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Two Categories of Description (Return to the Unit 2 Table of Contents) Objective Description "Objective description" is sometimes referred to as "technical description." It is the kind of description found in technical manuals, brochures and other publications from business and industry, or in government documents. Typically, objective description will be limited to concrete and polysymbolic words while it will tend to avoid highly emotional language and the use of imaginative figures of speech. (See Carl Sandburg's description of the young Abe Lincoln and Mark Twain's description of the Mississippi River; while the piece evokes a strong emotional reaction in Mark Twain, the language is specifically objective.) Subjective Description "Subjective description" is sometimes referred to as "personal description." That is, it relies heavily upon the writer's point of view and emotional state in reference to the object being described. It is the kind of description often found in imaginative literature like some poetry, lyrics of songs, and personal letters meant to convey feelings. (See Washington Irving's description of Icabod Crane and William Faulkner's description of the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust in his 1950 "Nobel Prize Speech.") Typically, subjective description will employ all four types of descriptive words including concrete, polysymbolic, emotionally impacted descriptions, and highly personal or unique figures of speech.
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