You've explored four organizational patterns so far in this lesson. Now, let's look at one more, which is sometimes called description but is more commonly called a general-to-specific text structure. Authors usually use a general-to-specific structure when they want to describe a person, place, or thing.
Freefalling
Narrator:
General to Specific descriptive writing is used to structure all kinds of informational texts, which is great because it’s such a natural and effective way to absorb new information.
Imagine you are about to go skydiving for the first time. Your instructor straps on your parachute, yells “pull the ripcord when the altimeter’s at 5,000 feet,” and pushes you out of the plane. As you fall, you realize you’re not sure what the ripcord is, or how to read an altimeter. While you have the specific information you need to make the parachute work, it wasn’t introduced in a useful way.
Now imagine your instructor begins by giving a general overview of skydiving safety. He teaches you about the altitude and speeds you will be experiencing, introduces all of the parachute parts and their function, and then lets you practice the specifics like pulling the ripcord and landing safely. Since the information was structured from general to specific, you’re much more likely to understand and remember this new and useful information.
They start with a general statement, such as The Grand Canyon consists of an immense ditch dug by the Colorado river. Then they add sentences that provide more specific details about the same topic:
The Canyon's sides, which are rock and dirt, have been worn smooth the river's water flowing over them for thousands of years. The sides of the Canyon are so steep that tours to the bottom are provided on the backs of specially trained mules that are more sure-footed than most hikers.
Descriptive text structures may be more difficult for readers to identify because they do not always use a reliable set of transition tags. If you see the phrases for example or for instance, though, you can be sure that you've encountered a general-to-specific text structure. And description is so common in all types of writing that readers tent to recognize it even without the use of transition tags.
Question
Which type of essay also makes frequent use for the phrases for example and for instance?
persuasive essays, which use the phrases to present evidence or reasons
