A verbal portrait is a description of a person's external features and their accompanying characteristics that reflect individual characteristics. This concept is widespread in such sciences as literary criticism, criminology and physiognomy.
In the practice of investigating offenses, the main function of a verbal portrait is to identify a person in order to search for and detain fugitives from justice, as well as to identify missing people. For the first time, the method for describing the appearance of a person was proposed by A. Bertiln, later it was repeatedly revised, but the basic principles remained unchanged. The essence of the method lies in the fact that the whole variety of features that characterize the appearance is summarized in several main groups: the shape and color of each part of the body, figure, gait, characteristic features, etc.
The verbal portrait of a person has long been the only way to identify a person. With the development of photography and the invention of fingerprinting, it began to be used much less frequently. But even now this method is used in forensics, especially when urgent search activities are carried out, when there is no time to get morecomplete data.
Literary verbal portrait has an emotive characterizing function. Any author faces the problem of describing the characters in his book. Moreover, a literary portrait should very fully characterize the hero, so that readers can imagine not only the general appearance, but also various small details, facial expressions, movements, and personal qualities. Such a description is a real art, if the author is able to literally revive the character of his work in five or six sentences.
How to make a verbal portrait?
It would seem that writing a description of a person is an easy task, but in fact it is not so simple. Try to make a verbal portrait of a friend, relative, or any person you often see from memory - you will encounter the problem of choosing the right wording. When describing a particular person, you need to adhere to several rules:
- Indicate gender, age, race, height and build.
- Describe the shape of the head, hair length and color, hairstyle, etc.
- Tell us in detail about the face: shape, contours, fullness. Notice the smaller details: the shape of the eyebrows, lips and nose, features of the teeth, chin, ears, etc.
- Describe the distinctive features of other parts of the body: legs, arms, shoulders, back and chest.
- Complete the description with specific features: gait, facial expressions, posture, voice, etc.
- Do not forget to include special signs: scars,tattoos, moles, missing fingers, piercings, lameness, etc.
- In some cases, a description of clothing is required: shape, color, inscriptions, etc.
When drawing up a verbal portrait, one must proceed from the principle of completeness of description. However, you should not pile up the features that are characteristic of many people, on the contrary, it is worth noting those features that will individualize the person as much as possible.
