Description of a plac The sounds of the city

Remember

that an effective description focuses on a dominant impression and arranges details in

a

way

that

best

supports

that

impression.

Your

details

—

vivid

and

appealing

to

the

senses

(concrete sensory details)

—

should be carefully chosen so that the essay

isn’t overburdened with

material of secondary importance. When writing, keep in mind that effective word choices, varied

sentence

structure

and

imaginative

figures

of

speech

are

ways

to

make

a

descriptive

piece

compelling.

Description of a Place

The Sounds of the City

（

From the New York Times by James Tuite

）

New York

is

a

city

of

sounds:

muted

sounds

and

shrill

sounds;

shattering

sounds and

soothing

sounds;

urgent

sounds

and

aimless

sounds.

The

cliff

dwellers

of

Manhattan---who

would

be

racked by the silence of the lonely woods--- do not hear these sounds because they are constant

and eternally urban.

The visitor to the city can hear them, though, just as some animals can hear a high-pitched whistle

inaudible

to

humans.

To

the

casual

caller

to

Manhattan,

lying

restive

and

sleepless

in

a

hotel

twenty or thirty floors above the street, they tell a story as fascinating as life itself. And back of

the sounds broods the silence.

Night in midtown is the noise of tinseled honky-tonk and violence. Thin strains of music, usually

the firm beat of rock ’n’ roll or the frenzied outbursts of disco, rise from grou

nd level. This is the

cacophony, the discordance of youth, and it comes on strongest when nights are hot and young

blood restless.

Somewhere

in

the

canyons

below

there

is

shrill

laughter

or

raucous

shouting.

A

bottle

shatters

against concrete. The whine of a police siren slices through the night, moving ever closer, until an

eerie Doppler effect brings it to a guttural halt.

There are few sounds so exciting in Manhattan as those of fire apparatus dashing through the night.

At the outset there is the tentative hint of the first-due company bullying his way through midtown

traffic.

Now

a

fire

whistle

from

the

opposite

direction

affirms

that

trouble

is,

indeed,

afoot.

In

seconds, other sirens converging from other streets help the skytop listener focus on the scene of

excitement.

But he can only hear and not see, and imagination takes flight. Are the flames and smoke gushing

from windows not far away? Are victims trapped there, crying out for help? Is it a conflagration,

or only a trash-basket fire? Or, perhaps, it is merely a false alarm.

The questions go unanswered and the urgency of the moment dissolves. Now the mind and the ear

detect the snarling, arrogant bickering of automobile horns. People in a hurry. Taxicabs blaring,

insisting on their checkered priority.