Sept. 8, 2011 Writing Sample Day – YEAH!

1. Narrative Telling a story or narrating to your audience It can be very effective, especially when speaking from experience A few things to consider: ◦ Scope – consider time, when will the narrative begin and end? ◦ Details – which details will contribute and move the story along? Which ones are weak? Strong? Vivid? Lost? ◦ Connections – make sure the reader feels included, like they are a part of the story

2. Persuasive or Argumentative In persuasive or argumentative writing, we try to convince others to agree with our facts, share our values, accept our argument and conclusions A few things to consider: ◦ Establish facts – necessary to support your argument ◦ Make clear connections – link your facts clearly to your argument ◦ Be convincing and strong – you want to persuade the reader with your points Has a formal structure – clear introduction (with thesis), body (building argument) & conclusion

3. Descriptive Descriptive essays strive to create a deeply involved and vivid experience for the reader. Description appeals to the senses: sight, touch, sound, smell, taste A few things to consider: ◦ Choose your words carefully – proof work for unclear, inexact, inappropriate words – use a thesaurus ◦ Use figures of speech – similes, metaphors are powerful tools of description ◦ Show, don’t tell – be as clear as possible, avoid generalizations

4. Expository The function of the expository essay is to explain, or to acquaint your reader with a body of knowledge A few things to consider: ◦ Managing your topic – make sure you don’t bite off too much ◦ Method of development – how are you going to present your idea (compare/contrast, cause and effect, example...) ◦ Organization – you want your information to flow and the explanation to make sense This will have a similar structure to the persuasive, but it is not necessary to be convincing – more informative

Introductory Write #1 Using standard English, write a coherent, unified, multi-paragraph (3 or more paragraphs) composition of at least 300 words based on any of the photos that follow. In your composition, you may apply any appropriate method of development including exposition, persuasion, description, and narration.