Descriptive Writing(描述体写作)
Narrative writing conveys to readers what happened to a writer, while descriptive writing conveys to readers what a writer sees, hears, smells, and feels. In other words, descriptive writing appeals to the reader’s senses.
There are basically two types of descriptive writing: objective (客观的) and impressionistic (印象派的). Objective description is a factual account of the object the writer observes. The writer regards himself as a kind of camera, recording and reproducing, though in words, a true picture. Impressionistic description is very different. Focusing on the mood or feeling the object evokes in the writer, rather than on the object as it exists in itself, we may safely conclude that impressionistic description seeks not to inform but to arouse the emotions of readers.
Exercise: Read the following two paragraphs and tell which one is objective description and which one is impressionistic description.
1) Inside the house, in the very middle, there is an open courtyard with tropical plants and flowers and even a wild parrot that can say a few words and whistle. Surrounding the courtyard is a kind of open corridor or porch with pillars and a railing.
2) She was, in fact, a woman of forty, and she gave me the impression of having more teeth, white and large and even, than were necessary for any practical purpose.
In actual writing there is no clearly-cut line between the two types of description, as the following paragraph shows:
In the university where I teach, there is a lake with a name Rengong Lake, which, translated, means man-made lake. Despite having such an unpoetic name, it’s a place favored by all the students and faculty. It lies there so peacefully; even the reflection of the rough rocks around it seems so gentle. When the nights with a full moon come, sentimental student poets stroll around the lake composing romantic poems.