Hands-free narration of this study — good for the car.
Synopsis
Description is the pictorial process of calling up an image in the hearer's mind, contrasted point by point with exposition: exposition is general, abstract, internal, intellectual, and impersonal, while description is particular, concrete, external, sensory, and personal. A speaker cannot describe what he has never seen, in fact or in fancy, so the 'picturing mind' must first visualize clearly before it can re-image a scene for hearers. The chapter catalogs description's objects — still or moving objects, scenes, situations, actions, and persons — and distinguishes scientific description (accurate information) from artistic description (vivid impression), the latter being the speaker's more frequent tool. Its chief counsel is that description in public speaking should proceed mainly by suggestion rather than exhaustive detail, since a few well-chosen strokes, as in Dickens's single-sentence portraits, leave a sharper, more unified impression than minute enumeration. Additional methods include hint, depicting a thing by its effects, epithet, figures of speech, and direct description using the vivid 'historical present.' Practical counsel follows: fix one viewpoint, choose a consistent attitude and order, cut all needless minutiae, and aim at the emotional impression felt when the scene was first seen.
Key points
- Description visualizes the particular and concrete; exposition explains the general and abstract — the two often overlap but are fundamentally distinct.
- A speaker must first see a thing clearly, physically or in imagination, before he can make hearers see it.
- Description should proceed mainly by suggestion — brief, vivid strokes — rather than exhaustive detail.
- Methods include hint, effects, epithet, figures of speech, and direct description, sometimes using the vivid historical present.
- Practical rules: fix one viewpoint, keep a consistent order and attitude, cut needless minutiae, and aim at emotional impression.
Key texts
- Psalm 19:1-4
- Isaiah 6:1-4
- Song of Solomon 4:1-7
From the book
Chapter XX — Influencing by Description · Open the reader
- “To describe is to call up a picture in the mind of the hearer.”
- “In public speaking, description should be mainly by suggestion”
- “Description is primarily emotional in its appeal”
Put it into practice
- Fix a single viewpoint for your hearers before describing, and do not shift it without notice.
- Choose only significant, suggestive details and cut all others, following the poster artist's few strokes.
- Try to recall the emotion you felt when you first saw the scene, and aim your description at reproducing that same feeling.
- Comprehension
1. How does the chapter define description?
- Scripture
2. Read the eight-fold contrast between exposition and description. List three of the pairs.
- Doctrinal Clarity
3. Why must a speaker have a 'picturing mind' before he can describe effectively?
- Comprehension
4. What distinguishes scientific description from artistic description?
- Contrast
5. Contrast description by minute detail with description by suggestion, using Dickens's example.
- Contrast
6. Contrast description that idealizes a subject with description that caricatures it.
- Comprehension
7. What is the 'historical present' and how does Talmage use it in the baseball passage?
- Comprehension
8. What final piece of counsel does the chapter give about ending a description?
- Application
9. Describe a familiar scene from your own life in three sentences, using suggestion rather than exhaustive detail.
- Application
10. Recall the emotion you felt on first seeing some place or event, and write one sentence meant to reproduce that same feeling in a hearer.