Noted childhood psychologist, J. Piaget, studied the way people think from birth to adulthood. What he discovered was revolutionary for his time. He found that humans can achieve four separate levels of reasoning ability or ways to deal with abstraction. The first two do not concern us; however, the latter do. The third level of abstraction is that of Concrete Operational Stage and the fourth is Formal Operations.
In Concrete Operations, people deal with dualities. Either things are black or they are white -- good or bad -- right or wrong. In addition, this level gives us the ability to understand the world according to our own experiences. Therefore, if someone tells a concrete thinker that she had whambug for dinner, the concrete listener probably would grimace, believing that whambug was awful tasting because his experience tells him that bugs are not tasty. Note -- if you want a concrete thinker to understand what you mean, you must be explicit -- going so far as to draw pictures with words, so to speak. In other words, you must be specific. Most people achieve this level by the time they are twelve. Also, concrete thinking does not mean limited intelligence; it just means a person has difficulty grappling with abstractions.
The fourth level is that of the Formal Operational Stage. In this level, people can hold diverse opinions about the same issues; for example, they may believe abortion is wrong, but they also may believe, in certain instances, abortion is called for, for example in rape or underage pregnancy. To Concrete thinkers, a Formal thinker seems to sit on a fence about every issue. If you would tell a Formal thinker about whambug, he'd reply that he would like to taste one, as formal people tend to be risk-takers as well. This level is achieved anywhere from 12 years of age on up. Now here's the kicker: Piaget suggested that approximately only 20% of the population ever achieves this level. Scientists after him suggest that it probably is only 15%.
Think of the implications: any audience is comprised of 80% Concrete and 20% Formal thinkers. Thus, we turn to our purpose: how to reach all of your readers. That's where another notorious researcher, Hayakawa, comes in. H. I. Hayakawa was famous in the 1940s and 1950s for his abstraction ladder. It's shown below. What this ladder tells us is that any good writing includes all levels of abstraction, level 1 specifically. What this means is that you must have in each and every one of your body paragraphs a specific quote, example, situation or detail, so that you satisfy the needs of both the Concrete and Abstract thinker. In other words, name things in your paragraphs. Don't just say tennis shoes, say Nike. Don't say downtown, say on the corner of Riverside and Washington.
By the way, using the varying levels in your daily conversation as well as in your writing will help you communicate better with everyone!
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 |
Level 3: Noun classes -- broad group names with little specification. |
Level 2: Noun categories
-- more definite groups. |
Level 1: Specific, identifiable nouns. |
| Sample Abstraction Ladders: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 4 | society
| \/ |
human endeavors
| \/ |
economy | \/ |
| Level 3 |
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 Berkenstocks 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; however, she was really wearing jeans and a t-shirt. So using the levels of abstractions carefully will help convey meaning to your audience.