The Descriptive Paragraph - The Description of a Person

Welcome to week 3 Last week's assignment was a narrative, which we will return to later on, but first let's turn our attention to another useful device used in both fiction and non-fiction, the descriptive technique. As we learned, narrative paragraphs describe a sequence of events or tell a story; in other words, narrative paragraphs describe an experience. The logical arrangement of ideas and sentences in a narrative paragraph is chronological - according to time order. But what if you were asked to describe how something looks - a place, a thing, or a person? How should you arrange your ideas and sentences in the paragraph? Obviously, time order would not be logical. When you are describing the way something looks - its physical appearance - it is not time but space that is important. Therefore, you should arrange your sentences and details according to where the objects being described are located. This type of organization is called spatial organization. In a descriptive paragraph, you must make the location of the objects being described very clear. In university essays you may be asked to relate the role a character plays in a novel. In order to do this a description of the person is often necessary. But how would you describe a person? Depending on the subject or assignment, you could describe the person's physical appearance, behaviour, inner thoughts or a combination of these. For this section we will restrict ourselves to physical appearance, since the principle of organization is spatial, for the most part. You can describe a person's appearance in many ways. You can tell about the person's style of clothing, manner of walking, colour and style of hair, facial appearance, body shape, and expression. You can also describe the person's way of talking. Just what you select to describe depends on your topic and purpose. For example, how would you begin to describe your girlfriend to your cousin? Her hair? Her eyes? Her voice? You are the painter with words, so you want your description to be vivid, coherent - logically arranged so that your cousin can envision the face of your girlfriend. Look at the following description and see if you can get a good image of what Mary looks like: Mary is as beautiful as a Hollywood star. Her thick, wavy, long black hair gracefully falls down to her shoulders and encircles her diamond-shaped face. A golden suntan usually brings out her smooth, clear complexion and high cheek bones. Her slightly arched chestnut brown eyebrows highlight her emotions by moving up and down as she reacts to her world around her. Her large deep blue eyes, remind me of a lake on a stormy day. Her curved nose gives her a little girl look that makes me want to smile when she talks. And her mouth is a small mouth outlined by puffy lips that she often accentuates with glossy pink lipstick. When she smiles, which is often, her well formed and even, white teeth brighten up her whole face. I guess you can tell that I am head over heals in love with Mary. In this paragraph you can not only tell what Mary looks like but also what the authors attitude about her outer appearance is. The paragraph's strong controlling idea is clearly stated in the topic sentence - here the first sentence. The writer also uses many adjectives to give a colorful image to the reader. Although it is not necessary, this paragraph also states a conclusion in the last sentence of the paragraph. When describing a person you are not obliged to describe every single detail about the person's appearance. Sometimes it is better to focus on one or two outstanding features that convey something about the person's character. Read the following description of a famous author's grandmother. Now that I can have her only in memory, I see my grandmother in the several postures that were peculiar to her: standing at the wood stove on a winter morning and turning meat in a big iron skillet; sitting at the south window, bent above her beadwork, and afterwards, when her vision failed, looking down for a long time into the fold of her hands' going out upon a cane, very slowly as she did when the weight of age came upon her; praying. I remember her most often at prayer. She made long, rambling prayers out of suffering and hope, having seen many things. I was never sure that I had the right to hear, so exclusive were they of all mere custom and company. The last time I saw her she prayed standing by the side of her bed at night, naked to the waist, the light of a kerosene lamp moving upon her dark skin. Her long, black hair, always drawn and braided in the day, lay upon her shoulders and against her breasts like a shawl. I do not speak Kiowa, and I never understood her prayers, but there was something inherently sad in the sound, some merest hesitation upon the syllables of sorrow. She began in a high and descending pitch, exhausting her breath to silence; then again and again - and always the same intensity of effort, of something that is, and is not, like urgency in the human voice. Transported so in the dancing light among the shadows of her room, she seemed beyond the reach of time. But that was illusion; I think I knew then that I should not see her again. (From The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday) Here is an example written by a student from last semester. I think you'll like it. Your assignment this week is to describe as a painter someone you know or have observed. Try to use very descriptive adjectives and possibly look up some in either a dictionary or thesaurus to add them to your active vocabulary. Have fun! P.S. You don't have to be as sappy as the author of "Mary" was but you can be, of course! P.P.S. The students from KISD are welcome to describe an object from your designs instead of a person if you want.

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