Version 2: This presentation provides basic definitions and explanation of rhetorical modes, patterns of paragraph development, or, as I like to call them, writing strategies.

1. Writing Strategies
Pathways to Proving Your Point

2. Writing Strategies are approaches to
proving a point, ways to support a thesis,
or patterns of communicating or thinking
that are also known as:
• patterns of development
• patterns of inquiry
• rhetorical modes
When faced with a writing challenge, use these
strategies to find the most effective way to prove
your point.

3. ✦ Description details a person place or thing
✦ Narration tells a story, usually in chronological order
✦ Exemplification (or illustration) proves a point with examples
✦ Comparison and contrast distinguishes likenesses and differences
✦ Cause and effect examines reasons and outcomes
✦ Classification types or categorizes
✦ Process analysis explains a process or tells how something is done or happens
✦ Analysis (or division) examines the parts to better understand the whole
✦ Argument asserts a stance on a controversial issue

4. Analysis

5. When you write using analysis:
•separate the whole into parts
•carefully study each part
•make a conclusion about the whole
Using the chart on the
previous slide, a coffee
taster separately
considers the aroma
and the taste of a
given sample.

6. This photo was taken in
Wales in 1965 by
For example, to analyze a photograph, consider: documentary
photographer Bruce
Davidson. To see more of
•the focal point or central figure his photos, do a Google
Image search. (Warning:
•the background of the image not all images are “PG”)
•the line of continuation or the progression of the viewer’s
eye as she studies the photograph
•What story is the photographer (obviously not a wedding photographer)
telling through this image?

7. To analyze an advertisement,
consider elements such as the
following:
•The focal point or central figure
•The background of the image
•The text
•The use of color and light
Do you find this ad confusing?
Disturbing? Effective?
How would you summarize the
story this ad tells or the message it
offers viewers?

8. Description

9. When you write using
description:
detail the subject of the description
appeal to the reader’s five senses The Bellelli Family by Edgar Degas
use figurative language to convey meaning
use consistent details to establish a dominant impression
When you study the details of the painting, what is your
impression of the family in the painting? Does the painting
convey a close family or does it communicate distance?

10. Narration
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe... (illustration by Mary
Engelbreit)

11. When you write using
narration:
tell a story focus the story-
consider telling on a specific
organization: point: this is called
chronological order the narrative point;
is the most it can be implied or
common explicitly stated but
should be clear to
use literary devices the reader
to guide your
writing: conflict,
character, setting,
plot, theme

12. Exemplification

13. When you write in the exemplification strategy:
• You prove a point with examples
• convince the reader by detailing each example and relating it
back to the main idea
• use representative, substantial, compelling, and clear
examples
• What point could you make about toys marketed to children
today using the three Bratz dolls pictured in the previous
slide?

14. Comparison and Contrast

15. When you write using the comparison contrast strategy:
distinguish between two or balance the comparison
more subjects in order to and contrast
support a main idea
Consider the ads in the
detail the likenesses and the previous slide: How do
differences advertisers market
cigarettes differently to
explain the significance of men and women?
the likenesses and
differences

16. Classification
When you write using the classification
strategy:
•break the broad subject (pizza, in this
case) into categories
•detail each classification, type, or
category in order to make a point about
the broad subject
•What point could you make about pizza
through a discussion of these four types or
styles of preparation: New York, Chicago,
California, and Neapolitan?

17. Cause and effect

18. When you write using
the cause and effect
strategy:
•examine the reasons that led up
to an event or condition
•isolate a causal chain of events in
which one thing leads to another
•explain the effects that followed
from an event or condition
•make a point about the causes
or effects or both
Consider the previous images of
hurricane Katrina: what
combination of causes led to the
degree of destruction inflicted by
the storm? What steps might have
been taken prior to the storm that
were not? What are the lingering
effects of the storm? All of these
questions can be explored through
cause and effect writing.

19. Definition

20. When you write using the definition
strategy:
The whole idea is to Consider the previous
define a term, concept, photo: how would you
custom, idea, position, define “mullet” for an
view, or anything unfamiliar audience?
unfamiliar to the
reading audience. Often writers rely on
description and
Consider what the reader exemplification when
needs to know in order writing definitions.
to comprehend the larger
point you are trying to
make.

21. This is the McRib.
This is the gordito.
What distinguishes the gordito
from the taco and the burrito?
What are the defining McDonalds sells the
McRib when it is not in
characteristics the vault, so to speak,
and the gordito is a Taco
of this sandwich? Bell product.

22. Argument

23. When you use argument as a writing strategy:
you take a stand on a How can the previous photograph be
controversial or debatable issue considered an argument? It was taken
by British photographer Julia
you present clear evidence to Margaret Cameron in 1872, around
the same time Romantic Era British
support your point or stance
poets were writing about the wisdom
of children, cultural perceptions
you objectively summarize and
about childhood were changing, and
then refute the opposition’s
child labor laws were being passed to
point of view or stance on the protect children from exploitation.
issue.

24. Synthesis
• Most writers use more • Any excellent college-
than one of these level essay is going to
strategies each time they feature analysis and
write. most can be considered
arguments.
• Description is an
important strategy to • When presented with a
use when providing writing challenge,
examples, telling stories, carefully consider how
and presenting you might use each of
arguments. these strategies to get
your point across most
effectively.