1. English III Honors/
AP English Language and Composition
Modes of Discourse
Mode
Key Question That Provides Structure
Description
How does this person, place, thing, or event
look, smell, taste, feel, and/or sound?
Narration
What happens next?
Exemplification
How is the general made specific and the
abstract made concrete?
Division and Analysis
How do the elements of this thing or event fit
together to form the whole?
Argument and Persuasion
Why do you believe that?
Classification
How are things in this group like each other
and different from things in similar
groups?
Process Analysis
How do I do this, or how does this thing work?
Comparison Contrast
How are these things alike or different from
one another?
Definition
What names will be assigned to any one item
(or the various items) in the groups
which I have identified?
Cause and Effect
How does one of these things come from or
lead to the other?