Rhetorical Modes

Rhetorical Modes of Writing

No matter the context or topic, an author always has a goal in writing. Rhetorical modes allow writers to ensure their writing serves a particular purpose and achieves their specific goal. As a result, you can be sure your writing will be more articulate and persuasive.

Rhetorical modes are also important to have in your writing toolbox because they are like ready-made responses to essays. They give you, the writer, a sort of structure to follow as you write an essay.

For example, let’s say you’re taking an exam and the prompt asks you to review a topic and present a persuasive argument in favor of or against a common perspective. What do you do?

You will likely start to think about pieces of evidence you can provide to support whatever your claim will be. You might also think of ways to show the opposing argument as incorrect.

The prompt didn’t tell you to do these things, you just instinctively knew that these would be effective approaches toward convincing your audience. This is probably because you’ve been exposed to the persuasive rhetorical mode in some fashion or another.

A solid familiarity with different rhetorical modes is especially useful for timed exams. Armed with this knowledge, you can reduce the amount of time it takes to develop a strategy for your written responses.

There are other kinds of rhetorical modes that are perhaps less well-known than persuasion but work in much the same way for quickly and systematically forming essays.

Rhetorical Modes Types

There are many rhetorical modes and four basic types under which they can be categorized. The categories are:

• Exposition

• Narration

• Argumentation

• Description

These four categories are responsible for covering the range of ways a writer or speaker might construct their rhetoric.

Exposition

The word exposition comes from the word expose, and we often use it in the phrase “expository writing” to describe a kind of writing that explains something.

The purpose of expository writing is to educate the reader or to explain something. Because of this, it is frequently used in professional and academic writing where it is appropriate to use an educational tone.

Some examples of expository rhetorical modes are illustration, cause and effect, classification, and process analysis.

Narration

Writers use narration as a rhetorical mode to tell a story or to describe a scene. For narration to be most effective, the story or event should be organized into a logical pattern; typically, chronological order makes the most sense for narration.

Fictional writing often uses narration to move the story forward. The designated timeline helps the reader not only understand the series of events, but also to put themselves in the story and experience it personally. Narration is also helpful in any context where chronological order is essential.

Argumentation

Also known as persuasive writing, argumentative writing tries to get the reader to think in a specific way or take a specific action. Argumentation relies heavily on logic to persuade the reader of the author’s claim, but sometimes it also uses emotion or the author’s authority to be persuasive. Argumentative writing always has a call to action for the reader.

Argumentation also typically involves a discussion of opposing perspectives. This is known as concession.

By including a concession in your argumentative writing, you illustrate that you have a solid understanding of the topic.

Several types of rhetorical modes can be argumentative, including compare and contrast, analogy, and persuasion.

Description

Like narration, description is a rhetorical mode in and of itself. Description is a tool writers use to make their writing come alive—they do this with language that appeals to the five senses. This helps immerse the reader in the words on the page, making the item described more real.

Descriptions can be either objective or subjective; objective is a factual account of something, while subjective is the view from a single person’s perspective.

Examples of rhetorical modes that can use descriptive writing include narration, process analysis, and definition.

Rhetorical Modes Examples

Rhetorical modes can be either complex or basic. This simply means that some rhetorical modes are more complex and use a more detail-oriented approach to the subject, while others are more shallow and don’t involve as many complex details.

Below are some examples of both complex and basic rhetorical modes.

Basic Rhetorical Modes

Basic rhetorical modes are those that remain on the surface of the subject. In other words, these rhetorical modes don’t necessitate as much of a thorough discussion of the subject as complex rhetorical modes. Some examples of basic rhetorical modes include illustration, classification, and analogy.

Basic rhetorical modes are like taking a straight road directly to the point.

Illustration Example

The rhetorical mode of illustration (also known as exemplification) uses detailed examples to make abstract ideas concrete, or general ideas specific. This rhetorical tool does more than describe something or narrate a series of events; it can turn the object of discussion into a symbol or an idea representing something bigger.

