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4: Types of Essays

  • Page ID
    20286
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    Learning Objectives

    Student will be able to do the following after reading this chapter:

    • Apply essay structure to various rhetorical modes.
    • Provide the required components of a specific essay assignment.

    • 4.1: Introduction
      Rhetorical modes are simply the ways in which people effectively communicate through language. Sometimes writers incorporate a variety of modes in any one essay. For example, a persuasive essay may include paragraphs showing cause and effect, description, and narrative. The rhetorical mode writers choose depends on the purpose for writing. Rhetorical modes are a set of tools that will allow students greater flexibility and effectiveness in communicating with their audience and expressing ideas.
    • 4.2: Narration
      The purpose of narrative writing is to tell stories. Any time a person tells a story to a friend or family member about an event or incident, the individual engages in a form of narration. A narrative can be factual or fictional. A factual story is one that is based on actual events as they unfolded in real life. A fictional story is made up, or imagined; the writer of a fictional story can create characters and events as desired.
    • 4.3: Process Analysis
      A process analysis essay explains how to do something or how something works. In either case, the formula for a process analysis essay remains the same. The process is articulated into clear, definitive steps. Almost everything writers do involves following a step-by-step process. From riding a bike as children to learning various jobs as adults, writers initially needed instructions to effectively execute the task.
    • 4.4: Evaluation
      This section discusses the purpose and structure of evaluation, as many students prepare to write their own evaluative essays.
    • 4.5: Persuasion
      Writers of persuasive essays take a stand on a controversial issue and give well-researched arguments to support this position. This section will help students define the persuasive essay as well as understand its purpose and structure.

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    This page titled 4: Types of Essays is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Ann Inoshita, Karyl Garland, Kate Sims, Jeanne K. Tsutsui Keuma, and Tasha Williams (University of Hawaiʻi OER) .

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