Page 199 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

If you are like most people, you answered with a broad term—fast
food, a sandwich, a microwaveable dinner—rather than with a specific

description, such as a tuna-salad sandwich on rye toast.

Being specific does not come naturally because the human brain is

programmed to think in categories. This ability to lump things together

by function saves time. It also gives the brain an orderly way to store
the information it receives every day. Without the ability to categorize,

a football and a baseball would seem to have as little in common as a

dandelion and a Phillips screwdriver. Bits of information would be

scattered throughout your brain like confetti, impossible to retrieve.

But the ability to categorize can work against you when you write.
Most people would complete the sentence “Harold drove to work in his

___________” with the word car or truck. Few would fill in beat-

up Ford Escort that had seen its best days fifteen years ago or ten-

year-old Volvo without a single scratch or dent. Such specific

examples do not come to mind easily because the human brain,
programmed to categorize, looks first at the big picture.

To write rich, detail-packed paragraphs, train yourself to move beyond

general categories and to look for the details. This skill is similar to the

one that police officers develop when they learn to observe sharply
and to remember details. Police officers, however, receive special

training on developing observational skills. Writers are on their own.

The exercises in this section are designed to help you move beyond

general categories. When you can do that, you will be able to provide