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Attachment C

dominant impression
A dominant impression is a quality, mood, or atmosphere that reinforces the writer’s purpose. It is
primarily a feature of narrative and description-based writing. The dominant impression is
sometimes called the controlling idea. In this sense, the writer must be consistent. For example,
the dominant impression of one snowfall could be “gentle, crystalline, and romantic.” Another
snowfall could be “blinding, whipping, and suffocating.” However the writing would be
inconsistent if the author described the second snowfall further with words like “soft,”
“whispering” or “magical.”

A dominant impression is created by the unified effects of the six strategies of descriptive writing:

1. sensory language 4. specific, concrete details

2. energetic action verbs 5. figurative comparisons
3. vivid adjectives 6. position of the narrator

Two writers can naturally experience the same topic and have different impressions. The
dominant impressions of their respective pieces of writing will differ because the details and
images they choose to draw out will differ

In the following paragraph form “Knoxville Summer 1915” by James Agee, the dominant
impression captures the pleasant, easy pace of a summer day through its reference to the
orchestrated sounds of men watering their lawns on a summer evening. Part of the strength of
this dominant impression is the uniformity of the scene: every father is carrying out the same
action, creating a euphonious melody like a thousand crickets. The other aspect of the dominant
impression is one of relief, as the cool water breaks the heat of the day and then fills the evening
with wet, whispering “bells.”
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