ABSTRACT
It is difficult to overstate the importance of descriptive writing. Readers who open a novel expect that the author will use the descriptive power of language to paint a scene and create a character, much as Joyce (1986) does in the opening sentences of Ulysses. “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and razor lay crossed. A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him on the mild morning air” (p. 3). Poets and novelists regularly rely on the descriptive power of language to breathe life into characters and to transport readers to new places.
