Difficulty: Beginner | Prerequisites: None
This material forms the foundation of the entire English Composition course. Before you write a single essay, you need to understand what academic writing is, who you are writing for, and how to move through the stages of drafting. Every later unit on sentence construction, research, and argumentation assumes you have these concepts down. If you are joining the course late or starting revision from scratch, begin here.
English composition teaches you to write clearly for a specific audience and purpose. There are three main types of academic writing (narrative, expository, persuasive) and four modes (narrative, descriptive, informative, argumentative). Writing is a recursive process of prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading, and the language, tone, and formality you choose should always be driven by your purpose and audience.
Academic writing
Writing that makes assertions supported by research and contributes to the advancement of knowledge in a particular area. In simple terms, this is the formal, evidence-based writing you do in university courses.
Narrative writing
Writing that conveys information in the form of a story. Think of it as using a personal or fictional account to make a point or share an experience.
Expository writing
Writing that explains, defines, or describes. In simple terms, this is informational writing where you lay out facts without pushing an opinion.
Persuasive writing
Writing designed to convince readers to accept a proposition or take an action. Think of it as building a case the way a lawyer would in front of a jury.
Essay
A short piece of writing on a particular subject.
Writing process
A series of steps that go into writing a successful essay or other writing project: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, proofreading.
Prewriting
The stage in which the writer generates ideas and creates a plan (outline) before composing a first draft.
Brainstorming
The use of techniques such as listing, clustering, or free-writing to generate ideas or clarify thinking.
Outline
The prewritten plan for an essay, generally including a working thesis, primary ideas, and planned structure.
Drafting
The act of composing a piece of writing from the outline.
Revising
The act of re-envisioning an essay: rethinking ideas, reorganising structure, and rewriting for clarity.
Editing
Improving the sentences, word choices, and overall style of a piece of writing.
Proofreading
Fixing errors in grammar, mechanics, spelling, capitalisation, punctuation, commonly confused words, and formatting.
Mode
The manner in which a text is written. The four modes are narrative, descriptive, informative, and argumentative.
Purpose
The intended goal or value of a text. Think of it as the reason you sat down to write in the first place.
Audience
The intentional or unintentional reader(s) of a text.
Tone
A writer's attitude toward a subject, as conveyed through a piece of writing.
Denotation
The literal or dictionary definition of a word.
Connotation
The implied or associative meaning of a word. In simple terms, this is what a word suggests beyond its dictionary entry.
Voice
The unique way in which writers express their writing style.
The four primary goals of English composition are:
Develop writing skills through the process of creating essays
Learn to read and write in an academic context
Become an engaged reader
Think critically
Engaged reading, the kind that demands your full concentration, is the launchpad for every other skill. You cannot write well about a topic you have not read carefully.
There are three main types of academic writing:
Narrative writing: conveys information in the form of a story, often drawing on personal experience. A personal essay about learning to ride a motorcycle is narrative writing.
Expository writing: explains, defines, or describes. It analyses processes, compares and contrasts concepts, and defines terms. A research section citing accident statistics is expository writing.
Persuasive writing: aims to convince readers to accept a proposition or take an action. A concluding paragraph arguing that motorcyclists bear responsibility for their own safety is persuasive writing.
Most academic essays blend all three types. A single essay might open with a personal narrative, shift into exposition to present research, and close with a persuasive conclusion.
Writing skills extend well beyond college. Job applications, professional memos, and workplace communication all rely on the same foundations. Each field has its own norms for what counts as acceptable communication.
Writing is a process, not a product. You will not move through it in a straight line; expect to loop back, restart, and revise repeatedly. That recursive nature is normal.
Generate ideas and create a plan before you draft. Common techniques:
Listing: writing down any ideas as they come
Clustering: creating a visual map connecting ideas and support
Free-writing: writing fully formed thoughts about the topic without stopping
Brainstorming leads to an outline: a sketch of your essay with a working thesis statement and section summaries for each body paragraph.
Compose the essay from your outline. This is where you fill in the details. Expect multiple drafts; each one makes the final version stronger.
Re-envision the essay at the big-picture level. Assess:
Your ideas and whether they support the thesis
The evidence and examples you have chosen
The overall organisation of the text
Always start by checking whether the thesis still matches the direction the essay has taken, then examine each paragraph's connection to the main idea.
Zoom in on the sentence level. Look at how well each piece of language works, how clear your ideas are, how precise and varied your vocabulary and sentence structures are, and whether every sentence is complete.
Fix surface errors: grammar, mechanics, spelling, capitalisation, punctuation, commonly confused words, and formatting. This is the final cleanup before your audience sees the work.
A mode describes the approach a piece of writing takes. There are four:
Narrative mode: driven by a story. Use it to recount events, reflect on an experience, or illustrate a point through anecdote.
Descriptive mode: zeroes in on details about a specific person, place, or thing. Use it to paint a vivid picture, for instance when pitching a product's features.
Informative mode: designed to inform, describe, or explain without offering an opinion. Use it when presenting facts, such as in a history paper. Written with as little bias as possible.
Argumentative mode: takes a clear position on a debatable question and backs up claims with evidence and reasoning. This is where you present a thesis statement. Use it for opinion papers, debates, or any time you need to persuade.
Most real writing blends modes. A narrative essay will naturally include descriptive passages. An informative paper might end with an argumentative conclusion. The mode you lean on most should match your purpose.
Purpose is the intended goal of your text. It governs your mode, tone, level of formality, and structure. Before you write, ask yourself what you hope the text will achieve: entertainment, information, argument, instruction, something else.
The audience is the reader of your text, intended or unintended. Your instructor is usually the intended audience in a writing course, but peers or the public may read the work too. Consider your audience's age, interests, education level, expertise, and values.
