THE RHETORICAL MODES OF WRITING

Rhetorical modes in writing are based on the ways human brains process information. Choosing the one mode that matches one's topic and its purpose helps one organize his/her writing and helps the reader process the information he/she wants to discuss. Below is a table highlights the four modes of discourse;

ü  Description

ü  Narration

ü  Persuasive/ Argument

ü  Exposition

	DESCRIPTION	NARRATION	ARGUMENT/PERSUASIVE	EXPOSITION
Purpose	ü  Expresses how one perceives the world through our five senses (sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell) ü  Enables the reader to share the writer’s sensory experience of the subject ü  It informs the reader of the author's angle and it creates a lens through which the reader sees the rest of the essay.  ü  To entertain ü  To amuse ü  To provoke ü  To stimulate thoughts and feelings ü  Is used in many different writing tasks: ·         Narratives or stories ·         Reports ·         Personal experiences ·         Character sketches ·         Advertising ·         Poetry	ü  Recollects or recounts a personal or fictional experience or to tells a story based on a real or imagines event. ü  Allows writers to think and write about themselves, to write about an incident worthy of writing about and relevant ü  To entertain ü  To amuse ü  To make reader thing about ideas or issues in new and different ways ü  To move readers emotionally ü  To stimulate thoughts and feelings ü  Is used in many different writing tasks: anecdotes and illustrative examples, personal writing, creative writing, fiction	ü  To state and support a position, opinion or issue ü  To defend, refute or argue ü  To convince the reader to accept a particular point of view or to take specific action by means of appeals to reason or to emotion ü  To make reader thing about ideas or issues in new and different ways ü  To provoke ü  To move readers emotionally ü  To stimulate thoughts and feelings ü  Is used in many different writing tasks: literary analysis, historical analysis, debates, research papers and advertising	ü  used to inform, clarify, explain, define or instruct by giving information, explaining why or how, clarifying a process, or defining a concept ü  Concerned with presenting facts to the audience, it should be objective and unbiased.   ü  Answers the questions: what? why? how? what was the cause? the effect? etc. ü   To inform or teach someone about something, to entertain people, or to persuade or convince the audience to do or not do something. ü  Is used in many different writing tasks:   ·         to report facts ·         to summarize ideas ·         to define terms ·         to explain a process ·         to give instructions ü  To stimulate thoughts and feelings
Audience        (varies according to purpose and form)	ü  General audience ü The layperson (does not possess expert knowledge and requires contextual information and additional descriptions.)  ü  Can be for: children, young adults, adults, special interest groups, all readers	ü  General audience (layperson and managerial audience) ü  Can be for: children, young adults, adults, special interest groups, all readers ü  The job of the writer is to put the reader or audience in the midst of the action, letting him/her lie through an experience	ü The managerial audience which possess increased familiarity with the topic; however, they require background data and statistics in order to arrive at conclusions and important decisions. (Muraski, 2009) ü  The expert audience:      This audience requires a completely different approach, where vocabulary is often specialized and       references are required and need to be current. The actual writing format in itself is often complex. ü   Involves convincing the reader to perform an action, or it may simply consist of an argument(s) convincing the reader of the writer’s point of view.  ü  Can be for: children, young adults, adults, special interest groups, all readers	ü The managerial audience ü The expert audience ü  Can be for: children, young adults, adults, special interest groups, all readers
Content	ü  Makes use of sensuous details about people, places, things, moments time of day, feelings etc. ü  Focuses more on the visual sense ü  Appeals to the imagination rather than intellect ü  Discussion remains cursory: just enough for one to be able to recognize and differentiate among the discourse and its purpose	ü  Concerned with actions in temporal sequence, with life in motion ü  It includes a character, setting, plot, climax, ending and action ü  Appeals to the imagination rather than intellect ü  Rely on concrete sensory details which create or convey a unified, forceful effect and dominant impression. ü  Discussion remains cursory: just enough for one to be able to recognize and differentiate among the discourse and its purpose	ü  Evidence is citied to support or justify the writer’s claim ü  Requires thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation ü  It requires writers to choose from a variety of situations and to take a stand ü  Moves the reader to take an action or to form or change an opinion ü  Gives logical reason and supporting evidence to defend the position or recommend action ü  Usually addresses subjects on which reasonable people do not agree ü  Often incorporates expository, descriptive, and occasionally narrative modes as well.	ü  Often used in the academic world ü  Used to convey information to the reader in such a way as to bring about understanding, whether it be of a process or procedure, or of the writer’s ideas about a concept. ü  Discussion remains cursory: just enough for one to be able to recognize and differentiate among the discourse and its purpose ü  Usually addresses subjects on which reasonable people agree
