1. Rhetorical Modes

2. What are Rhetorical Modes?
Different methods of writing which an author incorporates into her/his writing to make it more effective
Writers utilize various modes to their advantage (to make an essay stronger) – and for their readers (to help them better connect with the essay)
Modes work together in a text; however, a primary mode is always present. For example, a narrative essay (primary mode) will always utilize description (secondary).

3. Rhetorical Modes Narration Description Definition Comparison/Contrast
Cause/Effect
Division/Classification
Argumentation/Persuasion
Process Analysis

4. Narration
Tells the story or several related stories of what happened, the specific events that happened, and the people who were involved
The story can be a means to an end, the dominant pattern of development, or can provide support for a claim or thesis
Provides organized facts and details, utilizing chronological (time) order
Flashback: disrupts the chronology of a story, returns to an earlier moment in time to make the present more clear
Flash-forward: disrupts the chronology of a story, moves forward in time
May employ first, second or third person point-of-view

5. Narration
Purposes:
To introduce or illustrate a complicated subject (personal anecdote)
To analyze an issue or theme (an entire essay)
To report the actions and describe the feelings of people in a situation (autobiography, history, fiction)
Audience:
How much information do they need (details/summaries/both)
What do they know?
What do they expect?
Strategies:
Order
Conflict
Plot
Pace
Details
Point of view

6. Purpose and Rationale (WHY)
Narration
Strategies (HOW)
Purpose and Rationale (WHY)
convey
divulge
explain
express
recount
reflect
To express and reflect, the writer
Articulates or contemplates her/ his own life and experiences
Often looks backward in order to look forward

7. Description Describes a person, a place, an object or an idea
Expressed in vivid language so the audience can imagine/visualize/sense it
Uses the senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch) to convey an image or represent an idea

8. Description
A richly rendered description freezes a subject in time, evoking sights, smells, sounds, textures, and tastes in such a way that readers become one with the writer’s world.
Description can either be a supportive technique that develops part of an essay or it can be the dominant technique used throughout an essay.

9. description Strategies (HOW) Purpose and Rationale (WHY)
Objective description:
provides a detailed experience without emotional bias
factual, scientific
Subjective description:
conveys a highly personal view of the subject
seeks to elicit a strong, emotional response from the audience
depict
elaborate
illustrate
portray

10. Comparison/contrast
Comparison examines the ways in which two persons, places, objects or ideas are similar
Contrast examines the ways in which they are different
Helps the reader understand the one in relation to the other
Many times the goal of a comparison is for evaluation
Example: If an author compares various fast food restaurants, she/he will want to reach a conclusion about which restaurant is the best. Therefore, the author will need specific criteria (price, healthiness, etc.) on which to base the comparison.

11. Comparison/Contrast Dividing Pattern:
Divide the two subjects into two different sections of the essay, discussing all aspects of subject A before discussing B.
Subject A (Apples)
Shape & Color
Nutritional Value
Growth Climate, Season, etc.
Subject B (Bananas)
Alternating Pattern:
Group the two subjects together throughout the essay, discussing each aspect of subject A and B in the same section.
Shape & Color
Subject A (Apples)
Subject B (Bananas)
Nutritional Value
Growth Climate, Season, etc.

12. Purpose and Rationale (WHY)
Comparison/Contrast
Strategies (HOW)
Purpose and Rationale (WHY)
Compare
Contrast
Alike
Unlike
Equal
Opposite
Relate
Unrelated
Resembles
Differs
Same
Different
Similar
Dissimilar
Synonym
Antonym
To analyze and interpret, the writer
States a main point and purpose
Tries to present the information in a surprising way
To evaluate and judge, the writer
Focuses on the worth of person, object, idea, or other phenomenon
Usually specifies the criteria for the object to be seen as “good” or “bad

13. Process Analysis Process =
a step-by-step movement from a beginning point to an ending point.
Analysis =
a careful examination; a close, detailed look at something
Process Analysis

