Argumentation

The most common major rhetorical-mode pattern you may find in college readings is argumentation.  It is common because many textbooks and other assignments you will read in college--especially in the humanities, liberal arts, and social sciences--are arguing a point. 

Argumentation as Overall Structural/Controlling Mode

• Introduction: Issue or Main Argument.  Possible use of definition (which includes comparison/contrast and example), statement of overall cause and effect, and/or other modes

• Body: A Series of Points Helping to Prove the Main Argument 

Each Longer Paragraph: 

(1) statement of a point providing a part of the proof 

(2) development of the proof with detail using exemplification, narration, cause and effect, and/or other modes

Conclusion: 

Concluding Argument.  Possible use of description, cause and effect, narration, and/or other modes.