The Concrete and the Abstract
Finding a Balance
Moving through your essay should be like strolling
through hilly terrain
Consider Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address
as an example
At the hill peaks, you introduce your reader to
more general, abstract terms
Trust
Greatness
Unity
Fear
Generosity
Crisis
These are abstract terms
Obama used in his address
Abstract words - name qualities,
concepts, or feelings whose exact
meaning must be clarified by concrete
words
Then you descend the hill from these heights of
generality to the examples down in the valleys.
“That we are in the midst of crisis is now well
understood.” (crisis = abstract)
“Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of
violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened,
a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the
part of some but also our collective failure to make
hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.”
(now specific examples of the crisis)
“Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered.
Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too
many, and each day brings further evidence that the
ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and
threaten our planet.”
Here you explain in concrete terms what you mean
by your lofty claims and show them in action.
“We will build the roads and bridges, the
electric grids and digital lines that feed our
commerce and bind us together.”
Concrete terms refer to objects or events that are
available to the senses. Examples of concrete terms
include spoon, table, velvet eye patch, nose ring, sinus
mask, green, hot, walking. Because these terms refer to
objects or events we can see or hear or feel or taste or
smell, their meanings are pretty stable. If you ask me
what I mean by the word spoon, I can pick up a spoon
and show it to you.
Eventually, you make your way back up again so that readers can see the
examples in their context, that is, what they mean to the bigger picture.
This is how your essay should flow: up and
down and up again.
If, on the other hand, your valleys mutate into vast prairies, readers begin
to lose a sense of the original general assertions.
“What was her point again?? This is
the second full page of description
of her cell phone bill.”
Or, if your peaks become heady plateaus, the audience will get dizzy from
the high altitude and long for examples in the concrete world.
“What exactly does he mean by
‘justice’?”
Therefore, you must always achieve a sense of
balance between the general and the particular.
Effective Rhetoric = balancing abstract and concrete terms