10) Understanding Description
Use precise language. Select words with specific meanings. Avoid generalities, such as “good,” and relative intensifies, such as “very.” Organize your precise language with a structure specifically designed to house the paper’s content and enhance the reader’s understanding of the subject. For example, a description of a sunrise over the ocean might best be conveyed through a chronological structure if the writer aims to provide the reader with a sense of visual evolution, while a description of the same sunset might best be conveyed through a spatial structure if the writer aims to guide the reader’s imagination from the sand to the surf to the horizon, and so on, one visual strata at a time.
Some of the most useful descriptions take the form of narration. Consider a common writing dictate: Show; don’t tell. Allow your description to rely on precise verbs rather than extra adjectives. At best, adjectives will allow readers to know what a writer feels. Description through action, however, can allow readers to share some form of the writer’s reactions—and then actually feel what the writer feels.
For example, consider the following sentences:
Morgan seemed disappointed after the meeting with the potential investors, and Jack could tell her spirits continued to fall during the drive back to the marina. She knew the situation looked like it could be very bad for them.
Then consider how the same ideas may be expressed through more precise language:
Morgan let her business proposal slip into the trashcan as she left the meeting with the potential investors. As she and Jack drove back to the marina, she lit a Marlboro for the first time in two months. She knew Jack had already spent all his savings on the new charter boat.
Thoughts, Revised & Refined 