Style	ü  Presents its subject so that the reader can identify that subject clearly (questions answered to identify description: What is it like? What is he/she like?) ü  Move spatially over the object to describe its various parts. ü  Uses concrete, specific details to support main impression ü  Deals with space/time continuum ü  Devices used: adjectives, sense data and descriptive sequence ü  Each paragraph of your descriptive essay should do something different to bring your subject as close to your reader as possible.	ü  Gives the reader a sense of witnessing an action ü  The writer uses insight, creativity, drama, suspense, humor or fantasy to create a central theme of impression ü  Generally written in the first or third person. ü  Includes specific details to make incident come alive for the reader ü  Focuses on recreating an incident that happened over a short period of time ü  Deals with space/time continuum ü  Devices used: action or dynamic verbs, dialogue, point of view of narrator, first person narrator and third person narrator ü  The narrative tense or narrative time determines the grammatical tense of the story; whether in the past, present, or future.	ü  Takes a strong and definite position on an issue or advises a particular action ü  If important, the writer presents other side of the issue addressed, but in a way that makes his or her position clear. (considers opposing views) ü  Has enthusiasm and energy from start to finish ü  Typically deals with ideas, which are essentially abstract and have no space/time dimensions ü  Has a set of claims, one of which is the major claim or conclusion, while the other claims are the grounds which supposedly support or justify the conclusion. ü  Devices used: evidence, facts, authoritative opinion, personal experience, repetition, rhetorical questions, emotional appeals and refutation of the counterargument	ü  Has a clear, central presentation of ideas, example or definitions that enhance the focus developed through a carefully crafted reader’s understanding. These facts, examples and definitions are objective and not dependent on emotion, although the writing may be lively, engaging and reflective of the writer’s underlying commitment to the topic. ü  Are normally well organized according to time ( first, next, during, last step) ü  Typically deals with ideas, which are essentially abstract and have no space/time dimensions
Voice	ü  Creates a voice which is weird, mysterious, scary, happy, joyful or any feeling or combination of feelings. This is achieved through detailed descriptions.	ü  Describes how the     story is conveyed (for example, by "viewing" a character's thought processes, by reading a letter written for someone, by a retelling of a character's experiences, etc.) ü  Conveys a particular mood or feeling (can be laughter fear or emotion)	Use of the active voice           Opinionated             Gives an awareness of disagreement or conflict	ü  Use of the passive voice ü  Takes for granted the readers acceptance of the writer’s opinion
Organization	ü  Spatial order description: shows the reader where things are located from your perspective   ü  Descriptive essay like a regular analytical essay, but focus on showing rather than telling. ü  Descriptive writing also helps establish a mood, or feeling, that writers want their stories or novels to convey.	ü  Structure is temporal ü  Time controls the structure of narration ü  The characters, setting and the problem are introduced at the beginning. ü  The problem reaching its high point in the middle ü  The end resolves the problem.  May be in a form of a short story, novel, the relating of history or the giving of instruction on how o do something which involves a process ü  The three most common structures of narrative writing are:  chronological approach, flash back sequence and reflective mode.	ü  Has a clear topic or issue stated ü  Provides a clear understanding and conviction well elaborated ü  Organized by way of formal elements and logic	ü  There is no single method of organizing exposition, but a variety of methods (most are based on logic) ü  Classification, analysis, definition, comparison and contrast, illustration, cause and effect and analogy

References

Muraski, M., Three Categories of Audience, Colorado State University, viewed 9 July, 2009.

Simmons-McDonald, H., Fields, L. Roberts, P. (1997) Writing in English: A Course book for Caribbean Students. Ian Randle Publishers