Functions of Language & Modes of Exposition

Informative Exposition

In everyday life, expository text is most commonly used to convey basic information. Informative exposition is very impersonal. It conveys no authorial opinion and makes no argument but is restricted instead to presenting an explanation or series of facts. In general, this kind of exposition uses very plain language in order to remain as clear and simple as possible. Examples include driving directions or instruction manuals that include step-by-step processes.

Informative exposition also comes in handy in the study of English/Language Arts. Students are often called upon to provide basic information without inserting their own opinions or interpreting the material in any way, as in the following cases:

• to objectively summarize a text, as for a book report
• to collect and organize factual information from a variety of sources, as when doing research
• to present background facts, as when presenting the basis for a premise or supporting an argument

Here’s an excellent example of informative exposition—Thomas Jefferson’s opening paragraph from the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776):

Persuasive Exposition

Though its informative function is fundamentally important, expository text has another primary role: to persuade. Political speeches, essays, and systems of philosophy all intend to persuade their audience of something, whether it’s the validity of the author’s opinions or the necessity of a certain course of action. In almost any kind of persuasive exposition, the author chooses a particular mode of exposition and employs some rhetorical tactic in order to make his or her case more convincingly.

In order to present a persuasive argument, the author must also present evidence to support the premise and conclusions that the argument advances. Good expository writing presents its supporting evidence as objective fact: “These things are true and beyond question,” the author seems to say. “Any reasonable person would simply take them for granted. Let’s move on, then, to the meat of the argument.” In fact, however, supporting evidence is often very subjective—that is, it represents one side of an argument while slighting another, equally valid argument; or it intentionally gives a slanted view of perspectives other than the author’s.

Persuasive exposition may take a variety of forms. For instance, the author may choose to compare and contrast two sets of information, with the goal of showing one to be superior, or may present a problem and then argue the best means of solving it.

The Two Go Together: Informative Persuasion

Regardless of their form or the biases they may conceal, all effective arguments are based in fact. Therefore, though an argument’s main purpose is to advance the author’s thesis, persuasive exposition still retains its informative function to some degree. The purpose of the information is to help the reader understand the author’s point of view and, ultimately, to share it.

Look at how in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson begins to craft his argument intended to persuade his audience that rebellion against Great Britain is not only right , but necessary:

Entertaining Exposition

In the litany of language’s basic functions, “to entertain” usually takes third place after “to inform” and “to persuade.” Writing is said to be entertaining when it makes us laugh, cry, or share another’s experience. As such, the entertainment function generally belongs to kinds of writing other than exposition: the novel, short story, poem, and drama are all entertaining by nature.

That is not to say that exposition and entertainment are mutually exclusive. Much exposition is highly entertaining, as it must excite some sort of response from its audience in order to be effective. However, in terms of exposition, the function of entertainment is secondary. When the author seeks to entertain a reader, it is with the goal of making the argument more persuasive.

See the following discussion of humor and emotion as rhetorical tactics for more information on how expository writing can entertain.

Modes of Exposition

The challenge in making any persuasive argument is to present information and supporting evidence so that it clearly supports the main point. In presenting arguments in writing, expository authors make trade offs. On one hand, their language has permanence. Unlike live speakers, whose words fade with the audience’s memory, authors create a piece of static literature that the reader can refer to again and again. On the other hand, live speakers have access to powerful communication tools, such as eye contact, facial expression, body language, and tone of voice, that are simply unavailable to authors.

Readers cannot ask the author to clarify a point or explain exactly how evidence supports a certain conclusion. Expository writing must therefore be crafted for maximum effectiveness so that readers can answer any such questions for themselves. First and foremost, a good argument is well organized. Information is presented so that readers can easily relate it to the author’s premise. Evidence is also ordered to clearly support the author’s conclusion. Ideally, readers never have to question why they are being supplied with a piece of information or how that information relates to the author’s premise.

Good expository writing clearly leads the reader from a premise, through a logical sequence of supporting evidence, to a reasonable conclusion.

