Once they decide what they want to write about, all writers eventually have to deal with the task of developing and organizing their writing. Deciding how to structure a piece of writing can be a daunting task, but it helps if you know what your options are. And there really aren't that many to worry about. Here are the typical. Note that each strategy could serve as a way of developing a specific section of your work, or it may be a general design for the overall project.
Narration
Tell a story. A story can be a great way of starting a writing project. A story can also be a fine way to make a point, illustrate a concept, or explain an idea. If you are writing about gothic cathedrals (forgive me, Ami, but you were the first visitor this morning, so I'll use your subject as an example!) Ami might want to tell about how a certain cathedral hired its architect.
Description
Description is closely related to narration. At least, they often occur together. Sometimes to make a point, a writer has to describe an object, a person, a place, a time or an idea. Description will appeal to the senses: what does the object look like, feel like, smell like, sound like, or taste like? Description can be closely related to other modes. If Kimberlee is writing about occupational therapists and analyzing their work, she might want to describe what they do.
Definition
Sometimes whole essays are written to define difficult concepts. Whenever your intent is to explain what you mean, you are writing a definition. More commonly, you use definitions anytime you use words or terms that your reader may not understand. Ami could write a whole paper about what the gothic style is, or she may only need to give a short definition. Often definitions are only a phrase or a sentence long.
Process
Writing that explains how something happened, or how to do something is process writing. Linvelle is interested, for example, in suburban sprawl. His research might examine, in part or in whole, how suburban sprawl occurred. Or Ami might analyze how the medieval gothic cathedral was built by examining the techniques required to erect these cathedrals.
Cause-Effect
Cause-Effect writing is related to process writing, except that your thinking is not how, but why. When you want to explain why a thing occurred, then you are writing cause-effect. You might observe a particular phenomenon, then trace the causes of that phenomenon. Or you might take a particular event and speculate what might happen because of this event. Jeremy is interested in knowing how the Great Depression led working class Americans to be interested in communism, so he's doing cause and effect.
Classification
Classification means simply breaking things down into their types. When Rachel writes about sleep disorders, for instance, she may want to identify the types of disorders, whether they are physical, mental, environmental, or geographical.
Comparison-Contrast
Comparison-contrast means examining similarities and/or differences. If Ami wants to suggest that one gothic cathedral is superior to all the others, she might plan to compare or contrast it to the others. This will mean deciding what points to compare and then gathering evidence. Ami might decide that she wants to compare the cathedrals on their stained glass, their carvings, and their floor plans.
Argument and Persuasion
In this approach you try to develop an argument, something you want to persuade or convince someone of. This means that you have to decide what evidence will best convince your reader and how best to arrange this information. For instance, if you feel that the folks across the street should not build the halfway house for juvenile delinquents, what evidence would you need and how would you organize it to convince the town council to agree with you?
Suggestions
Remember, each of these strategies can serve multiple purposes. They can be great ways of developing a paragraph. They can serve as the general outline of a whole essay. They can also be great ways to plan an essay before you start to write, or to get unstuck when you can't think of what to say next. Simply turn each of the strategies into a question: What story could I tell to make my point? What terms to I need to define? What could I compare my topic to? What caused my topic?
At any given moment in your writing these rhetorical modes may function not only as structural devices, but also as invention strategies or writing intentions. Turn a mode into a question (What could I compare X to? What story could I tell about X?) and you have a strategy that can help you find something to say get unstuck when your writing is blocked. Or sometimes it might be helpful to remember that each of these modes indicates what you intend to do at any given moment in your writing. (Now, I'm describing, now I'm comparing, now I'm giving causes...)
Keep these strategies in your mental writing tool box and use them whenever you can. If you get stuck, remember, you can always e-mail me at closserb@andrews.edu.