Detailed Information About the Subject: Describing the Place and People

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 Analyze 
Use the basic features.

To learn more about the descriptive strategies of naming and detailing, see Chapter 15. For more on analyzing a photograph, see Chapter 20.

An effective description names the observable features of the subject, details the subject by explaining what it is or what its parts or features are, and compares the subject with something else to explain what it is like. The comparisons may be similes, which explicitly compare items using words such as like or as: The pig lips “look more like candy than like carrion ” (par. 5). Or the comparisons may be metaphors, which compare the subject with something else without using words such as like or as: “The air conditioner . . . spits forth torrents of Arctic air” (par. 1). The choices a writer makes about the details to include and the words to use in creating the description work together to create a dominant impression that conveys the writer’s perspective—what we call showing.

ANALYZE & WRITE

Write a couple of paragraphs analyzing Edge’s descriptions in “I’m Not Leaving Until I Eat This Thing”:

  1. For paragraphs 5–7, 14, and 16–18, choose a few examples of especially vivid naming and detailing. Also highlight one or two comparisons—similes or metaphors—that work particularly well. What makes these examples so effective?
  2. If you have never seen a pickled pig lip, what more do you need to know to imagine what it looks, smells, and tastes like, or how it feels and sounds when you chomp down on it? Which details make a lip seem appealing to you? Which ones make it seem unappealing?
  3. Consider the photograph Edge includes in his essay, and explain what it contributes to the dominant impression. Edge could have used a full-body photograph of a pig or a photograph of the pig lips themselves. What does the choice of visual suggest about the writer’s perspective?

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