EXAMPLES OF

DESCRIPTION
Patterns of Development
Description is often used to establish a mood or atmosphere. In the following example from “Serving in
Florida” (p. 179), Barbara Ehrenreich describes her coworkers:

I make friends, over time, with the other “girls” who work my shift: Nita, the
tattooed twenty-something who taunts us by going around saying brightly,
“Have we started making money yet?” Ellen, whose teenage son cooks on the
graveyard shift and who once managed a restaurant in Massachusetts but won’t
try out for management here because she prefers being a “common worker” and
not “ordering people around.” Easy-going fiftyish Lucy, with the raucous laugh,
who limps toward the end of the shift because of something that has gone wrong
with her leg, the exact nature of which cannot be determined without health
insurance. We talk about the usual girl things — men, children, and the sinister
allure of Jerry’s chocolate peanut-butter cream pie.
 Below is a SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION. In this type of description, the author is describing an
impression of what is observed. What is subjective description: the reader experiences the world as it
appears to the author.

Caroline, or Sister Carrie, as she had been half affectionately

termed by the family, was possessed of a mind rudimentary in its
power of observation and analysis. Self-interest with her was high,
but not strong. It was nevertheless, her guiding characteristic. Warm
with the fancies of youth, pretty with the insipid prettiness of the
formative period, possessed of a figure promising eventual
shapeliness and an eye alight with certain native intelligence, she
was a fair example of the middle American class . . . " (Dreiser 1)
Below is OBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION. In this type of description, the writer attempts to stay away
from emotional impressions or responses, and instead report what is seen, as a video camera records a
scene.

The Acer barbatum is a small to medium-sized, deciduous tree

usually ranging from 15–25 m. (50–80 ft.) tall when mature. Bark is
light gray and smooth on younger trees, becoming ridged and
furrowed with age. Leaves are opposite and shallowly to deeply
palmately lobed, with a few blunt teeth but no serrations. The leaf
sinuses are rounded, unlike those of red maple (Acer rubrum) which
are sharply V-shaped. Also, the sides of terminal leaf lobes are more
or less parallel, while those of red maple are widest at the base,
tapering to the tip. . . . (Sieberling)