Adding Vividness To Your Writing
Most writing contains a range of abstraction levels, but
successful professional writers draw heavily on Level 1 abstractions. Sophistication of
thought deals in the realm of abstraction, but sophistication of writing is achieved
through supporting those abstractions with concrete details. Specificity allows a writer
to truly communicate meaning.
Levels of Abstractions
Level 4: Abstractions
Examples: life, beauty, love, time, success, power,
happiness, faith, hope, charity, evil, good. |
Level 3: Noun classes: broad group names with little specification.
Examples: People, men, women, young people, everybody,
nobody, industry, we, goals, things, television. |
Level 2: Noun categories: more definite groups.
Examples: teen-agers, middle-class, clothing industry,
parents, college campus, newborn child, TV comedies, house plants. |
Level 1: Specific, identifiable nouns.
Examples: Levi 501 jeans, my three bedroom house on
Hollis Street, In Living Color, Bud commercials, African violets, Tina's newborn
sister, Mina. |
| Sample Abstraction Ladders: |
| Level 4 |
society |
human endeavors |
economy |
| Level 3 |
most people |
industries |
farm assets |
| Level 2 |
spoiled child |
cosmetic company |
cattle |
| Level 1 |
my sister, Tracy |
Max Factor, Inc. |
Bessie, the cow |
(*based on the work of Hayakawa's ladder of abstractions)
In the simplest terms then, the more Level 1 abstraction you use in your writing, the
more you will be understood by your audience. Also, the details that you use will save you
much work. If you are trying to describe a person, and you mention that she wore
Berkenstock's and a jeans skirt, you have evoked an image in your reader's mind; whereas,
if you say the woman was dressed in casual attire, the reader's impression of the woman is
not as strong, and the audience will be free to interpret your meaning in ways that you
may not mean. Wearing a green and pink housecoat with flip-flops would mean casual to many
people. So using the levels of abstractions carefully will help convey meaning to your
audience.
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