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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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