New Foundational Skill

Decision Making

Baseline Skill

Critical Thinking

Baseline Skill

Writing

Business-Enabling Skill

Oral & Written Communication

New Economy Skill

Critical Thinking

Chapter 10: Rhetorical Modes in Writing for Success.

Strategies or modes development can include the following:

Exemplification (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Narration (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Illustration (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Description (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Classification (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Process Analysis (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Definition (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Comparison Contrast (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Cause and Effect (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

These modes are often listed in the verb form as well. In ENG101 or in another Composition I course, you may have written essays using those strategies. In this class, you will continue to do so as well, but you will deepen your approach as you apply them to the creation of an argumentative essay.

Reflect:
As a developing writer, it is important to continue employing and developing these modes to maximize the effect of your message. Think of a recent piece of writing of any length that you produced at work or home, and in which you used one or more of these calculated moves to achieve a desired effect.

Write:
For this post, in 100-400 words, consider the following questions:

What strategy or combination of strategies of development do you remember using?
How or why did you choose the strategies of development?
What effect did they produce on your audience?
How do you know this effect was achieved?

Part 2: Responses to Peers (Peer Review)
After you have posted your own main response to the Discussion assignment, post at least two substantive responses, a minimum of 100 words each, to other students’ main postings, offering specific feedback about the ideas they posted. You must post your main Discussion posting before you can reply to other students.

A substantive post will do at least ONE of the following:

Ask an interesting, thoughtful question pertaining to the topic
Answer a question (in detail) posted by another student or the instructor
Provide extensive additional information on the topic
Explain, define, or analyze the topic in detail
Share an applicable personal experience
Provide an outside source (for example, a website) that applies to the topic, along with additional information about the topic or the source (please cite properly in APA)
Make an argument concerning the topic.

Expert Answer

What strategy or combination of strategies of development do you remember using?

In the recent past, I have used the narration, illustration, comparison/contrast, and description strategies in the development of essays and other forms of writing at home and school. Over the past few weeks, I have been taking the English 101 class, which involved the completion of various written pieces of work. Every week, the class would necessitate the development of a paper using a certain development strategy, including narration, description, illustration, and comparison. The class has been very informative about the various paper development strategies.

How or why did you choose the strategies of development?

In the English 101 class, the given assignments contained instructions on which development strategies to utilize for every paper. The class ensured that we adequately practiced the various development strategies, including narration, descriptive writing, and illustration (Lumen Learning, n.d.). We also applied various writing skills, including paraphrasing and quotation. In the past, I have given a few speeches on various topics. In these instances, I chose which strategy to utilize depending on the effect that I wanted to have on my audience.

What effect did they produce on your audience?

The use of narration results in the capturing of attention of the audience. Narrative essays can be very entertaining and engaging, which ensures that the audience is attentive so as to understand what is being spoken of in the essay and the eventuality. The same can be said of descriptive essays. When I use illustration as a method of developing a paper, I ensure that my audience understood what I was writing about by building a mental picture of what was being illustrated in the paper. With the use of any of these development strategies, I ensured that my message was clearly understood by the intended audience.

How do you know this effect was achieved?

The English 101 class taught me how to understand whether I have been able to reach my audience in any paper that I have written. When giving a speech to a live audience, it is easy to observe the effect that the speech has on the audience through observation of the non-verbal cues and the responses that the audience gives. However, when writing an academic paper, it is not possible to observe the effect that the content and development strategy used have on the target audience (Richardson, 1990). However, in the English 101 class, my colleagues and the instructor served as the audience for the papers that I developed using various strategies. As such, I was able to know the effect that the papers had on them since they would provide feedback.

References

Lumen Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2019, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/englishcomp1v2xmaster/chapter/how-to-write-a-definition-essay/

Richardson, L. (1990). Writing strategies: Reaching diverse audiences (Vol. 21). Sage.