description
{{short description|Text for clarification; one of four rhetorical modes}}
{{Other uses|Description (disambiguation)}}
{{redirect|Describe|the musician|DeScribe}}
Description is any type of communication that aims to make vivid a place, object, person, group, or other physical entity.{{harvtxt|Crews|1977|p=13}} It is one of four rhetorical modes (also known as modes of discourse), along with exposition, argumentation, and narration.{{harvtxt|Crews|1977|p=13}}
Fiction writing
Fiction writing specifically has modes such as action, exposition, description, dialogue, summary, and transition.{{harvp|Morrell |2006 |p=127}} Author Peter Selgin refers to methods, including action, dialogue, thoughts, summary, scenes, and description.{{harvp|Selgin |2007 |p=38}}
Description is the mode for transmitting a mental image of the particulars of a story. Together with dialogue, narration, exposition, and summarization, it is one of the most widely recognized of the fiction-writing modes. As stated in Writing from A to Z, edited by Kirk Polking, it is more than the amassing of details; it is bringing something to life by carefully choosing and arranging words and phrases to produce the desired effect.{{harvp|Polking |1990 |p=106}}
Purple prose
{{Main|Purple prose}}
A purple patch is an over-written passage in which the writer has strained too hard to achieve an impressive effect, by elaborate figures or other means. The phrase (Latin: "purpureus pannus") was first used by the Roman poet Horace in his Ars Poetica (c. 20 BC) to denote an irrelevant and excessively ornate passage; the sense of irrelevance is normally absent in modern usage, although such passages are usually incongruous. By extension, purple prose is lavishly figurative, rhythmic, or otherwise overwrought.{{harvtxt|Baldick|2004}}
Philosophy
In philosophy, the nature of description has been an important question since Bertrand Russell's classical texts.{{citation|last=Ludlow|first= Peter |year=2007|title= Descriptions|publisher=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|url= http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descriptions/}}
==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
- Anthropomorphism
- Cliché
- Diction
- Grammatical modifier
- Grammatical voice
- Metaphors
- Nouns
- Objectification
- Personification
- Referential density
- Relevance
- Rhetorical devices
- Simile
- Species description
- Verisimilitude
{{div col end}}
Notes
{{Reflist}}
References
- {{ citation | last1 = Baldick | first1 = Chris | title = The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms | location = Oxford | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2004 | isbn = 978-0-19-860883-7 }}
- {{citation | first = Frederick | last = Crews | title = The Random House Handbook | edition = 2nd | location = New York | publisher = Random House | date = 1977 | isbn = 0-394-31211-2 | url = https://archive.org/details/randomhousehand00crew }}
- {{cite book
|title = The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing
|first = Evan
|last = Marshall
|publisher = Writer's Digest Books
|location = Cincinnati, OH
|year = 1998
|pages = [https://archive.org/details/marshallplanforn00evan/page/143 143–165]
|isbn = 1-58297-062-9
|url = https://archive.org/details/marshallplanforn00evan/page/143
}}
- {{cite book
|title = Between the Lines: Master the Subtle Elements of Fiction Writing
|first = Jessica Page
|last = Morrell
|publisher = Writer's Digest Books
|location = Cincinnati, OH
|year = 2006
|page = 127
|isbn = 978-1-58297-393-7}}
- {{cite book
|title = The science of describing: Natural history in renaissance Europe
|first = Brian W.
|last = Ogilvie
|publisher = University of Chicago Press
|location = Chicago, IL
|year = 2006
|isbn = 0226620875
}}
- {{cite book
|title = Writing A to Z
|first = Kirk
|last = Polking
|publisher = Writer's Digest Books
|location = Cincinnati, OH
|year = 1990
|isbn = 0-89879-435-8
|url = https://archive.org/details/writingtoztermsp00polk
}}
- Rozakis, Laurie (2003). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grammar and Style, 2nd Edition. Alpha. {{ISBN|978-1-59257-115-4}}
- {{cite book
|first = Peter
|last = Selgin
|title = By Cunning & Craft: Sound Advice and Practical Wisdom for fiction writers
|url = https://archive.org/details/bycunningcraftso00selg
|url-access = limited
|publisher = Writer's Digest Books
|location = Cincinnati, OH
|year = 2007
|page = [https://archive.org/details/bycunningcraftso00selg/page/n49 38]
|isbn = 978-1-58297-491-0}}
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