This paper assesses the writing
techniques that are found in the short
descriptive essays of "Po- Po" by Eric Liu, "Caught
in the Widow's Web" by Gordon Grice, "Nameless, Tennessee" by William Least Heat Moon, and "The Inheritance of Tools" by Scott Russell Sanders. Through describing these
techniques, the reader is made aware of the variety of literary devices that are used to form a cohesive story. An emphasis on characterization - or the techniques that the authors use to convey the natures of their characters - is the
descriptive technique that is investigated in this paper.