Chapter 7 Descriptive Narration: Moving Through Speces and Time-Final

Chapter 7 Descriptive Narration: Moving Through Speces 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 narrarive. And you would seldom narrate something (tell the story) without including some description. A narrative moves through time; a description usually moves through speace. In this chapter the two patterns are linked as descriptive narrarion.

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The Narrative Defined

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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.

1. Narrative Patterns

2. Situation is the background for the action.

3. Conflict is friction, such as a problem in the surroundings, with another person, or within the individual.

4. Struggle which need not be physical, is the manner of dealing with conflict.
Outcome is the result of the struggle

5. Meaning is the signigicance of the story, which may be deeply philosophical or simple, stated or implied.

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Verb Tense

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

1. Most narratives (often summaries) based on literature are written int he present tense.

2.Most historical events and personal experiences are writtenin the past tense.

3.The generalizations about verb-tense selection (using past for the historical and the personal and using present for fiction) are useful.

4. The verb tense in a passage should change only when the shift is needed for clarity and emphasis.

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Point of View

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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 ne eighter 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."

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Dialogue

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

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Descriptive Patterns

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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 beyongd 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.

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Types of Description

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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.

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 if uses than objective description.

Descriptive passages can be a combination of objective and subjective description ony the larger context of the passage will reveal the main intent.

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Techniques of Descriptive Writing

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

1. Emphasize a single point (dominant impression)

2. Choose your words with care

3. Establish a perspective from which to describe your subject(point of view)

4. Position the details for coherence (order)

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Dominant Impression

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

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Word Choice: General and Specific, Abstract and Concrete

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Words are classified as abstract or concrete, depending on what they refer to. Abstract words refer to qualities or ideas: good, ordinary. ultimate, truth, beauty, maturity, love. Concrete words refer to things or a substance; they have reality: onions, grease, buns, table, food. Specific concrete words, sometimes called concrete particulars, often support generalizations effectively and convince the reader of the accuracy of the description.

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Point of View

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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.

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Order

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1. To indicate space, use terms such as next to, below, under, above, behind, infront of , beyond, in the foreground, in the background, to the left, and to the right.

2. To indicate time, use words such as first, second, then, soon, finally, while, after, next, later, now, and before.

3. Dominant impression: good food (images, figurative language, other diction). The reder experiences the incident as the writer did because of the diction.

4. 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.

5. Point of view: first person, involved.

6. Order: chronological (time) for the eating; spatial (space) for the grill and neighborhood.

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Reading Strategies and Objectives

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Underlining and annotating these reading selections will help you answer the questions that follow the selections, discuss the material in class, and prepare for text-based writing assignments. As you underline and annotate, pay special attention to the author's writing skills, logic, and message, and consider the relevance of the material to your own experiences and values.

Most selections begin with a Mindset suggestion that can help you create a readiness for connecting with what you are about to read.

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

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

Text-Based Writing=TBW

Reading-related writing=RRW

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Source:Brandon, Lee. Brandon, Kelly. Paragraphs and Essays with Integrated Readings,eleventh Edition. Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2011