Elements of written
communication:
1. Invention
2. 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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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