"a theory of discourse" (kinneavy 1971)
"patterns for a purpose" (clouse 2003)
the latter proposes eight basic essay-patterns
(and i'm now substituting
spreadsheets for
yesterday's databases
so we can 'synch'
rules/formulae too)
- description (database dump without chrnological sorting)
- narration (ditto with chronological sorting)
- exemplification (generalised rule/formula with descriptive or narrative examples)
- process analysis (synching rules/formulae for future applications)
- comparison-contrast (explicitly synching two spreadsheet regions)
- cause-and-effect analysis (synching rules/formulae for past applications)
- classification and division (synching the vocabulary for descriptions of ranges)
- definition (synching a single vocabulary concept)
kinneavy tries to survey
rhetorical patterns at every level
some micropatterns (cf recent post Discourse as lists):
(short, long) eg synopsis/abstract followed by fleshed-out presentation
(long, short) eg summary at end
(parts, whole) eg (A, B, +, A+B)
(whole, parts) usually short-whole followed by longer-parts
(not-A, B) standard debate micropattern
(A, not-A) fair and balanced
(zoom-out, zoom-in) eg panorama with gradual increase in detail
(zoom-in, zoom-out) novels usually grab you via a closeup they only gradually contextualise
(hook, line) general attention-grabbing
(light, heavy) lead with a joke
(aux, main, aux) eg webpages where bodytext is surrounded by html-junk
(metadata, data) incl eg (date, title, byline)
(abstract, concrete) or (general, particular)
(old, new) cf (not-A, B)
(A?B) exploring uncertain relationship
(claim, proof)
(try, try, succeed)
.
