Elements of written communication:

1. Invention2. Arrangement

3. Style

Strategy 1: Invention

• Invention strategies help to generate material that is clear, forceful, convincing, and emotionally appealing

• Journalistic questions: who, what, when, where, why, how

• 5 elements of Drama: Act (what happened), Scene (when and where did it happen), Agent (who did it), Agency (how was it done), Purpose (why was it done)

Intuitive Strategies

• Free writing

• Journaling

• Conversation

• Graphic organizers

• Develop and inventory of material

Logical invention

• Argument in all writing = more than one side; writer presents his view

• Enthymeme shows logical relationships between ideas and beliefs;

• Syllogisms (kind of enthymeme) = patterns of logic– Major premise = generalization– Minor premise = example, particular– Conclusion = logical idea following

Example

• If major premise is not arguable, then syllogism is necessarily true– Major: All juniors must take English.– Minor: Mary is a junior.– Conclusion: Mary must take English.

Example

• If major premise is arguable, then syllogism is not necessarily true– Major: All English teachers are always nice.– Minor: Ms. S is an English teacher.– Conclusion: Ms. S is always nice.

– Watch out for qualifiers like all, never, only, and always!

Strategy 2: Arrangement

• Order/Structure

• Support different parts

• Select the best ideas, examples, propositions from inventory

• Decide how to order parts most effectively to achieve purpose

Genre

• Choose type of composition based on context, purpose varies

• Beginning = central question, argument hints at development

• Middle = reasons supported with examples, illustrations, details, stats

• End = “so what?”, consider or act

Visual Arrangement • OPTIC: Helps students to interpret

elements of visuals by looking at – Overview– Parts– Title– Interrelationships– Conclusion

• Students can then compare and contrast the meaning of these visuals to the meaning of the text.

3. Style

• Need to write comes from the topic writer is inquiring about

• Situation dictates choices– Jargon: insider status of writer, audience– You and I: analytical, academic v. personal– Contractions: formal v. informal– Passive v. Active voice

• Active = Doer Action Receiver, stronger, forceful• Passive = Receiver Action (helping verb) by Doer; wordier,

doer often concealed

Sentences

• 4 types: function follows form– Simple– Compound– Complex– Compound-complex

• Loose v. Periodic– Loose = basic with details at the end– Periodic = basic with details at the beginning or in the

middle– Changes emphasis, fluency, speed, movement

Parallelism

• Measured, deliberate, balanced

• Same grammatical form in all parts of the sentence

• Gettysburg Address

Diction

• Word choice/types

• Dictio = style of speech, not just pronunciation

• Situation, genre, purpose

Word Choices

• General v. Specific: concrete words are generally more useful to reader

• Formal v. Informal: understand occasion, p/a agr pick a gender or pluralize ant.

• Latin v. Anglo Saxon: more formal, longer v. more direct, shorter

• Slang v. Jargon: obscure meaning; signals membership

• Denotation v. Connotation: literal v. loaded

Schemes and Tropes

• Schemes: artful variation from typical word arrangement in a sentence (syntax)

• Trope: artful variation from typical way a word or idea is expressed (diction)

• A different way of saying something about the world or a different way of seeing something about the world

Schemes Involving Balance

• Zeugma = parallel words, phrases, clauses governed by a single word usually a verb; highlights similarities (e.g., I will wash the car and the dog.)

• Antithesis = parallel words, phrases, clauses that contrast; highlights differences (e.g., To err is human; to forgive, divine).

• Antimetabole = words repeated in different grammatical forms (e.g., When the going gets tough, the tough get going).

Schemes Involving Interruption

• Parenthesis = using dashes to set off words, phrases, or clauses; use ? or ! if an entire sentence acts as an interrupter

• Appositive = two coordinating elements set side by side, the second modifying the first

Schemes Involving Omission

• Ellipsis = any omission of words, the meaning of which provided in the overall context of the passage

• Asyndeton = omission of conjunctions between related clauses

Schemes Involving Repetition

• Alliteration = beginning, middle consonants in adjacent words

• Assonance = vowels in stressed syllables• Anaphora = same words in beginning of clauses• Epistrophe = same words at end of successive

clauses• Anadiplosis = rep. end of one clause at the

beginning of next• Climax = rep. of words, phrases, clauses in

increasing importance

Tropes of Comparison

• Simile = explicit

• Metaphor = implied

• Synecdoche = part for the whole

• Metonymy = entity referred by one of its attributes

• Personification = inanimate human

• Periphrasis = descriptive word/phrase replaces proper noun

Tropes Involving Word Play

• Pun = two meanings

• Anthimeria = verb replaces a noun

• Onomatopoeia = sound reflects meaning

Tropes Involving Statements and Meaning

• Hyperbole = overstatement

• Litotes = understatement

• Irony = words mean opposite of literal def.

• Oxymoron = words with contradictory meaning are juxtaposed

• Rhetorical Question = poses to move the development of the idea along or suggest a point