Four Basic Writing Styles
Writing styles are the ways that writers express their ideas and communicate with their readers. There are four main types of writing styles: descriptive, narrative, expository and persuasive. Each style has its own purpose, audience and characteristics.
Here are the four basic writing styles:
1. Descriptive writing – uses sensory details and vivid language to create a picture in the reader’s mind.
It can be used to describe a person, place, object, event or emotion. Descriptive writing is often found in fiction, poetry, travel writing and personal essays.
2. Narrative writing – tells a story or recounts an experience.
It has a clear beginning, middle and end, and usually follows a chronological order. Narrative writing can be factual or fictional, and it often uses dialogue and other literary devices to make the story more engaging. Narrative writing is common in novels, short stories, biographies and memoirs.
3, Expository writing – explains or informs about a topic.
It uses facts, examples, statistics and other evidence to support a main idea or thesis. Expository writing is objective and logical, and it does not express the writer’s opinions or emotions. Expository writing is often found in textbooks, manuals, reports, essays and articles.
4. Persuasive writing – aims to convince the reader to agree with the writer’s point of view or to take a specific action.
It uses arguments, reasons, facts and examples to persuade the reader. Persuasive writing also appeals to the reader’s emotions and values, and it may use rhetorical devices such as repetition, rhetorical questions and analogies. Persuasive writing is common in advertisements, speeches, editorials and letters.
Knowing the different types of writing styles, as outlined above, can help you improve your own writing skills and choose the most appropriate style for your purpose and audience. You can also learn from reading different kinds of texts and analysing how they use language to achieve their goals.
© Colin Lawson Books