Improve Your Writing – 4 Different Styles of Writing

Hi, and welcome to this video lesson on the four purposes of texts. No, not tests, texts. What exactly are the four purposes of texts?

Well, inform, influence, express, and entertain. Now let’s try to define these a little bit more and kind of get an idea exactly how do they work?

1) Newspaper articles, encyclopedia entries, and instructional documents are written to inform; authors give facts and write in an objective tone.

2) Editorials and advertisements are written to influence; authors use persuasive language to try to be convincing.

3) Descriptive paragraphs are written to express something; authors use lots of adjectives to describe objects or ideas.

4) Fictional stories and screenplays are usually written to entertain. Just because a fictional story or screenplay is written to entertain, it doesn’t mean it can’t also do one or more of these other things as well.

For example, Pocahontas is a story that entertains, but it also influences the way that we think about indigenous peoples and wildlife.

Another great example of this is the story of Scrooge in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

We learn all about what it means to love one another, we learn about materialism, and we also learn about what’s most important in life. It’s influencing the way that we think about things.

Make sense? I sure hope that helps. Thanks for watching this video lesson, and until next time, happy studying!