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What Are the Different Types of Writing Styles?

What Are The Different Types Of Writing Styles?

What is your writing style? Many writers often struggle to come up with an answer to this question. The terms we often use for writing are often vague and we often see writing as an individual art form or creative pursuit. This is true, but there are also four specific types of writing styles that help each writer to express their thoughts in a coherent way.

Each writing style has some unique components to it and you could arguably put in sub-styles into each main category for even more specificity and uniqueness. For the sake of time and space, this content will cover the four primary writing styles that are currently in practice.

Writing Style #1: Expository Writing

Expository writing is the type of writing you’d see with essays, although a persuasive essay doesn’t quite fit in with this style. The goal of writing in this way to explain a specific idea or a concept while providing details and facts that support them. The goal of this writing is to inform about proven facts instead of making an argument for a personal opinion.

You’ll often see this writing style used for textbooks and articles that inform people how to complete specific tasks. A recipe, for example, could be considered a form of this writing style. Of note with this style is a lack of slang or conversational language. You’re dressing up your words in their Sunday best because it’s a formal style of writing.

Writing Style #2: Persuasive Writing

Persuasive writing is exactly the same as expository writing, but with one key difference: you’re using facts and examples to support opinions or theories instead of proven facts. This style of writing is attempting to persuade readers to agree with the point of view that is being offered. You’ll find this style of writing is very prevalent in blog posts, opinion columns, and certain types of essays.

Being persuasive means being forceful with the opinions and facts involved. It means connecting to readers on an emotional level to create agreement. It sometimes means exaggerating the fine details of an argument to reach out to a reader’s core morality or ethics so that the point being made can be accurately transferred from writer to reader.

Writing Style #3: Descriptive Writing

Descriptive writing is a writing style that is filled with all sorts of flowery language. The purpose is to entertain the reader in some way. Sometimes that means using beautiful analogies to create a fantasy world for the reader to enjoy. Poetry would be included with this type of writing style as it explores the different structures, rhythms, and rhymes that language can provide.

You’ll find that this writing style offers many more adjectives and adverbs within the confines of the text than other writing styles. These are your descriptions that focus on the nouns and verbs that are being discussed in every sentence. This allows the reader to create details within their mind about the details being discussed, the events taking place, or the dialogue that has been offered.

Writing Style #4: Narrative Writing

Narrative writing is the art of telling a story. It can be in the first person or in the third person. Descriptions are used in this form of writing as well, but not perhaps to the extent that you would find in poetry or other studies of language structure. Each sentence will either develop a character in some way or advance the action of the story in some way.

What is unique about this form of writing is that it can encompass every other style of writing within it at some point. A character might present facts to create a logical course of action to take. A lover might read poetry to express their emotions. Therefore narrative writing can be influenced by what is taking place within the story just as the narration moves the story along.

Every writing style offers something unique. Each writing style can also be combined with other styles or sub-styles to create a specific tone of voice for a writer to use. It can be so unique that an author can be identified just by the way that they write. If you can identify the type of writing you need to do, then use your personal preferences to create a voice that is specific to you, then the different types of writing styles can be combined to create your own style of writing.

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