14. Process Analysis
Clarifies the steps or sequence involved in executing a task
Describes how a particular event occurs or how something works
Explains how to solve a problem
A Process Analysis essay is similar to instructions:
Self-help books are process analysis
Cookbooks are process analysis

15. Process Analysis Explain Explore Expand List Configure Guide
Strategies (HOW)
Process Analysis
(Organize) (Analyze)
Purpose and Rationale (WHY)
List
Configure
Guide
Explain
Explore
Expand
To inform and explain, the writer
Reveals the “how” or the “why” of a process or event
Present the information in a sequential order with analysis throughout the text

16. Division/Classification
gathers items, ideas, or information into types, kinds, or categories according to a single basis of division
Division/Classification essays often also use Definition
Example: You might start with a paper about sports and divide it up into three particular sports – baseball, football, and basketball. You could then classify these sports by their popularity in the American culture.

17. Division-Classification
a way of thinking that allows us to make sense of a complex world using systems, categories, or sorting mechanisms
Division and Classification are separate processes, but they complement each other

18. Division-Classification
Classification- brings two or more related items together and categorizes them according to type or kind.

19. Division-Classification
Division- taking a single unit or concept and breaking it down into parts, and then analyzing the connection among the parts and between the parts and the whole.

20. Division
Division, or analysis, breaks a thing down into parts so that (typically in a later essay like the argument/position paper), they can be restructured to form something new, or a synthesis (can you spot an important six-letter word hiding within “synthesis”?).
Every time you outline, you do a division, breaking the essay down into all of its constituent parts (as in classification, failure to discuss all the parts results in an incomplete division paper, stocked only with isolated examples).
While classifications are separate, even disparate items brought together under some common denominator, divisions are much more explicitly parts of a single whole
Example: Discussing the key components of a championship sports team, for instance, would be a division; for that matter, discussing the components of a successful division essay is also division.

21. Division Division Structure: I. Introduction
States thesis (idea or object to be analyzed, and to what end)
II. Body
Renders the parts, in separate paragraphs, with examples and with transitional materials to provide a sense of their inter-relatedness
III. Conclusion
Restates the parts of the thesis and (the significance—see Classification outline, part III) attempts a synthesis or new understanding of the constituent parts

22. Definition
Explains the meaning of a word, object, concept, type of person, place, or phenomenon
Clarity, complex, controversial
Beyond synonyms or brief dictionary definitions

23. Why the definition essay? Purpose
To establish meaning and provide common understanding
To motivate people to accept a particular point of view

24. Types of Definitions Standard Regulatory Evolving Qualifying Cultural
Personal

25. Definition-Standard Universal meaning and rarely subject to change
mammal
virus
tornado

26. Definition-Regulatory
Officially designated terms that are subject to change
Companies, organizations, courts can change/interpret/define meanings
full-time student
work place injury
experimental procedure

27. Definition-Evolving
Change over time due to cultural values, community standards, government policies, or scientific research.
Child abuse
Mental retardation

28. Definition-Qualifying
Limits the meaning of abstract subjects
slander vs. witty remark
heavy vs. obese
crude, inappropriate comments vs. sexual harassment

29. Definition-Cultural
Shaped by history, values, experiences, attitudes of a national, ethnic, or religious group

30. Definition-Personal
Expresses an individual’s viewpoints or attitudes

31. Definition-Ideas on approaches
Challenge a widely accepted definition
Qualities and/or attributes of a subject
Establish boundaries
Distinguish between closely related ideas

32. Strategies for establishing definitions
Use synonyms
Provide descriptions
Give examples
Draw comparisons to more familiar ideas
Provide a revised meaning
Linguistic origin
Negation-what it is not
Stipulative-special restrictions on it

33. Cause/effect
Examines why something happened or what its consequences were or will be
Refers to a direct relationship between events
Answers the question "why did something happen, and/or what results did it have?"

34. Argumentation Also known as Persuasion
Involves the development of the writer's own argument
Sometimes involves using outside sources and references to other writers
The primary function of Argumentation is for the writer to articulate his/her opinion about the issue being discussed.