Straightforward Purposes: Describing a Person, Giving Examples (TOD 402)

Every added phrase in a sentence is doing a job. Description tells you the quality of something: weathered, patient, never early. Example tells you a member of a group the sentence already named: barn owls, brown long-eared bats. These two jobs feel similar because both add specific words, but they light up different parts of the claim. Description answers 'what is this thing like?' Example answers 'can you name one?' A sentence about nocturnal hunters gets sharper when you name actual hunters; a sentence about a lighthouse keeper gets sharper when you describe her character, not when you name another keeper.

The test question will tell you which job is wanted, usually in its own words: 'give specific instances' means example, 'characterize' or 'describe' means description. Match the phrase to that stated goal, not to whichever option sounds more vivid. A clause about Vann's duties describes her job, not her nature, so it fails a request for character even though it is still a true and specific detail about her.

This connects to the next question an added phrase has to answer: does the sentence need it at all? If a sentence already names the street, the count, and the exact fixture, bolting on 'such as the ones outside the library' adds words without narrowing anything, because there is nothing left to narrow. Purpose questions always ask two things at once: what kind of job is this, and does the sentence still have an opening for that job to do.