Levels of Abstractions

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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Last revised: November 19, 2009 by Jan Strever -- jstrever@scc.spokane.edu
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