Basic English Discussion
Rhetorical Strategies
As you plan your essay, you will want to think about the rhetorical strategies by which you will present your ideas and evidence to readers. These strategies, sometimes called rhetorical modes or techniques, help a writer organize evidence, connect facts into a sequence, and provide clusters of information necessary for conveying a purpose or an argument. You might choose to analyze the cause of an outcome, compare one thing to another, classify your facts into categories, define a key term, describe a person, place, or phenomenon, explain how a process works, or narrate a pertinent event or experience.
Cause and effect
Focusing on causes helps a writer think about why something happened; focusing on effects helps a writer think about what might or could happen. Cause is oriented toward the future; effect looks back to the past.
Compare and contrast
Comparisons look for similarities between things; contrasts look for differences. In most uses of this rhetorical strategy, you will want to consider both similarities and differences—that is, you will want to compare and contrast.
Classify and divide
Classifying and dividing involves either putting things into groups or dividing up a large block into smaller units.
Define
Defining involves telling your reader what something means—and what it does not. It involves saying what something is—and what it is not. As a strategy, defining means making sure you—and your readers—understand what you mean by a key term.
Description
Description uses sensory details to help the reader "see" the event you are writing. When writers describe a person, place, or thing, they indicate what it looks like and often how it feels, smells, sounds, or tastes. As a strategy, describing involves showing rather than telling.
Process
Explains how something is done by sharing in order step by step to complete the process. It can be everyday processes like how to write a letter, how to play basketball, or how to make French fries, or more complex actions like how to change a hard drive.
Narration
Narration may be the most fundamental strategy. We tell stories about ourselves, about our families, and about friends and neighbors. We tell stories to make a point, or to illustrate an argument.