+130.  Effectiveness in Description.+—­Every part of a description should aid in rendering it effective, and this effectiveness is as much the purpose of the principles previously discussed as it is of those which follow.  This paragraph is inserted here to separate more or less definitely those things which can be done under direction from those which cannot be determined by rule.  Up to this point emphasis has been laid upon the clear presentation of a mental image as the object of description.  But the clear presentation of mental images is not all there is to description.  A point of view, a fundamental image, a judicious selection of essential and minor details and the relating of them with reference to their natural position in space, may set forth an image clearly and yet fail to be satisfactory as a description.

For the practical affairs of life it may be sufficient to limit ourselves to clear images set forth barely and sparely, but there is a pleasure and a profit in using the subtler arts of language, in placing a word here or a phrase there that shall give a touch of beauty or a flash of suggestiveness and so save our descriptions from the commonplace.  It is to these less easily demonstrated methods of giving strength and beauty that we wish now to turn our attention.

+131.  Word Selection.+—­The effectiveness of our description will depend largely upon our right choice of words.  If our range of vocabulary is limited, the possibility of effective description is correspondingly limited.  Only when our working vocabulary contains many words may we hope to choose with ease the one most suitable for the effective expression of the idea we wish to convey.  To prepare a list of words that may apply and then attempt to write a theme that shall make use of them is a mechanical process of little value.  The idea we wish to express should call up the word that exactly expresses it.  If our ideas are not clear or our vocabulary is limited, we may be satisfied with the trite and commonplace; but if our experience has been broad or our reading extended, we may have at command the word which, because it is just the right one, gives individuality and force to our phrasing.  Every one is familiar with dogs, and has in his vocabulary many words which he applies to them, but a reading of one or two good dog stories, such as Bob, Son of Battle, or The Call of the Wild, will show how wide is the range of such words and how much the description is enhanced by their careful use.

EXERCISE

Consider the following selections with reference to the choice of words which add to the effectiveness of the descriptions:—­

1.  She was a little, brown, thin, almost skinny woman with big, rolling, violet-blue eyes and the sweetest manners in the world.

2.  The sounds and the straits and the sea with its plump, sleepy islands lay north and east and south.