See also Chapter 2:

RESEARCH REPORT

Susan Wilcox,

Marathons for Women,

FEATURE STORY

Lev Grossman,

From Scroll to Screen,

INFOGRAPHIC

The White House, Wind Technologies Market Report 2012,

GENRE MOVES: DESCRIPTIVE REPORT

N. Scott Momaday, From The Way to Rainy Mountain

INFORMATIONAL REPORT

Kamakshi Ayyar, Cosmic Postcards: The Adventures of an Armchair Astronaut

DEFINITIONAL REPORT

Steve Silberman, Neurodiversity Rewires Conventional Thinking about Brains

INFORMATIONAL REPORT

Ross Perlin, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

LEGAL REPORT

Philip Deloria, The Cherokee Nation Decision

GRAPHIC REPORT

Mark Graham and Stefano De Sabbata, Age of Internet Empires

GENRE MOVES Descriptive Report

N. SCOTT MOMADAY

From The Way to Rainy Mountain

A single knoll rises out of the plain in Oklahoma, north and west of the Wichita Range. For my people, the Kiowas, it is an old landmark, and they gave it the name Rainy Mountain. The hardest weather in the world is there. Winter brings blizzards, hot tornadic winds arise in the spring, and in summer the prairie is an anvil’s edge. The grass turns brittle and brown, and it cracks beneath your feet. There are green belts along the rivers and creeks, linear groves of hickory and pecan, willow and witch hazel. At a distance in July or August the steaming foliage seems almost to writhe in fire. Great green and yellow grasshoppers are everywhere in the tall grass, popping up like corn to sting the flesh, and tortoises crawl about on the red earth, going nowhere in the plenty of time. Loneliness is an aspect of the land. All things in the plain are isolate; there is no confusion of objects in the eye, but one hill or one tree or one man.

Give life to scenes and settings

For many descriptive reports, it is important for authors to show their readers vivid scenes and settings, so readers can fully understand where the report takes place and can thus better imagine the action. But creating an authentic experience of the scene or setting requires more than just observing a few details. If N. Scott Momaday had simply described the size and color of the knoll, this passage might not have been very successful. What makes the knoll vivid is Momaday’s description of the life of this scene over the course of a year. He describes the weather, the vegetation, and the creatures that populate the space, using metaphors to bring these details alive. The result is that the reader receives not just a view of this landscape but a feel for this world.

If you are writing a report in which location matters (such as a report on a local school), consider not only giving your reader a thorough description of the place, but describing it over the course of time. Momaday offers a view of one specific knoll, but he describes what happens to this space over the course of the seasons. Consider not just the objects and static details of the place you are reporting on—but also how that space has been filled with life. Describe the place by taking on Momaday’s perspective: Imagine that you are standing or sitting still in front of it at the time when you first encountered it, and describe what you see. But then imagine the days and months streaming past, as though in fast-forward. Write about how that space is animated by the people who inhabit it and the actions and changes that occur there.