GENERAL LANGUAGE
SPECIFIC LANGUAGE
ABSTRACT LANGUAGE
CONCRETE LANGUAGE
The slope was covered with trees and grass.
We need more structures in which to display works of art.
Live oaks mixed with olive trees on a slope of long, brown grass. We should build more museums.
Write with nouns and verbs and appeal to the reader’s five senses. You must visualize as you write and use words that describe the details of your image. Strunk used the following example: The reward was pocketed by the parking lot attendant with a grateful smile.
The parking lot attendant grinned as he pocketed the ten-dollar tip.
Begin using this rule, and you will follow in the footsteps of the world’s greatest writers. The first sentences of John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, quoted toward the end of this pamphlet (p. 33), are a striking example. Here are some others: Falstaff sweats to death and lards the lean earth as he walks. –Shakespeare [He glared] at her face, as devoid of all comeliness of feature and complexion as the most miserable beggar is of money. –Conrad We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. –Churchill
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