Table of rhetorical modes

The first column may not be visible. Here is a guide to what each row in this column contains. First row- Purpose; Second row- audience; Third row- content; fourth row- style; fifth row- voice; sixth row- organization

	Description	Narration	Exposition	Argument
Purpose	Descriptive prose is used to express what a thing looks like, smells like or tastes like. In short, it portrays how we perceive the world through our five senses (sight, hearing, touch smell and taste).	It recounts a personal or fictional experience or tells a story. Narration is concerned with actions in a temporal sequence, with life in motion. It seeks to present an event to the reader, a sense of witnessing an action.	This discourse is concerned with making an idea clear, analysing a situation, defining a term, giving instructions and the like. Its primary function is to inform and explain.	An argument is an attempt to convince or persuade an audience that a claim is true by means of appeals to reason or to emotion.
Audience	Reader- to help create a mental picture of what is being written about.	Reader- to recreate an incident for readers rather than to simply tell them about it.	Reader- conveys information to the reader so that a level of understanding can be achieved.	Reader- It moves the readers to take an action or to form or change an opinion.
Content	It answers the question ‘what’. For example: What is it like? What is he/she like?	This mode answers the question of what. For example: what happened?	This mode has the types of questions that a piece of expository may answer. Some of these are: Hoe does it work? What are the constituent parts? What is its importance?	Answers the question why is this so?
Style	Explicit use of adjectives, data that appeals to sensory faculties and descriptive sequence.	Apparent use of action or dynamic verbs, dialogue. The point of view if the narrator is usually first or third person narrator. It should include story conventions such as plot, setting, characters, climax and resolution.	The distinguishing features and style of exposition incorporates the following functions: analysis, classification, definition, illustration, cause and effect, comparison and contrast and analogy	For the presentation of evidence, arguments use facts, authoritative opinion, and personal experience for its development whilst the rebuttal or refuting side uses persuasion in the form of repetition, rhetorical questions and emotional appeals.
Voice	Description uses details that appeals to the senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch).	To convey a particular mood (feeling) or to make an incident come alive, narratives employ the use of the first person or “I” narration and the third person or he/she/it persona.	In exposition, the writing is engaging and reflective of the writer’s underlying commitment to the topic.	The voice of argument has a strong and definite position on an issue from the beginning of the piece and has enthusiasm from start to finish.

Reflection on the Reading writing Connection

Reflection on the Reading Writing Connection

After reading the power point presentation and viewing the video, what I found most interesting was the point that reading can be used to scaffold writing, and vise versa. When reading lengthy or complicated texts, I have found myself making written notes where I would paraphrase certain sections, orsummarize it in the margin. I found doing this help enhance my comprehension of the text. Putting it in my own words also made it easier for me to remember what I had read. I never realized that I was using writng to scaffold my understanding and learning. It is also true that reading aloud or even silently what has been read helps generate better pieces in the end.

After viewing the video, the comments by the third teacher really caught my attention. He said that when students see writers as decision makers, and that the events from a book does not just fall out of the sky, this is a crucial turning point in their understanding . I think this can also impact the way they approach the writing process and see themselves as writers. This realization can give students a sense of empowerment as they realize that they too can make decisions about the plot of a story. It will also affect the way they read books, as they will become more critical readers and question or rationalize the decisions made by the writer in the story.

Teachers can help students see themselves as decision makers in the writing process by giving them a piece of writing, and allowing them to make choices as to how to rewrite the plot.

Reflection on workshop (Unit Four)

Reflection on Writing Workshop

The workshop presented concentrated on the important first steps writing teachers make as they plan for success in their classrooms. Several important steps were outlined, such as writing activities should be planned to ensure there is structure to the lessons. It was also outlined that planning is important because it helps teachers of writing ensure that students have many opportunities to participate in the writing process. One teacher from the workshop suggested that teachers need to consider what writing experiences they want for their students, and also the ways in which they will know the students have mastered these experiences. She went on to say, “We need to create time for kids to write- and to write in school – and we need to create time for kids to talk with each other, and to receive coaching on their writing.

The ideas presented by these teachers show their emphasis on student centered writing classes. They take their students learning needs into consideration, and plan their lessons to ensure that students eventually master the skills and experiences which are necessary for their development into effective writers.

Their ideas about planning also show that they are firm believers in the process approach to writing. One teacher’s ideas about kids talking with each other and receiving coaching on their writing is at the heart of the process approach, where students actively use feedback from their peers to help them rewrite and revise their pieces of writing to produce a piece which they feel is ready for publishing.

Reflection on the use of Graphic Organizers

The Use of Graphic Organizers in the Prewriting Phase

Graphic organizers can indeed help students classify ideas and communicate more effectively. They can also be used to structure writing projects, to help in problem solving, decision making and brainstorming.

Graphic organizers can be used to help students write reports and essays in the classroom. As a prewriting strategy, using graphic organizers can help students organize their thoughts so that they have a clear picture of what they are going to write. As a result, essays done from using graphic organizers as a prewriting strategy are clearer and more focused.

Several types of graphic organizers were presented – and I did not know there were so many! After going through all of them, I however began to realize that some were more suited to specific genres of writing. For example, a spider map and a problem/ solution organizer can be very useful in helping students organize ideas for an expository piece. Story board or chain of events graphic organizers can help students organize their ideas for expository writing.

Reflection on Prewriting Strategies

Reflection on Prewriting strategies, and Strategies for Effective Brainstorming

It is indeed true that we can sometimes experience mental blocks when we are required to generate ideas about a topic for any genre of writing. I remember a writing course which I participated in where we were supposed to choose a topic and begin generating ideas as part of the pre- writing phase. I chose the topic sex education, but had difficulty choosing which aspect of sex education I would discuss. I was then guided by the tutor to create a spider map. Through this map, I was able to outline all the different angles from which I could handle this topic, for example who should teach sex education in schools, to which type of sex education is best. From these main topics, I was able to generate several ideas for writing. I eventually chose to write a persuasive piece about which type of sex education is best , since I found I was more passionate about this topic than the others.

I also found the idea of blind writing to be interesting. I never thought of it before, but it seems to be an approach which can indeed help a writer to generate ideas. Students in today’s classrooms love using the computer as a writing tool, therefore I feel using the computer, even in the prewriting process is something they will find useful and even fun. It is something I have never done, but will definitely try in future in my writing classes.

Some useful tips were also provided in the second activity on how to help students brainstorm effectively. During previous activities when I led students to brainstorm, I did choose my topics carefully and tried to encourage unique and varied thinking on the topic. I was also enthusiastic about their ideas, since students never cease to amaze us with the ideas that they can think up. I did however find pointers such as counting ideas as a way of motivating students to produce even more ideas to be novel. It sounds like it can be really fun, and if I were in a classroom where the teacher kept throwing out the challenge to see if I could come up with more ideas, that will really motivate me to start thinking in new a creative ways. This is definitely something I can use in the classroom.

The pointer about displaying students’ ideas in an area where they can see them is also indeed important. I agree that students get excited when they are surrounded by their own ideas, but I also think that displaying students’ ideas can get them to start thinking even more about various other topics, because this gives them the sense that their ideas are indeed important.

One of the lines from the article sums in up very nicely in my opinion, “teachers need to structure children’s brainstorming experiences so that they receive enough direction to keep them on track, but not so much that we take over.”