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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.
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 if one happened to be
available, reasoning that you would not offer one unless it had value. This level is
achieved anywhere from 12 years of age on up. Now here's the kicker: Piaget
suggested that only 20%, approximately, of the population ever achieves this level.
Scientists after him suggest that it probably is only about 15%.
Think of the implications: any audience is comprised of 80% Concrete
and 20% Formal thinkers. In other words, the majority of your audience will not
understand your point unless you use explicit, specific details and examples. Thus, we
turn to our purpose: how to reach all of your readers.
That's where Hayakawa's comes in. H. I. Hayakawa was famous in the
1940s and 1950s for his abstraction ladder. It is shown below. What this
ladder tells us is that any good writing includes all levels of abstraction, level one
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 Riverside and Washington.
By the way, learning to use the varying levels in your daily conversation
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 one 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 One 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 vibrant, 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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