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 TrustGreatnessUnityFearGenerosityCrisis Abstract words - name qualities, concepts, or feelings whose exact meaning must be clarified by concrete words These are abstract terms Obama used in his address

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