Mastering Expository and Descriptive Writing Styles

Understanding Expository Text

An expository text is a form of expression used to inform, explain, disseminate, or interpret a topic in an organized and objective manner.

Key Features of Expository Text

• Order: Develops an outline to follow a logical order: introduction, development, and conclusion.
• Clarity: Each idea is presented in a transparent manner.
• Rigor: Data provided is contrasted and verified; the predominant feature is the use of references, ensuring an objective message.

Types of Expository Text

• General (Disclosed): Addresses a general theme and is aimed at a broad audience. Examples include articles and reports of general interest in daily newspapers.
• Specialized: Requires specific knowledge from the receiver and covers subjects with a high level of expertise.

Structure of Expository Text

• Deductive Order: Starts with very general approaches, leading to particular conclusions.
• Inductive Order: Begins with specific cases, allowing for the development of a general hypothesis.

Language Resources in Expository Text

• Vocabulary: Specialized vocabulary of the discipline, including jargon and neologisms.
• Verbs: Predominantly present and past tenses.
• Syntactic Structures: Coordinated sentences, subordinate adjective clauses for explanations.
• Connectors: Used to establish relationships such as cause (so, since), result (therefore), exemplification (for example), explanation (i.e.), thematic relationship (as a), contrast (on the other hand), conclusion (therefore), and summarization (in short).

Technical Description in Expository Text

Characterized by objectivity. Appears in texts explaining natural phenomena or in exhibitions related to experimental sciences. It is objective, orderly, clear, and rigorous, primarily using the present indicative.

Mastering Descriptive Writing

Description is a form of expression used to explain the qualities and characteristics of a person, living creature, landscape, or object. The aim is to evoke sensations or feelings in the receiver similar to those perceived by the issuer. Descriptions commonly appear in stories, novels, travel books, and newspaper articles.

Types of Description

• According to the Object:
  • People:
    • Prosopography: Physical characteristics.
    • Ethopoeia: Moral qualities.
    • Portrait: Combines physical and moral aspects.
    • Self-portrait: Description of oneself.
  • Landscapes and Objects:
    • Chronography: Description of time or a period.
    • Topography: Description of a place.
    • Pictorial: Inanimate objects.
    • Cinematic: Moving objects.
  • Abstract Realities: Can describe feelings, emotions, environments.
• According to the Author's Point of View:
  • External: Describes realities outside the emitter (objects, people).
  • Internal: Describes internal realities (feelings, emotions).
• Depending on the Purpose:
  • Technical: Objective description, aiming to reproduce reality accurately, common in scientific texts.
  • Literary: Subjective description, reflecting the author's own point of view, where the expressive function predominates.

Language Resources in Descriptive Writing

• Predominance of nouns and adjectives, extensive use of synonyms.
• Verbs: Present and past tenses, with a predominance of state verbs and action verbs.
• Syntactic Structures: Primarily copular sentences.

Literary Resources in Descriptive Writing

• Clear and evocative style.
• Richness of language and expressive range.
• Figures of speech (e.g., metaphor, metonymy, personification, simile, enumerations, synesthesia).