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Three Main Types of Writing (Week 4)

The document discusses three types of writing: narrative, expository, and persuasive. It provides guidelines and outlines for writing each type. Narrative writing tells a story, expository writing conveys information to explain a topic, and persuasive writing attempts to convince the reader of a point of view. The document outlines the key elements for each type, such as using a clear focus in narrative writing and supporting viewpoints with evidence in persuasive writing.

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Andreea Ciubotariu
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948 views

Three Main Types of Writing (Week 4)

The document discusses three types of writing: narrative, expository, and persuasive. It provides guidelines and outlines for writing each type. Narrative writing tells a story, expository writing conveys information to explain a topic, and persuasive writing attempts to convince the reader of a point of view. The document outlines the key elements for each type, such as using a clear focus in narrative writing and supporting viewpoints with evidence in persuasive writing.

Uploaded by

Andreea Ciubotariu
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1.

Narrative Writing: Tells a personal or fictional experience or tells a story based on a real or imagined event.

2. Expository Writing: is writing that is designed to convey information or explain what is difficult to understand.

3. Persuasive Writing: Attempts to convince the reader to accept a particular point of view or
to take a specific action.

A personal narrative is a story told in the first person, often using pronouns like "I," "me," and "mine." The story is about real life, not creative fiction or literature. It may be about the writer, something the writer witnessed, or about someone the writer knows, having heard it secondhand. Truth and experience are the hallmarks of this style. The narrative emphasizes a clear focus. It recounts what is probably a short story in an informal as well as an informational way. Your narrative can include autobiographical elements. You may choose to reveal details from your life or the life of someone you know or care about. If it's not autobiographical, the story should outline an event, or series of events, with which the writer is clearly familiar. By the conclusion of the paper, a narrative will have made a main point.

A helpful outline for writing a personal narrative is as follows: WHAT? Tell readers the basic story, as though responding to their collective unasked question, 'What happened?' SO WHAT? Then revise your story to make readers care. Bad and good things happen to us all. Why should they care about the events in your paper? Make it exciting, meaningful, and purposeful. NOW WHAT? At the end of the paper, give readers a principle that they can take with them. By applying what they learn from your narrative experience, they may view the world or themselves differently.

The purpose of a persuasive essay is to convince the reader to agree with your viewpoint or to accept your recommendation for a course of action. Helpful guidelines for writing:

Use evidence to support your viewpoint. Statistics, facts, quotations from experts and examples will help you to build a strong case for your argument. Appeal to the readers sense of logic by presenting specific and relevant evidence in a well-organized manner. Consider opposing views. Try to anticipate the concerns and questions that a reader might have about your subject. Responding to these points will give you the chance to explain why your viewpoint or recommendation is the best one.

Present a strong conclusion. All your evidence and explanations should build toward a strong ending in which you summarize your view in a clear and memorable way. The conclusion in a persuasive essay might include a call to action. :

In order to write great expository essays, it's important to understand exactly what expository writing is. Expository writing is any type of writing that is used to describe, explain, or inform. In a nutshell, expository writing is used to convey information from writer to reader. Helpful Guideline to writing:

STEP ONE: SELECTING A TOPIC If your professor assigns you a specific topic to write about, then this step is completed before you even begin. However, often the teacher will allow students to choose their own essay topic, so it is important to be able to choose effectively. This is also true is the professor proposed a broad topic, but demands that you write about a particular facet of that larger subject. Whenever choosing an expository essay topic, it is important to narrow down your choice so that it is appropriate to the essay length requirements. For example, if the professor has assigned a two-page essay, it is not a good idea to choose an expansive topic such as "The History of the Civil War." There would simply not be enough room within two pages to adequately cover the topic. Conversely, if the professor wants an especially lengthy essay,

do not choose too narrow of a topic so that it becomes difficult to fill up the pages with information. STEP TWO: CHOOSE A DEVELOPMENTAL PATTERN There are a variety of ways to develop a custom expository essay, just as there is a variety of ways to convey information. The following are just a few examples of the developmental patterns you can adopt for your own essay: Definition - This may be the most straightforward of the developmental patterns. As its name suggests, you will simply use the expository essay to thoroughly define a topic. Example - In this developmental pattern, you will provide and describe an example of a particular subject or group. Cause and Effect - With this developmental pattern, you will illustrate the relationship between to variables, one dependent on the other. Describe the many ways in which this particular variable affects the other, and explain why it does so. Classification - This developmental pattern is used to categorize multiple subjects into separate or distinct groups by certain criteria. Compare and Contrast - With this developmental pattern, the writer will examine both the similarities and the differences between two or more distinct subjects. STEP THREE: CHOOSE AN ORGANIZATIONAL PATTERN The choice of organizational pattern really depends upon the length of the essay. For shorter essays, teachers often espouse the "five paragraph" organizational pattern, in which there is one introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. Of course, this is not feasible if the essay is of longer length, but it is important to provide both an introduction and a conclusion, regardless of length. STEP FOUR: PERFORM ADEQUATE RESEARCH ON YOUR TOPIC Too often students begin writing expository essays without first having learned about their subject. If the teacher requires you to write the essay with knowledge from the top of your head, then obviously you will not have to perform research. However, if this is not the case then it is vital that you take some time to learn about your topic before beginning to write. Doing so will only lead to a much stronger essay.

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