#teaching This is a teaching [[teaching exercise|exercise]] relevant to [[writing]] or for teaching the [[realist novel]] ==and its use of [[metonymy|metonymic]] **details**== Ask your students to describe you using only very specific, [[concrete detail|concrete details]]. Get them to note the clothes you're wearing, the brands you're using (do you have a laptop? is it a Mac or a PC?), you're age, and so on. Type the details they offer on a big screen at the front of the classroom. Try to get them to specify. If they say you're "wearing a watch" ask them what kind—analog or digital? You'll get something like this: > • age mid 30's > • blond hair, clean-shaven > • short hair > • has an analog watch > • green dress shirt — but sleaves rolled up > • jeans Once you have this, ask the students to imagine that these details create a character in their head. Then, start changing the details, one at a time, to see what happens to the character they have in their heads and the assumption they're making about that character in their heads. This is essentially how [[realist novel]]s work. They use details to signify or point towards larger chains of referential knowledge.