Overview
Writers can use particular types of rhetorical patterns to create personal essays, such as narration, description, how-to, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, classification and division, definition, and argument and persuasion. An effective essay intertwines various types of rhetoric.
Narration and Description
The most typical pattern is to narrate events in chronological order as they happened. If the writer is building a narrative about visiting a college campus, the first step might be to describe the advertised Welcome Weekend, then the trip to the city where the college is located. The next steps might be to describe the classrooms visited, the library, the dorm rooms, and other amenities on campus. Using all the senses, the writer weaves description of all aspects of the college campus.
How-To
Another approach to writing an essay is to tell the steps involved in how to do or make something. Suppose the writer is giving directions on how to cut a six-pointed snowflake from one piece of paper. The steps might be on how to choose the correct size paper, then how to fold the paper, then on how to make the first cuts, then on how to make other cuts, then on how to unfold the cut item and how to display it. Description of each step along the way is necessary to flesh it out.
Comparison and Contrast
Writers use comparison and contrast as tools for the reader. For example, during the essay about visiting college campuses, the city where the campus is located might be compared with the student’s home town. Class offerings between different colleges might be contrasted. The writer might describe the circumstances leading to their choice of a particular college, as a cause-and-effect argument is developed. Experiences might be classified into categories, as the writer attempts to communicate with readers of the essay.
Argument and Persuasion
If the purpose of an essay is to persuade readers to take a particular course of action, the writer will carefully construct arguments showing why that course of action is the best one to take. Suppose that the writer with the narrative about visiting a college is actually recruiting students to attend there. The arguments that are presented in favor of attending that school will be very different than if the writer were attempting to persuade students to avoid attending there, or go to a rival school.
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