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When writing a piece of work, the author can draw upon four very different styles of writing. These four styles include: the narrative, the descriptive, the persuasive and the expository. Whichever style the writer chooses to utilize will reflect upon a writer’s specific personality, as well as their preferred method of trying to connect and relay their ideas to their readers. So what do these four styles mean?
The Narrative Style: To narrate means to tell a story from your own viewpoint and your own perspective. For example: “I went to the mall and I thought it was confusing to find my way around.” The story is being told by the “first person, i.e., I.” In short, the writer has placed themselves within the story making it a narrative.
The Descriptive Style: When a writer uses great details to describe a person, place or thing, they are using the descriptive style. For example, let’s look at the following two sentences.
Margaret wore a blue ribbon in her hair.
Margaret, whose rosy cheeks complemented her ruby, red lips, wore a blue velvet ribbon that was weaved intricately throughout the many ringlets in her hair, catching everyone’s attention.
The first sentence is a basic, simple sentence. It does give the reader information but provides very little detail. On the other hand, the second sentence provides a great deal of description. It paints a much more vivid image for the reader to actually be able to visualize Margaret. The writer of the second sentence is using the descriptive style.
The Persuasive Style: In this style of writing the author is trying to persuade the readers to accept and embrace the author’s own views and opinions about what is being written about. This style can easily be seen in TV commercials such as product “A” will give you much brighter teeth than product “B” because product “A” contains x, y and z not found in product “B.” In a story, the author can try to persuade the reader to view things differently such as the value or harm wars cause. In general, the author assumes the reader’s opinions are different from their own and their hope is that after reading their piece of work, the reader’s opinions and view will change.
The Expository Style: This style of writing is somewhat different than the persuasive style in that in this style of writing the author presents a specific thought or idea and then presents those thoughts and ideas through the use of unbiased facts, figures and numbers. The author does not incorporate their own opinions and views but, rather, lets the reader come to his or her own conclusions. This style of writing is one of the more popular styles used and is found in many “How to” writings. Facts are given, such as ingredients to make cake, but how the reader uses those facts and interprets those ingredients are solely chosen and decided by the reader.