To achieve that goal, expository writing defines various “modes, ” or forms, of exposition, including basic instruction, categorization, cause and effect, comparison and contrast, and problem and solution. Traditionally, this set also includes the descriptive, definitive, and narrative modes. However, description, definition, and narration can more properly be defined as tools of exposition rather than modes or forms. All exposition, for instance, tells or narrates a story; it defines terms and provides description.

Each of the various modes is best suited to a particular type of argument. For instance, comparison and contrast would be ideal for an essay about the relative merits of certain Victorian novels, while categorization would be the more logical choice for an essay that sought to define the differences between Victorian and modern literature. However, most expository writing uses a combination of modes. A critical essay on the development of the narrative might use the categorization mode to define the various narrative forms, the cause-and-effect mode to describe how each form developed, and the comparison-and-contrast mode to examine how each form uses various narrative elements.

Categorization

In this mode of exposition, the author divides a complex topic, concept, or issue into smaller categories, which are easier to define and discuss. This mode of exposition also makes an argument easy to read and understand. Because the categories are often compared with one another, categorization is frequently used in tandem with the comparison-and-contrast mode.

As well as being helpful to the reader, categorization is useful to the author. For the author, this mode is an excellent way of getting a handle on a complex topic. A discussion of storytelling through the ages, for instance, might categorize the narrative into its distinct forms:

• Epic poem
• Drama
• Novel
• Short story

Most complex subjects, however, can be categorized in several different ways. In the case of storytelling, the author may choose to divide the topic according to narrative form. But he or she might also categorize by narrative medium, such as oral recitation, public performance, and print publication, or attributes of the narrative artist, such as culture, gender, and historical influences.

In dividing the main topic, the author must be certain to use the same method of categorization. For instance, it would make no sense to divide the topic of storytelling into the categories of oral recitation, female novelists, and the theatre of the absurd. These classifications all relate to different aspects of the topic (form, artist, and medium) and thus cannot be related to each other.

The author also has the freedom of defining any categories that are appropriate to the discussion. In the essay on storytelling, for instance, the author may not intend to discuss literature at all—perhaps the subject is art history instead. In that case, the same topic might break down into entirely different categories, such as cave painting, illustration, and portraiture.

A good example of categorization as a mode of exposition can be found in Sigmund Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams (1911). Here, the bigger topic is not just dreams (which could be categorized in any number of ways) but how the waking mind can make sense of them. Freud defines the following categories:

• how scientific literature has dealt with dreams thus far
• the Freudian method of interpreting dreams
• the function of dreams in relation to waking life
• how waking life is portrayed in dreams
• the source of dream imagery, symbols, and other content
• the purpose of dream interpretation in psychology
• how dream interpretation benefits the patient

Cause and Effect

In this mode of exposition, the author seeks to examine a condition or problem by considering it as the effect—that is, as the result of a set of causes. It is commonly used in discussions of empirical fact, where the “effect ” is something that can be seen or measured—the disappearance of the ozone layer, the growing conservatism of the American voting public, rising gasoline prices, or the rising of the sun. Instead of considering these conditions as givens—that is, as objective facts that might be used as the basis for an argument—the cause-and-effect mode looks backward, into the events and actions of the past that might be responsible for bringing these conditions into existence.

Consider again the example given in the preceding section, in which an expository piece discusses the subject of storytelling. Using the cause-and-effect mode, we would first have to define some aspect of storytelling as an effect. For instance, we might choose to examine why contemporary literature is predominantly a printed medium. Our examination would then seek to answer the question of how literature has come to be something that is read in private rather than performed in public. In answering that question, the causes we might consider could include:

• the development of literature written in vernacular languages such as Italian or English (rather than the academic languages of Greek and Latin)
• the invention of the printing press
• growing literacy rates among the nonacademic population

In interpreting an argument that rests on the cause-and-effect mode, the reader should be alert to possible flaws in the author’s logic. Three fallacies are common in cause-and-effect argumentation:

• Assuming that chronology implies cause. Just because one event follows another doesn’t mean that the first is the cause of the second.
• Confusing cause with effect. The previous example may do this by claiming that growing literacy rates were a cause for literature’s transformation to a print medium. Perhaps literature began to appear in print because more people could read.
• Mistaking coincidence for causality. Two things that happen at the same time or are otherwise commonly related tend to take on a cause-and-effect relationship. Strange boating accidents that happen in the Bermuda Triangle, for instance, are blamed on that geographical location, when in fact each one can be traced to another, actual cause.

