
Description is the fiction-writing mode for transmitting a mental image of the particulars of a story. Currently, there is no consensus within the writing community regarding the number and composition of fiction-writing modes and their uses. Author Peter Selgin refers to methods, including action, dialogue, thoughts, summary, scene, and description (Selgin 2007, p. Author and writing-instructor Jessica Page Morrell lists six delivery modes for fiction-writing: action, exposition, description, dialogue, summary, and transition (Morrell 2006, p. Agent and author Evan Marshall identifies five fiction-writing modes: action, summary, dialogue, feelings/thoughts, and background (Marshall 1988, pp. Fiction-writing also has distinct forms of expression, or modes, each with its own purposes and conventions. Description as a fiction-writing modeįiction is a form of narrative, one of the four rhetorical modes of discourse. Descriptive writing may be found in the other rhetorical modes. The purpose of description is to re-create or visually present a person, place, event, or action so that the reader may picture that which is being described. * 2 Description as a fiction-writing mode

Each of the rhetorical modes is present in a variety of forms and each has its own purpose and conventions.ĭescription is also the fiction-writing mode for transmitting a mental image of the particulars of a story. Description is one of four rhetorical modes (also known as modes of discourse), along with exposition, argumentation, and narration.
