Relentlessly cut out all ideas and words not necessary to produce the effect you

desire. Each element in a mental picture either helps or hinders. Be sure they

do not hinder, for they cannot be passively present in any discourse.

 

Interruptions of the description to make side-remarks are as powerful to destroy

unity as are scattered descriptive phrases. The only visual impression that can

be effective is one that is unified.

 

In describing, try to call up the emotions you felt when first you saw the

scene, and then try to reproduce those emotions in your hearers. Description is

primarily emotional in its appeal; nothing can be more deadly dull than a cold,

unemotional outline, while nothing leaves a warmer impression than a glowing,

spirited description.

 

Give a swift and vivid general view at the close of the portrayal. First and

final impressions remain the longest. The mind may be trained to take in the

characteristic points of a subject, so as to view in a single scene, action,

experience, or character, a unified impression of the whole. To describe a thing

as a whole you must first see it as a whole. Master that art and you have

mastered description to the last degree.

 

SELECTIONS FOR PRACTISE

 

_THE HOMES OF THE PEOPLE_