Spatial Description

Think about your childhood home, or a particular place where you spent a lot of time growing up. Could you describe that space to someone who has never been there? What would you say to try to make them feel as though they were standing in it now, seeing it for themselves?

There are many ways to describe something; this example does not ask you to describe how the space makes you feel, how it smells, or even how it changed as home decor trends came and went. This exercise asks you to provide a spatial description.

Definition of Spatial Description

A spatial description explains things with sensory details as they appear when observed. The focus is on location, based on physical details and using spatial order to create a logical flow.

Spatial description, then, is a way to describe something using spatial order as a means of organizing. Here’s an example of spatial order used to describe someone’s childhood bedroom:

The description could go on, but you get the point.

Spatial knowledge comes from the senses, primarily sight, sound, and touch. A thorough description of space uses details associated with senses to explain how things are related in the space. Notice in the example how the description explained the items in the room as they related to each other (e.g., “Immediately to the right…” etc.).

Another thing to note about spatial description is that it is tied to the author's or speaker's perspective. The author might be a character in a story or an impartial, fly-on-the-wall narrator, but the description will be filtered through their perspective.

Fig. 1. You can describe a single space or event in a variety of ways, depending on the perspective of the writer.

For example, a description of a classroom by the teacher versus the student might sound drastically different. While one might focus on carefully selected decor and entertaining manipulatives strategically set out for student enrichment, the other might only describe rows of hard wooden desks and closed windows and doors.

Purpose of Spatial Order

The way text is organized tells a lot about what the author thinks is important. For example, if an author is writing a short story and uses spatial order to describe a scene, then we can infer that the location, or something in it, bears some significance. Spatial order is known as a principle of organization, which are ways an author can emphasize certain aspects of their writing to express the purpose of the text itself.

There are four main principles of organization:

1. Spatial order – Creates a vivid image of space and location by arranging things according to their physical placement.

2. Chronological order – Chronological order is also called linear order or time order because it denotes a movement through time in one forward direction.

3. Climactic order – Also called order of importance, this method arranges items according to least to most significant. Order of importance leaves the most critical item for last, as it will be the last thing the audience hears or reads and will leave an impression.

4. Topical order – Connects details by topic, or figurative relationships. Best used when the topic doesn’t lend itself to an arrangement by time, space, or order of importance.

There are no rules for which type of order to use to best convey ideas. The author should decide how to arrange the writing based on what they would like to emphasize. Think, for example, of a parade; someone could describe it in chronological order by explaining the order of floats and events or in climactic order by describing their favorite floats. It simply depends on which aspect of the parade they would like to emphasize.

Because the main purpose of spatial order is to set a scene, it is an effective way to order narration if the author wants the setting to carry a particular meaning. Spatial order orients the audience in a particular space so that they feel as though they are there.

Spatially Descriptive Writing

While creative writing is one logical place to use spatial description, it is also useful in descriptive essays. When writing an essay meant to describe a location or space, spatial order will undoubtedly be the preferred principle of organization.

In a spatially descriptive essay, you might arrange your body paragraphs according to the objects you describe and in what order you wish to describe them.

This example takes the topic of wildfires and describes them according to zones in the United States. The body paragraphs can go into greater detail about the effects on the landscape due to the prevalent wildfires.

Spatial Order Signal Words

Just as the words first, next, and last function to move the action forward in chronological order, there are words that signal movement in spatial order. These signal words and phrases are almost exclusively prepositions.

Fig. 2. Signal words give hints about what to expect from a text. Spatial description signal words tell you that you're reading a spatial description.

Here are just a few common examples of spatial signal words:

• Above

• Behind

• Along

• Beside

• Under

• Below

• On top of

• Nearby

A word of caution: spatial order should be used sparingly; otherwise, the reader could get burdened by the constant use of descriptive language. Imagine if the novel you’re reading is written entirely about the physical things the main character sees and experiences. At some point, it would become tiresome to read.

Also, spatial descriptions can be a distraction if they’re overused. Because spatial description emphasizes the physical details, then the overuse of it will reduce the importance of each detail. If everything is emphasized, then nothing feels significant.

How to Write a Spatial Description

Whether you’re writing a descriptive essay or an instruction manual, once you decide to write a spatial description, the first thing is to think about the situation from the reader’s perspective. What do you want them to see? What do they need to understand?

Once you know the goal (i.e., whatever it is you want the reader to see), you can choose a starting point. Pick a spot in the space and begin describing how everything else relates to the starting point in an orderly, logical progression. You can move left to right, up to down, or in any other physical direction that makes sense for your description. You may even begin by describing something in its entirety, then breaking it down and describing it detail by detail.

Spatial Description Examples

Read these two examples from literature and pay close attention to how the authors use spatial description to allow you, the reader, to experience the details of their stories.

This passage uses words and phrases like “behind,” “on each side,” and “beyond,” which are classic spatial description signals. This description of the land around the cottage is effective because it uses spatial order to organize the details, which helps the reader envision the space.

This description of the Buchannan's home is a unique case of spatial description. Fitzgerald doesn't use many of the typical words to signal spatial order—instead, the description is worded as though the reader's eyes are moving over the space. He says the lawn "ran toward the front door" "jump[ed] over sun-dials and brick walls and burning gardens" until it "reached the house." This is a creative use of spatial description.