Compositional description

Sometimes we just want to describe the way the pieces of an artifact fit together.

This is what we call a compositional description.

In a compositional description, the order of the details usually has some kind of hierarchical order, such as:

Big to small
Top to bottom
Outside to inside

Great Pyramid of Giza diagram (Source)

For example, how is this compositional description of the Great Pyramid of Giza organised?

What are the elements and how are they ordered?

The entrance to the Great Pyramid is on the north side, about 59 feet (18 metres) above ground level.

While immense, the pyramid has very little open space inside. A sloping corridor descends from the entrance through the pyramid’s interior masonry, penetrates the rocky soil on which the structure rests, and ends in an unfinished underground chamber.

From the descending corridor branches an ascending passageway that leads to a room known as the Queen’s Chamber and to a great slanting passageway known as the Grand Gallery. That tall corbelled passageway is 151 feet (46 metres) long.

At the upper end of the Grand Gallery, a long and narrow passage gives access to the burial room proper, usually termed the King’s Chamber. This room is entirely lined and roofed with granite.

Great Pyramid of Giza(2024)

This description is a spatial tour from the front entrance to the King's Chamber.

Each component is a passage or a chamber.
They are connected spatially by positional words (from, to, on, in).

This particular compositional description doesn't mention time or meaning.

It's really just a more detailed and organised description of the physical features of the artifact.

Qin_Shi_Huang_Mausoleum_(Terracotta_Army)

Shi Huangdi's mausoleum (Source)

How is this description of the Qin Shi Huangdi's tomb complex organised?

Over the past 35 years, archaeologists have located some 600 pits, a complex of underground vaults as yet largely unexcavated, across a 22-square-mile area.

Some are hard to get to, but three major pits are easily accessible, enclosed inside the four-acre Museum of the Terracotta Army, constructed around the discovery site and opened in 1979.

In one pit, long columns of warriors, reassembled from broken pieces, stand in formation. With their topknots or caps, their tunics or armored vests, their goatees or close-cropped beards, the soldiers exhibit an astonishing individuality.

A second pit inside the museum demonstrates how they appeared when they were found: some stand upright, buried to their shoulders in soil, while others lie toppled on their backs, alongside fallen and cracked clay horses.

The site ranks with the Great Wall and Beijing's Forbidden City as one of the premier tourist attractions within China.

Terra Cotta Soldiers on the March(2009)

This description zooms in on the site of the mausoleum to focus on the Museum of the Terracotta Army, then flies through two pits in particular:

The first pit shows the army with statues restored.
The second pit shows the statues broken as they were found.

Again, you can see everything is organised spatially (across, inside, around).

Because the pits are the most important components, the writer adds more descriptive detail so we can imagine them more clearly.

This description has more time and meaning details than the pyramid snippet above.

Let's return to the year 2500. You are a future historian describing the composition of this recently-excavated McDonald's drive-thru.

What are the important components?
What order would you describe them in?
How would you connect them?

Ancient 21st century drive-thru

To help you out, here are some phrases from the snippets above:

The entrance to the Great Pyramid is on the north side...
A sloping corridor ascends from...
It ends in...
From the descending corridor branches...
Over the past 35 years, archaeologists have located...
Three major pits are easily accessible, enclosed in...
In one pit...
A second pit inside the museum...

Write a compositional description of this ancient artifact. Choose 3-5 components and describe them in a coherent order.

The Sheffield McDonald's is a squat, bunker-like structure situated in an empty zone that would have allowed movement and parking of cars.

The vehicle& access is marked by a large sign with golden arches on the north side of the site. A curving path leads to what would have been an ordering interface, where visitors once communicated their choices to an AI agent. A tarmac strip leads from the order point to a pickup window in the southern wall of the structure.

Within the building, the interior is compartmentalised into distinct areas; the largest is an open space with grills and fryers, still coated in an ancient layer of grease. Moving deeper inside, one discovers a smaller, enclosed area where refrigerated vaults once stored perishable items essential for meal preparations.