Particularity

Writer and publisher Sol Stein calls it "particularity." Writing professor Roy Peter Clark calls it "name the dog." By either definition, the message is the same - there are times when it is essential to be specific.
Clark says you can tell a lot about a dog and its owner just by naming the dog. Picture a dog named "Fluffy." Now picture one named "Bruiser." See what Clark means? Many years ago, when I was a reporter in Louisiana, I interviewed a man at his kitchen table. While we were talking, his dog started barking in the next room. The man turned and shouted, "Nigger, shut up!" I learned a lot about the man just by what he named his dog.
Now, on to particularity. Imagine writing about someone purchasing lunch at a fast-food restaurant for about $6. It's hard to picture that. How about if we say his lunch cost $5.87 - and he paid for it with exact change, plucking quarters and dimes and pennies out of his little plastic oval thing that he extracted from his pants pocket while 12 people behind him in line patiently waited.
Ah, what we can do with particularity.