The example of Sonnet #34 illustrates the point made in the previous sentence; that Shakespeare liked to save the resolution of his poems for the final few lines. The author doesn’t need to provide much more information beyond the point they’re trying to make and the example that illustrates the point.

Analogy Example

Analogy is the process of comparing two seemingly unrelated things to highlight the characteristics they share. Analogy is best used in a situation where you’d like to explain something highly complex or unfamiliar to the audience. As with illustration, you don’t have to give a lengthy explanation or complex details of the subject in this rhetorical mode.

There are two basic types of analogies: literal and figurative. Literal analogies compare two things based on literal, real similarities. For example, when scientists test medicines on mice in laboratories, they are saying that mice are similar to human beings in medically significant ways.

Figurative analogies draw a comparison between two things that are highly unrelated to highlight a certain characteristic that they both share. Take for example the statement, “You have to be busy as a bee to get good grades.” The only similarity to a bee that a student should strive for is their productivity level. Otherwise, human students and bees are not at all similar.

Complex Rhetorical Modes

Complex rhetorical modes are a category of the more intricate rhetorical modes. These patterns of organization typically go into a deeper examination of the topic than the basic rhetorical modes. Rhetorical modes such as cause and effect, argumentation, and definition are complex because the author must have an intimate understanding of the topic to write about it in these ways.

Complex rhetorical modes require more information about the topic, and so the writer has to take a more complex route to the point.

Cause and Effect Example

Establishing a cause-and-effect relationship between two things is difficult because you must prove that one thing caused another.

For example, simply stating that you think a new movie adaptation of Gone With the Wind (the cause) will generate new interest in the book (effect) is not enough. The person making this claim must prove this is true by establishing a cause and effect relationship with these three criteria:

1. The cause must happen before the effect

2. Whenever the cause happens, the effect must also happen

3. There must not be another factor that could explain the relationship between the cause and the effect

To claim that a new movie version of Gone With the Wind will cause for there to be new readers of the book, you have to take a closer look at the situation and perhaps other similar situations for comparison and see what you find.

1. Would a new Gone With the Wind movie come before the renewed interest in the book? Yes.

2. Can a movie release cause for there to be new interest in an older book or story? Yes. (We can look to other examples of movies generating readership of classic books, such as The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald or It by Stephen King.)

3. Are there any other valid factors that could explain the relationship between the new movie and people reading the book? No.

Definition Example

Definition seems like a simple enough way to approach a subject because we do it so often, but it is a complex method of speaking about something.

For example, in order to define a classical school for someone who doesn’t know what it is requires you to intimately understand how a classical school works, and what makes it different from other schools. You need to be so familiar with it, that you can explain this information to someone else.

From here, you would want to explain and define a few more of these terms, such as “traditional classroom,” “history-based learning,” and “self-educate.”

The Most Common Rhetorical Mode of Writing

There are ten major rhetorical modes, which are:

1. Narration

2. Process analysis

3. Definition

4. Cause and effect

5. Description

6. Classification

7. Compare and contrast

8. Argument/ persuasion

9. Problem and solution

10. Illustration

Remember, you can use different rhetorical modes in one piece of writing. Also, you can approach a particular rhetorical mode from any of the major rhetorical mode types (e.g., exposition, narrative, descriptive, and argumentative).

If there was one type of rhetorical mode that was more common than the others, it would be exposition. Exposition uses facts and data to explain information to someone, which is why it is commonly used in academic, professional, and even journalistic writing.

Depending on the author’s message, several rhetorical modes can use an expository approach. For example, think of the many ways you could write about and explain summer school with an expository lens:

Narration – Tell a personal story about an experience in summer school that helps the reader understand how it works

Definition – Define what summer school is

Compare and contrast – Compare summer school to traditional school, and contrast any differences

Argument/ persuasion – Present an argument either for or against summer school

Classification – Categorize the students that would benefit from summer school

Each of these approaches to the topic of summer school are expository because they explain some aspect of summer school. Regardless of which rhetorical mode you choose for a particular piece of writing, knowing how they work will help keep your writing organized and reduce the amount of time it takes to plan out a writing project.