Read the following passage from Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in the West (1776):

Comparison and Contrast

The comparison-and-contrast mode is common in informative exposition, where it serves to explain the differences between two or more similar subjects without proposing one as better than any of the others. For example, a travel writer might write an article about a variety of possible day trips, comparing the attractions of different destinations and recommending all of them.

As it applies to persuasive exposition, however, this mode is used to convince the reader that a certain theory or idea is superior by comparing it to similar ideas that, by contrast, are clearly not as convincing. The reader’s job is to assess the terms of the comparison and decide whether they are fair and also compelling.

In order to draw comparisons and then contrast a series of ideas, the author must first categorize them. To clarify this process, let’s examine Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto (1848), which opens with a textbook example of how these two modes interact.

The first section opens with the basic premise that Marx intends to support with his manifesto: “The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles.” Marx proceeds to categorize human society in terms of the oppressor and oppressed and draws the following conclusion: “Society as a whole is splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes, directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.”

An important element of the argument by comparison and contrast is that it allows the author to define the initial categories so that they best support his or her argument. In this case, Marx divides modern society into two main classes. Because he defines the attributes of each class, he can easily stack the deck in favor of the one he thinks is better. Here is how he describes the bourgeoisie:

Having accepted the author’s categorizations as fair, the reader’s job is not done. Next, it is necessary to decide whether the terms of the comparison are also valid and objective. If the comparison is found to be basically biased, its conclusions are necessarily flawed. Here, Marx paints a one-sided picture of an entire social class, which he denies having any positive or desirable qualities. As a consequence, his argument fails to address the other side of the class question, which is the proletariat’s desire to become the bourgeoisie.

Problem and Solution

In this mode of exposition, the author presents a problem and then attempts to persuade the reader how it may best be solved. This mode is generally used in conjunction with comparison and contrast. In order for the author to demonstrate the superiority of his or her proposal, it is necessary to describe and then debunk the alternatives.

Expository writing is the author’s response to some stimulus from the outside world. While many authors write in response to positive stimuli, most exposition is written in response to some big or weighty problem, making this mode a very useful way of examining almost any piece of persuasive writing. Some major literary works that use the problem-and-solution mode include the following:

• Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” provides a solution to the enormous problem of the starving Irish poor.
• Friedrich Nietzsche attempts to solve the problem of fate and injustice in Beyond Good and Evil.
• America’s founding fathers provided a solution to the problem of British tyranny.

The problem-and-solution mode is also helpful as a way for students to formulate their own interpretive responses to exposition. Different authors of the same historical period commonly propose different solutions to the same social problems. A comparison of these responses leads to a greater understanding not only of the problem under discussion but also of the role of exposition in general. In examining how thinkers with many things in common may be stimulated by the same problems to reach totally antithetical solutions, the student also investigates the nature of critical thinking and thus learns to analyze positions that he or she may otherwise have taken (or discarded) for granted.

Take the problem of equal rights. In the years following the Civil War, African Americans who had been slaves did not find emancipation to be as freeing as they had hoped. Former slaves found themselves shackled by the social prejudice that maintained their inferior status. Two great African American thinkers of the time, Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Dubois, addressed this problem from radically different points of view.

Washington’s “Industrial Education for the Negro” was published as the introduction to a collection of essays titled The Negro Problem (1903). There, Washington states that “the Negro’s [problem has been] to learn the difference between being worked and working” and proposes the following solution:

In other words, according to Washington, the solution had been there all along: former slaves should value the industrial skills they learned as slaves and use those skills to make their living as free men.

Although an essay by DuBois was included in that same collection, DuBois’ s solution to “the Negro problem” was diametrically opposed to Washington’s. In the same year, 1903, DuBois published The Souls of Black Folk. He
begins the first chapter of his book as follows: