Four Modes of Writing
Descriptive Writing - Writing to relate the traits, qualities, or details of an object, place, or event. The goal of descriptive writing is to make something real for the reader, especially if the reader has little or no experience with the topic. Often, descriptive writing focuses on an appeal to the senses, hoping to immerse the reader in the topic. An example of descriptive writing would be a restaurant menu describing the experience of eating a menu item. E.G "Rich, velvety chocolate cake, smooth and delicious cream cheeese icing, drizzled in creamy dark chocolate sauce and served with a garnish of fresh local raspberries."
Persuasive Writing - Writing to convince your reader to adopt a position in a debate, to accept an opinion, or to purchase a product. Persuasive writing uses a number of different strategies, or appeals, to achieve the goal of persuasion.
All appeals fall into three categories:
All appeals fall into three categories:
- Ethos - appeal to authority. Uses expert testimony to win the audience's trust. Examples include "9 out of ten dentists recommend brushing your teeth twice daily" (I have always wondered about that tenth dentist!). This example appeals to your trust in the authority of dentists. They should know what is good for your teeth. Appeals to Ethos only work when the expert is related to the topic. I would not trust a dentist to be an expert in fly-fishing, for example, unless the dentist could demonstrate expert-level knowledge in that topic as well.
- Pathos - appeal to emotion. Appeals to emotion anticipate the audience's response to a topic, hoping to persuade the audience through empathy and sympathy (or to dissuade them by appealing to fear or anger). In fact, the terms empathy and sympathy are derived from the greek root word pathos. Examples include Re. Dr. Martin Luther King's famous civil rights speech I have a Dream: "I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice." The speaker hopes to appeal both to the audience's sense of justice (that historic wrongs will be corrected), and to their sense of hope (that there will be a better future)
- Logos - appeal to logic. Appeals to logic use facts, figures, statistics, diagrams, and so on, to reach the audience's logical, rational side. The goal is to make the audience respect the writer's knowledge on the topic, elevating them into a position of authority (see Ethos), or to shock audiences into reacting to facts (see Pathos). Sometimes, misleading, false, or out-of-context facts can work to strengthen an appeal to Pathos. Examples would be "Afghanistan, under the Taliban, has experienced a 90% illiteracy rate". Shocking, yes, and we should do something about it, right? Maybe we should remove the Taliban from power? wait a moment,.. long before the Taliban existed, rates of illiteracy were the same, so while causation is suggested, it is not fair to say the Taliban caused Afghans to be illiterate.
Narrative Writing - Writing to tell a story. Narrative writing may be fiction or non-fiction. Non-fiction narrative writing is called Creative Non-Fiction because it tells a true story, but uses the techniques of fiction writing to achieve the goal of narration. A narrative text may develop a story's action using a plot chart, with rising action, climax, falling action, etc; but that story is not necessarily fictional. An example would be a biography, written both to relate the events, but also to give a sense of the character of the biography and using suspense to heighten the excitement of the climax.
Expository Writing - Expository writing "exposes" a topic for the reader - it is the most straightforward type of writing as its goal is to communicate clearly, concisely, and effectively. Expository writing is used to teach an audience about a topic and can feature a number of different formats, including bullet pointed lists and step-by-step instructions. an example of Expository Writing would be your science or social studies text book.
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