Actions { Mental " " { Physical

 

Persons { Internal " " { External

 

Some of the foregoing processes will overlap, in certain instances, and all are

more likely to be found in combination than singly.

 

When description is intended solely to give accurate information--as to

delineate the appearance, not the technical construction, of the latest Zeppelin

airship--it is called "scientific description," and is akin to exposition. When

it is intended to present a free picture for the purpose of making a vivid

impression, it is called "artistic description." With both of these the public

speaker has to deal, but more frequently with the latter form. Rhetoricians make

still further distinctions.

 

_Methods of Description_

 

In public speaking, _description should be mainly by suggestion_, not only

because suggestive description is so much more compact and time-saving but

because it is so vivid. Suggestive expressions connote more than they literally

say--they suggest ideas and pictures to the mind of the hearer which supplement

the direct words of the speaker. When Dickens, in his "Christmas Carol," says:

"In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile," our minds complete the

picture so deftly begun--a much more effective process than that of a minutely