Description

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Description is a way of verbally expressing things you have experienced with your senses. While most speeches use some type of description, some focus on this task more closely than others. The primary task of a descriptive presentation is to paint a mental picture for your audience that portrays places, events, persons, objects, or processes clearly and vividly.

An effective descriptive speech begins with a well-structured idea of what you want to describe and why. As you move through the development process, you emphasize important details and eliminate unimportant ones, all the while considering ways to make your details more vivid for your audience. Descriptive speeches are most effective when the topic is personally connected to the speaker. Consider the following excerpt from President Barack Obama’s January 2011 speech at the “Together We Thrive: Tucson and America” memorial held at the University of Arizona to honor those killed and wounded in the Tucson shootings. Many people found Obama’s description of the youngest victim, Christina Taylor Green, to be particularly moving:

And then there is nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green. Christina was an A student; she was a dancer; she was a gymnast; she was a swimmer. She decided that she wanted to be the first woman to play in the Major Leagues, and as the only girl on her Little League team, no one put it past her.

She showed an appreciation for life uncommon in a girl her age. She’d remind her mother, “We are so blessed. We have the best life.” And she’d pay those blessings back by participating in a charity that helped children who were less fortunate (White House, 2011).

From these few vivid lines, audience members learn who Christina was and they can imagine who she might have become.