1.
Express
In expressive writing, the writer's purpose or goal is to put thoughts and feelings on the page. Expressive writing is personal writing.
1 We are often just writing for ourselves or for close friends. Usually, expressive writing is informal, not intended for outside readers.
Journal writing, for example, is usually expressive writing.
However, we may write expressively for other readers when we write poetry (although not all poetry is expressive writing). We may
write expressively in a letter, or we may include some expressive sentences in a formal essay intended for other readers.
1. Describe
Descriptive writing portrays people, places, things, moments and theories with
enough vivid detail to help the reader create a mental picture of what is being written
2 about. By appealing to the five senses an original, unique, and creative way, the
writer does not tell the audience that the flower is beautiful; it shows them the flower
is beautiful. Description allows the audience to feel as though they are a part of the
writer's experience of the subject.
1. Explore/Learn
In exploratory writing, the writer's purpose is to ask key
questions and reflect on topics that defy simple answers. In
those topics where intuition and reflection are more important
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than rational analysis or argumentation, writers focus more on
their journey of discovery than on any definite answers. In
exploratory writing, your readers are companions, sharing your
journey of discovery, listening to your thoughts and reflections.
1. Entertain
As a purpose or goal of writing, entertaining is often used with some other purpose--to explain, argue, or
1 inform in a humorous way. Sometimes, however, entertaining others with humor is our main goal.
Entertaining may take the form of a brief joke, a newspaper column, a television script or an Internet home
page tidbit, but its goal is to relax our audience and share some story of human foibles or surprising actions.
1. Inform
Writing to inform is one of the most common purposes for writing. Most journalistic
writing fits this purpose. A journalist uncovers the facts about some incident and then
reports those facts, as objectively as possible, to his or her readers. Of course, some
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bias or point-of-view is always present, but the purpose of informational or reportorial
writing is to convey information as accurately and objectively as possible. Other
examples of writing to inform include laboratory reports, economic reports, and
business reports.
1. Argue
An arguing essay attempts to convince its audience to believe
or act in a certain way. Written arguments have several key
features: " A debatable claim or thesis. The issue must have
some reasonable arguments on both (or several) sides.
" A focus on one or more of the four types of claims: Claim of
fact, claim of cause and effect, claim of value, and/or claim of
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policy (problem solving).
" A fair representation of opposing arguments combined with
arguments against the opposition and for the overall claim.
" An argument based on evidence presented in a reasonable
tone. Although appeals to character and to emotion may be
used, the primary appeal should be to the reader's logic and
reason.
1. Persuade
Although the terms argument and persuasion are often used interchangeably, the terms do have slightly
different meanings. Argument is a specific type of persuasion that follows certain ground rules. Those rules
are that opposing positions will be presented accurately and fairly, and that appeals to logic and reason will
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be the primary means of persuasion. Persuasive writing may, if it wishes, ignore those rules and try any
strategy that might work. Advertisements are a good example of persuasive writing. They usually do not
fairly represent the competing product, and they often appeal to image, to emotion, to character, or to
anything except logic and the facts4unless those facts are in the product's favor.
1. Evaluate
Writing to evaluate a person, product, thing, or policy is a frequent purpose for
writing. An evaluation is really a specific kind of argument: it argues for the merits of
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the subject and presents evidence to support the claim. A claim of value4the thesis
in an evaluation4must be supported by criteria (the appropriate standards of
judgment) and supporting evidence (the facts, statistics, examples, or testimonials).
Problem Solve
Problem solving is another specific type of argument: the
writer's purpose is to persuade his audience to adopt a
solution to a particular problem. Often called "policy" essays
because they recommend the readers adopt a policy to
resolve a problem, problem solving essays have two main
components: a description of a serious problem and an
3 argument for specific recommendations that will solve the
problem. The thesis of a problem-solving essay becomes a
claim of policy: If the audience follows the suggested
recommendations, the problem will be reduced or eliminated.
The essay must support the policy claim by persuading
readers that the recommendations are feasible, cost-effective,
efficient, relevant to the situation, and better than other
possible alternative solutions.