Decide, on beginning a description, what point of view you wish your hearers to

take. One cannot see either a mountain or a man on all sides at once. Establish

a view-point, and do not shift without giving notice.

 

Choose an attitude toward your subject--shall it be idealized? caricatured?

ridiculed? exaggerated? defended? or described impartially?

 

Be sure of your mood, too, for it will color the subject to be described.

Melancholy will make a rose-garden look gray.

 

Adopt an order in which you will proceed--do not shift backward and forward from

near to far, remote to close in time, general to particular, large to small,

important to unimportant, concrete to abstract, physical to mental; but follow

your chosen order. Scattered and shifting observations produce hazy impressions

just as a moving camera spoils the time-exposure.

 

Do not go into needless minutiae. Some details identify a thing with its class,

while other details differentiate it from its class. Choose only the

significant, suggestive characteristics and bring those out with terse

vividness. Learn a lesson from the few strokes used by the poster artist.

 

In determining what to describe and what merely to name, seek to read the

knowledge of your audience. The difference to them between the unknown and the

known is a vital one also to you.