How to Master Different Writing Styles?

What is the Purpose of your writing?

Are you writing to inform, entertain or persuade?

By being able to identify the purpose of your writing quickly you can make your writing as relevant and effective as is possible when you are under pressure and writing for an exam. This means there will be less pressure on you, and you can feel confident with the knowledge that the examiner will award you as many marks as possible.

Writing To Inform:

· When writing to inform, remember to include plenty of facts, as a major objective is to give the reader as much information as possible and including facts and figures is a great way of getting accurate information across to your readers.

· Usually, a good informative piece of writing covers all aspects of the topic in question, giving the reader as much information as possible so they can then make their own mind up.

· When writing to inform giving a clear overview of the entire topic is key, though structure is equally as important if you want to keep your readers entertained and intrigued with your writing. Starting with your strongest argument draws the reader in and then gives you the ability to lead onto other areas so you know you have covered all sides.

Writing To Entertain:

· When writing to entertain, successful writers use topics and subjects, which their readers can enjoy and relate to.

· Readers want to be entertained and so good writers avoid any dead ends, and make sure everything they write has a purpose and is meaningful to their work.

· Using a variety of sentence structures can change the pace and speed at which a sentence is read and therefore the entire dynamic of a sentence. This can be hugely effective, for example the impact of several quick short sentences adds emphasis to them and is a perfect way of building up tension and keeping readers hooked and entertained, desperate to read on and see what happens next.

Writing To Persuade:

· When looking to persuade a reader, you want them to agree with your opinion on the subject that you are writing on - (there isn't actually much difference in writing to persuade and writing to argue.)

· Don't fall into the trap of ignoring any other viewpoint in your writing as this probably wont work in encouraging people over to your viewpoint.

· You can certainly afford to be more one-sided and personal than you can when you write to argue but cover different opinions as well in your writing though make them seem less important through your use of language and literary techniques.

· An effective and persuasive structure needs to be present as you build up through clear topic driven paragraphs.

· Using rhetorical questions and emotive language makes you appear more passionate and emotional which in turn makes the reader feel more personally involved in what you are writing about.

· Discourse markers also help your ideas flow, and helps your readers to follow the argument and therefore your opinion. They include words such as, "therefore", "however", "but" and "to conclude".