In 90-110 words, describe an experience, or an object, or some objects (not too many!) in strictly sensory-grounded language. You should describe what is or was happening only in terms of what can be seen, heard, touched, smelled or tasted.
I would recommend avoiding interpersonal experience, or any experience too strongly charged with positive or negative emotion*, as this almost invariably brings in abstract interpretations, inferences and opinions about relationships.
I would also recommend focusing on one object, or at most a few objects, and keeping within a very restricted time frame. Attempting to link events that are widely separated in time almost invariably requires more abstract, non-sensory terms about relations and time measures (e.g. neither ‘yesterday’ nor ‘tomorrow’ are sensory-grounded terms, and even ‘today’ is problematic). Remember that a great deal is happening even in a moment. “Be here now.” Be selective and rigorous.
The experience you are describing should be mostly without verbal content. If verbal conversation/text/information must intrude it can be included, quoted precisely as heard (or read), and without interpretation, using quotation marks. For example:
The man walked into the room, his shoulders back, and spoke the words, “Our subject today is modern aesthetics.”
You should NOT be interpreting the language or intentions of the speaker/writer in any way. For example, you should NOT write, “the woman was trying to get my attention.” Any observation of “trying” involves a mix of un-stated visual cues with abstract suppositions about the aims or intentions of another being. And “attention,” like “consciousness” or “communication,” is clearly not an entity that appears on the object-level, but instead is a way we think about ourselves relating to objects or people that level or others. It is likely easiest not to have any speech or written information within your described experience at all.
The aim is to purify your language, to the extent possible, of everything that is not a description of direct sensory experience – to distil out the purest possible descriptive language.
The assignment will be evaluated particularly with regard to:
-clarity – does your (mis)use of English grammar contribute to a clear description or detract from it? (see the Criteria of Evaluation for more details)
-precision – are you describing the experience in rich detail?
-accuracy – is what you are describing indeed something(s) or an experience that can be sensed?
YOU MUST INCLUDE A WORD COUNT AT THE END.
YOU MUST MAKE AT LEAST ONE PARAGRAPH DIVISION. Paragraphs are crucial to modern written English, not optional.
The assignment should be 90-110 words (assignments over or under the length parameters may be penalized).
It should be submitted electronically to CANVAS as a pdf file.
Please consult the syllabus regarding extensions and late-policy.
*Some people are surprised or even shocked to hear that the language of ’emotion’ is an abstract interpretation as much as or more than an immediate ‘feeling’ (more precisely, ’emotion’ is a ‘mediated feeling’ that arises in association with abstract suppositions about another person or group of people). “Sadness,” for example, is a highly abstract label that implies a range of sensory-grounded experiences – for example, ‘feeling of a lump in my throat,’ ‘my shoulders feel heavy,’ ‘tears forming in my eyes,’ etc. Except in unusual cases, it also refers to abstract ideas (which may or may not be true) about other people, their behaviour and their good or bad intentions towards me. “Happiness” is possibly even more abstract, though the complex of sensory feelings it describes (e.g. ‘my feet and limbs feel light’; ‘my eyes are wide and my lips curl in a smile’… I doubt these are universal to all people) may be sensory-grounded.
