Chapter 7 Descriptive Narration: Moving Through Space and Time

Writing Descriptive Narration

As patterns of writing, description and narration are almost always associated. You would almost never describe something without relating it to something else, especially to a story, or a narrative. And you would seldom narrate something (tell the story) without including some description. A narrative moves through time; a description usually moves through space. In this chapter the two patterns are linked as descriptive narration.

The Narrative Defined
What is the Narrative? The narrative is an account of an incident or a series of incidents that make up a complete and significant action. Each narrative has five parts: situation, conflict, struggle, outcome, and meaning.

Narrative Patterns

• Situation is the background for the action.
• Conflict is friction, such as a problem in the surroundings, with another person, or within the individual.
• Struggle, which need not be physical, is the manner of dealing with conflict.
• Outcome is the result of the struggle.
• Meaning is the significance of the story, which may be deeply philosophical or simple, stated or implied.
  

Verb Tense

Two generalizations may be useful as you work with verb tense.

• Most narratives (often summaries) based on literature are written in the present tense.
• Most historical events and personal experiences are written in the past tense.
• The generalizations about verb – tense selection (using past for the historical and the personal and using present for fiction) are useful.
• The verb tense in a passage should change only when the shift is needed for clarity and emphasis.

Point of View
Point of view shows the writer's relationship to the material and the subject, and it usually does not change within a passage.

If you are conveying personal experience, the point of view will be first person, which can be either involved (as a participant) or detached (as an observer). The involved perspective uses I more prominently than the detached perspective does.

If you are presenting something from a distance – geographical or historical (for example, telling a story about George Washington) – the point of view will usually be third person, and the participants will be referred to as "he", "she", and "they."

Dialogue
Dialogue is used purposefully in narration to characterize, particularize, and support ideas. It shows us how people talk and think, as individuals or as representatives of society. Not every narrative requires dialogue.

Descriptive Patterns

Description is the use of words to represent the appearance or nature of something. It is not merely the work of an indifferent camera: Instead, often going beyond sight, it includes details that will convey a good representation. Just what details the writer selects will depend on several factors, especially the type of description and the dominant impression the writer is trying to convey.

Types of Description
Effective objective description presents the subject clearly and directly as it exists outside the realm of emotions. If you are explaining the function of the heart, the characteristics of a computer chip, or the renovation of a manufacturing facility, your description will probably feature specific, impersonal details. Most technical and scientific writing is objective in this sense.

Effective subjective description is also concerned with clarity and it maybe direct, but it conveys a feeling about the subject and sets a mood while making a point. Because most expression involves personal views, even when it explains by analysis, subjective description (often called emotional description) has a broader range of uses than objective description.
Descriptive passages can be a combination of objective and subjective description; only the larger context of the passage will reveal the main intent.

Techniques of Descriptive Writing

As a writer of description, you will need to focus your work to accomplish four specific tasks:

• Emphasize a single point (dominant impression).
• Choose your words with care.
• Establish a perspective from which to describe your subject (point of view).
• Position the details for coherence (order)
  

Dominant Impression

The dominant impression emerges from a pattern of details, often involving repetition of one idea with different particulars.

Word Choice: General and Specific, Abstract and Concrete

To move from the general to the specific is to move from the general to the specific is to move from the whole class or group of items to individual ones.

Point of View

Point of view shows the writer's relationship to the subject, thereby establishing the perspective from which the subject is described. It rarely changes within a passage. Two terms usually associated with fiction writing, first person and third person, also pertain to descriptive writing.

Order

• To indicate space, use terms such as next to, below, under, above, behind, in front of, beyond, in the foreground, in the background, to the left, and to the right.
• To indicate time, use words such as first, second, then, soon, finally, while, after, next, later, now, and before.
• Dominant impression: good food (images, figurative language, other diction). The reader experiences the incident as the writer did because of the diction.
• Word choice: general or specific; abstract or concrete. The general and abstract have been made clear by use of the specific and the concrete. Of course, not all abstract words need to be tied to the concrete, nor do all general words need to be transformed to the specific. As you describe, use your judgment to decide which words fit your purposes – those needed to enable your audience to understand your ideas and to be persuaded or informed.
• Point of view: first person, involved.
• Order: chronological (time) for the eating; spatial (space) for the grill and neighborhood.
  

Suggested Topic and Prompts for Writing Descriptive Narration

Text – based writing requires you to read a source or sources critically, write an analytical reply, and give credit to the author for the ideas you borrow and the words you quote.

The reaction, the most common form of text – based writing, has there features:

• In the reaction, the meaning of the text is central to your topic sentence or thesis and your development.
• Although the reaction is not a personal narrative by itself, it may include personal experience to explain elements of the text.
• The reaction may incorporate a summary to convey a broad view of the text, but the summary is never the main part of your reaction.
  
  

Reading – related writing requires you to read a source and to use it as a model of form and treatment of an idea.

Text – Based Writing topic are marked with “TBW” and Reading – Related Writing topics are Marked with “RRW”.

Source: Brandon, L. & Brandon, K. (2008). Paragraphs & Essays with Integrated Readings. Houghton Mifflin Company.