Lt. Col.
President	Pres.
Professor	Prof.
Representative	Rep.
Superintendent	Supt.

3)   Abbreviate time and dates.

     Examples: A.M. (ante meridian), P.M. (post meridian).

4)   Abbreviate earned degrees.

Degree	Abbreviation
Associate’s Degree	A.A.
Bachelor of Arts	B.A. or A.B.
Bachelor of Business Administration	B.B.A.
Bachelor of Science	B.S.
Masters of Arts	M.A.
Doctor of Philosophy	Ph.D.
Masters of Business Administration	M.B.A.
Masters of Science	M.S.
Medical Doctor	M.D.
Registered Nurse	R.N.

5)   Abbreviate some historical periods.

     Examples: B.C. (before the birth of Christ), A.D. (Anno Domini), C.E. (common era).

6)   Abbreviate geographical terms.

Place	Abbreviations
Avenue	Ave.
Building	Bldg.
Boulevard	Blvd.
County	Co.
District	Dist.
Drive	Dr.
Island	Is.
Province	Prov.
Road	Rd.
Territory	Terr.
Route	Rte.

12 TYPES OF LANGUAGES

A variety of terms distinguish the kinds of languages and vocabularies that exist outside the mainstream of standard, formal language. Here are twelve words and phrases that denote specific ideas of language usage.

1. Argot
An argot is a language primarily developed to disguise conversation, originally because of a criminal enterprise, though the term is also used loosely to refer to informal jargon.

2. Cant
Cant is somewhat synonymous with argot and jargon and refers to the vocabulary of an in-group that uses it to deceive or exclude nonusers.

3. Colloquial Language
Anything not employed in formal writing or conversation, including terms that might fall under one or more of most of the other categories in this list, is a colloquialism. Colloquial and colloquialism may be perceived to be pejorative terms, but they merely refer to informal terminology.

Colloquial language — whether words, idiomatic phrases, or aphorisms — is often regionally specific; for example, variations on the term “carbonated beverage” — including soda, pop, and coke — differ in various areas of the United States.

4. Creole
A creole is a more sophisticated development of a pidgin, derived from two or more parent languages and used by people all ages as a native language.

5. Dialect
A dialect is a way of speaking based on geographical or social factors.

6. Jargon
Jargon is a body of words and phrases that apply to a specific activity or profession, such as a particular art form or athletic or recreational endeavor, or a medical or scientific subject. Jargon is often necessary for precision when referring to procedures and materials integral to a certain pursuit.

However, in some fields, jargon is employed to an excessive and gratuitous degree, often to conceal the truth or deceive or exclude outsiders. Various types of jargon notorious for obstructing rather than facilitating communication are given names often appended with -ese or -speak, such as bureaucratese or corporate-speak.

7. Lingo
This term vaguely refers to the speech of a particular community or group and is therefore loosely synonymous with many of the other words in this list.

8. Lingua Franca
A lingua franca is a language often adopted as a common tongue to enable communication between speakers of separate languages, though pidgins and creoles, both admixtures of two or more languages, are also considered lingua francas.

9. Patois
Patois refers loosely to a nonstandard language such as a creole, a dialect, or a pidgin, with a connotation of the speakers’ social inferiority to those who speak the standard language.

10. Pidgin
A simplified language arising from the efforts of people speaking different languages to communicate is a pidgin. These languages generally develop to facilitate trade between people without a common language. In time, pidgins often evolve into creoles.

11. Slang
A vocabulary of terms (at least initially) employed in a specific subculture is slang. Slang terms, either invented words or those whose meanings are adapted to new senses, develop out of a subculture’s desire to disguise — or exclude others from — their conversations. As US society becomes more youth oriented and more homogenous, slang becomes more widespread in usage, and subcultures continually invent new slang as older terms are appropriated by the mainstream population.

12. Vernacular

A vernacular is a native language or dialect, as opposed to another tongue also in use, such as Spanish, French, or Italian and their dialects as compared to their mother language, Latin. Alternatively, a vernacular is a dialect itself as compared to a standard language (though it should be remembered that a standard language is simply a dialect or combination of dialects that has come to predominate).

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