Key questions to ask about your audience:
What does my audience already know?
How interested will they be in this detail?
Am I describing things in a way that will make sense to them?
Given my audience, how can I write the most effective text possible?
Purpose and audience are inherently linked. You write for a reason (purpose), but you hope to achieve that reason with specific readers (audience). You cannot consider audience after you have finished writing; you must write with a particular audience in mind from the start.
A guidebook for tourists uses different vocabulary, tone, and structure than the same content written for professional historians. A proposal aimed at school children would need simpler language, shorter sentences, and a more energetic tone.
Language choices are driven by purpose and audience. Three aspects matter most:
Select words that help your audience understand the text and that serve your goal. Different audiences require different vocabulary levels.
Denotation is what a word literally means (the dictionary definition). Connotation is what it implies or suggests. The word "fanatical" denotes obsessive zeal, but in casual speech its connotation has softened. Choosing a word with the right denotation but the wrong connotation can undermine your message.
Words with similar denotations can connote very different things. "Thrifty," "frugal," and "cheap" all denote careful spending, but their connotations range from positive to negative.
Formal writing avoids "I" and "you," uses sophisticated vocabulary, tempers emotion, and favours longer, more complex sentences. Informal writing permits slang, contractions, shorter sentences, and a personal, conversational tone.
The ratio of long to short sentences and simple to complex structures depends on your purpose and audience. Engaging writing almost always varies sentence length.
Tone is the writer's attitude toward the subject. It is shaped by three factors working together: word choice, level of formality, and sentence structure.
To identify tone, try reading a passage aloud. Classify what you hear as positive, negative, or neutral, then narrow from there: is it angry, hopeful, sarcastic, academic, melancholy, urgent?
A passage using intensely emotional vocabulary, short punchy sentences, and inflammatory phrasing creates an angry, activist tone suitable for a debate stage. The same argument rewritten with neutral vocabulary, longer sentences, and measured phrasing creates an academic tone suitable for a university paper. The underlying claim can be identical; the tone changes how the audience receives it.
When establishing tone, consider what will work best for your particular purpose and audience. Academic audiences generally expect a neutral, evidence-driven tone. Personal or persuasive contexts allow more emotional range.
When analysing someone else's writing (or planning your own), use these five factors as clues:
Content: the subject matter and the details the author chose to include. If the content features a product's selling points, the purpose is likely persuasion.
Mode: which mode dominates? Informative statements point toward an educational purpose; argumentative statements point toward persuasion.
Word choice: vocabulary level, connotations, and denotations reveal the intended audience's education and age range, and how the author wants readers to feel.
Level of formality: academic and professional writing leans formal; personal writing leans informal. Formality is signalled by vocabulary level, sentence complexity, and the nature of the content.
Tone: the author's attitude toward the subject tells you what they want the audience to feel and can narrow down the precise purpose (to inform, to spur action, to entertain).
Practise this analysis on other people's writing. It sharpens your ability to deploy the same tools deliberately in your own work.
Students often treat the writing process as linear (prewrite once, draft once, hand in). It is recursive: you will cycle back through stages multiple times.
Students often confuse revising with editing. Revising is big-picture rethinking (ideas, structure, evidence). Editing is sentence-level polishing (word choice, clarity, style). Revise first, then edit.
Students often think the four modes are mutually exclusive. In practice, most writing blends modes. An argumentative essay still uses informative and descriptive passages.
Students sometimes assume tone is just about word choice. Tone emerges from word choice, formality, and sentence structure working together.
⚠️ Know the five stages of the writing process in order and be able to describe what happens at each stage.
⚠️ Be ready to distinguish narrative, expository, and persuasive writing given a sample passage.
⚠️ Be able to name all four modes (narrative, descriptive, informative, argumentative) and match each to a scenario.
⚠️ Understand the difference between denotation and connotation, with examples.
⚠️ Be prepared to identify the purpose, audience, and tone of a given passage and explain what clues led you there.
True or false: editing and revising are the same stage of the writing process.
The four modes of composition are narrative, descriptive, ________, and argumentative.
True or false: connotation is the dictionary definition of a word.
The stage of the writing process where you generate ideas and create an outline is called ________.
True or false: audience should only be considered after you finish writing.
Answers: 1. False (revising is big-picture; editing is sentence-level). 2. Informative. 3. False (that is denotation; connotation is the implied meaning). 4. Prewriting. 5. False (consider audience from the start).
Q: Name the five stages of the writing process in order.
A: Prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, proofreading.
Q: A passage presents facts about climate change without taking a position. Which mode of composition is this?
A: Informative mode. It provides data without biased opinions.
Q: What is the difference between denotation and connotation? Give an example.
A: Denotation is the literal dictionary meaning of a word. Connotation is its implied or associative meaning. For example, "home" denotes a place where someone lives, but it connotes warmth, safety, and belonging.
Q: A student writes a paper arguing that college tuition should be free. What mode is the student primarily using?
A: Argumentative mode, because the student is taking a clear position on a debatable question and backing it with evidence.
Q: Why is it important to consider purpose and audience before you begin writing?
A: Purpose and audience determine your mode, tone, word choice, level of formality, and sentence structure. Writing without considering them leads to a text that does not reach its readers effectively.
Q: Explain the difference between revising and proofreading.
A: Revising is re-envisioning the essay at the idea and structure level (big picture). Proofreading is catching surface-level errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and formatting (final cleanup).
The concepts here feed directly into Unit 1's grammar and sentence-construction material. Understanding mode and purpose helps you choose appropriate sentence structures (covered in Constructing Sentences). Tone and audience reappear whenever you study persuasive or argumentative writing. The writing process stages map onto every essay assignment you will encounter in this course and beyond.
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