What is description? It's the action you take of describing something or someone.
Then, what is to describe? Let's see: according to the dictionary, it is the act of narrating, counting in detail.
So whenever you expose an object, a person or a landscape to someone in detail, you are making use of the description.
The latter is like a distinct and personal portrait of something you have seen or seen!
Thus, to make a good description, it is not necessary that it be perfect, since the observer's point of view varies according to his degree of perception. In this way, what will be important to be analyzed for one will not be for another.
Therefore, the experience of the person who describes it also influences when it comes to conveying the impression achieved about a particular object, person, animal, scene, environment, emotion experienced or feeling.
Details are essential to distinguish a given moment from any other, thus, the presence of adjectives and adjective phrases is a distinct feature of a descriptive text.
When describing verbally, be subtle when transmitting and take into account, according to the fact, object or person analyzed: a) the colors; b) height; c) length; d) dimensions; e) physical characteristics; f) psychological characteristics; g) thermal sensation; h) weather and climate; i) vegetation; j) spatial perspective; l) weight; m) texture; n) utility; o) location; and so on.
Of course, everything will depend on what is being described. In a landscape, for example, the description might consider: the geographic position (north, south, east, west); the climate (wet, dry); type (rural, urban); the thermal sensation (heat, cold) and whether there are houses, trees, rivers, etc.
See the example:
“From your bedroom window I could see the sea. It was calm and therefore looked even bluer. The sea air flooded her resting place and chilled her body... it was very cold, she felt, but she didn't want to close the entrance of that good feeling. To the north, the island he most liked to go to, was just a small patch of land lit by the last sunbeams of late that afternoon; it was far... far away! She didn't know how to thank God, she lived in a paradise!”
The feeling that the reader or listener has to have in a description is that they have been transported to the location of the descriptive narration.
Likewise, when an object is described, the interlocutor must have the feeling that he is looking at that sofa or that cup.
Finally, let's look at the two types of description that exist:
• Objective description: happens when what is described is presented in a direct, simple, concrete way, as it really is:
a) The object is 3 meters in diameter, is light gray, weighs 1 ton and will be used in the manufacture of disposable diapers.
b) Ana is 1.80, dark skin, light brown eyes, dark brown hair and straight and weighs 65 kg. She has been a model since she was 15 years old.
Subjective description: occurs when there is emotion on the part of the person who describes:
a) She was sweet, calm and had a lot of respect for her parents. But with me, he had no shame: he was skittish and malicious, but that didn't bother me.
Therefore, in the subjective description there is emotional interference on the part of the interlocutor regarding what he observes, he analyzes.
How will you know if you've made an excellent descriptive narration? When rereading your text and realizing if in fact other readers will see what is being described as real!
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
By Sabrina Vilarinho
Graduated in Letters
See more!
How to make a good description?
Narration - Know what the elements of a narrative text are!
