Most academic essays have an overall structure \u2013 introduction leading to a thesis, body, conclusion. Essays also have topic sentences and units of support that constitute the body, and these topic sentences and units of support need to be ordered logically in a way that\u2019s appropriate to the essay\u2019s thesis.<\/p>\n
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In addition to the concept of the thesis indicating a general, logical order for the support, there are actually many different ways to think about and organize information in the body of an essay, using different patterns of development. These patterns, referred to academically as \u201crhetorical modes,\u201d mirror the ways in which humans think about their worlds and organize their thoughts in order to communicate.<\/p>\n
The concept of rhetorical modes actually goes back to ancient civilizations. Though it seems particularly pressing in our current social media, online-all-the-time culture, the idea of \u201cinformation overload\u201d has troubled humans for centuries.\u00a0Despite these concerns, many of our ancestors found productive ways to manage information overload. And their strategies remain helpful today. Ancient rhetoricians, including Aristotle and Cicero, developed techniques that writers used to gather, categorize, and explore common features in sets of information.<\/p>\n
They identified \u201ctopoi,\u201d or patterns, which were those general features shared in any idea or argument regardless of the content of that argument, including definition, relationship, and\/or division. For instance, ancient rhetoricians might ask \u201cIs the argument about a definition?\u201d If they discovered that a definition was, in fact, controversial, then they knew they could follow certain common patterns and use common strategies. Other common patterns included comparison and cause-and-effect.<\/p>\n
Knowing that these common patterns of human thought exist, will help you as a writer to both develop and organize information in your essays. The following image identifies common patterns. Although it refers to \u201cparagraph\u201d patterns, understand that these are also common patterns for whole essays.<\/p>\n
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Consider these common patterns of thought and consider specific ways in which you\u2019ve applied each thinking pattern in your everyday life.<\/p>\n
1. Narration<\/strong><\/p>\n The purpose of narration is to tell a story or relate\u00a0an event. Narration is an especially useful tool for sequencing or putting details and information into some kind of logical order, usually chronological. Literature uses narration heavily, but it also can be useful in non-fiction, academic writing for strong impact.<\/p>\n 2. Description<\/strong><\/p>\n The purpose of description is to recreate, invent, or visually present a person, place, event, or action so that the reader can picture that which is being described. It is heavily based on sensory details:<\/strong> sight, sound, smell, feel, taste.<\/p>\n 3. Example<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s common to see examples used in all kinds of situations\u2014an idea can be considered too general or abstract until we see it in action.\u00a0Exemplification extends this idea even further: it carries one or more examples into great detail, in order to show the details of a complex problem in a way that\u2019s easy for readers to understand.<\/p>\n 4. Definition<\/strong><\/p>\n Defintion moves beyond a dictionary definition to deeply examine a word or concept as we actually use and understand it.<\/p>\n 5. Process Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n Analyzing a process can also be thought of as \u201chow-to\u201d instruction. Technical writing includes a lot of process analysis, for instance. Academic writing can incorporate process analysis to show how an existing problem came to be, or how it might be solved, by following a clear series of steps.<\/p>\n 6. Classification\/Division<\/strong><\/p>\n Classification\u00a0takes one large concept, and divides it into individual\u00a0pieces. A nice result from this type of writing is that it helps the reader to understand a complex topic by focusing on its smaller parts. This is particularly useful when an author has a unique way of dividing the concepts, to provide new insight into the ways it could be viewed.<\/p>\n 7. Comparison\/Contrast<\/strong><\/p>\n Comparison focuses on similarities between things, and contrast focuses on their differences. We innately make comparisons all the time, and they appear in many kinds of writings. The goal of comparison and contrast in academic essays is generally to show that one item is superior to another, based on a set of evaluations included as part of the writing.<\/p>\n 8. Cause\/Effect<\/strong><\/p>\n If narration offers a sequence of events, cause\/effect essays offer an explanation about why that sequence matters. Cause\/effect writing is particularly powerful when the author can provide a cause\/effect relationship that the reader wasn\u2019t expecting, and as a result see the situation in a new light.<\/p>\n 9. Problem\/Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n This type of academic writing has two equally important tasks: clearly identifying a problem, and then providing a logical, practical solution for that problem. Establishing that a particular situation IS a problem can sometimes be a challenge\u2013many readers might assume that a given situation is \u201cjust the way it is,\u201d for instance.<\/p>\n Often in your academic studies, you will be asked to apply a specific thinking pattern in an essay assignment. For example:<\/p>\n Even if you are not directly asked to apply a specific thinking pattern, you may want to use one to help you develop and organize your insights. The four patterns noted above \u2013 comparison and contrast, cause and effect, division and classification, and process analysis \u2013 are very common in academic as well as everyday thinking and writing.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t ![\"decorative](\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3033\/2016\/07\/25155816\/CW-OER-Using-Sources-Overview-300x273.png\")
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