A genre of writing that informs, describes, or explains with text types that include: autobiography, biography, descriptive, essay, informational report, and media article

Prose fiction and poetry

Fact based.

A genre of writing that attempts to convince readers to embrace a particular point of view with text types that include: advertisement, editorial, persuasive essay, political cartoon, pro/con, and review

A genre of writing that entertains or tells a story with text types that include: adventure, fairy tale, fantasy, historical fiction, mystery, personal narrative, realistic fiction, and science fiction.

A genre of writing that explains the instructions or directions for completing a task with text types that include: experiment, how to, and recipe

A genre of writing that serves as a communication of ideas and information between individuals with text types that include: Technical and legal documents, business letter, friendly email, friendly letter, interview, invitation, postcard, speeches, and weblog entry.

Each type of reading will require a different strategy:

Based on anticipated features of writing

Skim, swallow, or chew?

Fiction vs. non-fiction

Highly technical vs. mundane

Favorite vs. neutral vs. disliked topics

Descriptions may be related to five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.

Will contain a thesis and supporting details.

The goal of argumentative writing is to persuade your audience that your ideas are valid, or more valid than someone else's. The Greek philosopher Aristotle divided the means of persuasion, appeals, into three categories--Ethos, Pathos, Logos.

Ethos or ethical appeal, means convincing by the character of the author. We tend to believe people whom we respect.

One of the central problems of argumentation is to project an impression to the reader that you are someone worth listening to, in other words making yourself as author into an authority on the subject of the paper, as well as someone who is likable and worthy of respect.

Pathos means persuading by appealing to the reader's emotions. We can look at texts ranging from classic essays to contemporary advertisements to see how pathos, emotional appeals, are used to persuade.

Language choice affects the audience's emotional response, and emotional appeal can effectively be used to enhance an argument.

Logos means persuading by the use of reasoning. Includes deductive and inductive reasoning. Giving reasons is the heart of argumentation. Learn about the common logical fallacies to help you evaluate the validity of an argument.

Description

Differentiating between facts and opinions.

Differentiating between biased and objective ideas.