AP Language: Patterns of Development

Narration

Telling a story or recounting a series of events; crafting a story that supports your thesis. Usually chronological, with elements such as concrete detail, point of view, and dialogue.

Exemplification

Providing specific instances in support of general ideas. As one of the Rhetorical Modes of Essays, this mode can provide anecdotes that serve as examples to make a point or support a specific argument. Aristotle referred to this as "induction."

Description

A rhetorical mode based in the five senses. It aims to re-create, invent, or present something so that the reader can experience it.

Process Analysis

A rhetorical mode that explains how something works, how to do something, or how something was done.

Comparison and Contrast

Two methods of development usually found together. Using them, a writer examines the similarities and differences between two things to reveal their natures.

Classification and Division

The sorting out of elements into classes or groups, or the separation of something into its parts. Used when a writer wants to break something down into its elements or group a number of things in order to analyze them.

definition

A concise explanation of the meaning of a word or phrase or symbol.

Cause and Effect

The reason something happens and the result of it happening.