Writing style types change the way content is presented or stories are told so even the same story can sound different depending on the writer/author. Given that 70% of marketers actively invest in content marketing according to HubSpot, writing style types are critical to master in today’s world of marketing.

A genre is a category or form that has a generally agreed upon style, tropes, and other parts. For example, the noir genre is usually written in first person, has the main character as a down on their luck pariah, and has mostly morally grey characters; in visual mediums it is usually black and white.

Writing style types are how the content is composed or the tone in which the story is told. For example, a common folk tale could be a fantasy genre while being told as either an entrancingly action story, a persuasive moral fable, a dry description of events to get the main facts, or explanatorily down to the gritty details of what the characters favorite soap is.

Parts of different writing style types

1. Diction

Diction is the choice of words and phrases in the content. Something can be said many ways; go around, race curving around the sides, and sprint 50 mph through Braken Circle all could be said about the same thing, but the diction causes the difference in the phrases. One way to do this is to purposefully use weak or strong verbs to alter the reader’s perception and understanding of the content and circumstances.

2. Paragraph structure

Meaningfully, the way sentences are placed within a paragraph will alter the reader’s experience of the content. Sentences can be arranged chronologically, sub-topically,logically, and geographically. The genre usually will dictate which paragraph structure should be used, but authors may choose a different one than the usual structure.

3. Sentence structure

Depending on the author’s preferences, a sentence can be structured numerous ways. There are many ways to start a sentence. Authors can combine or break apart sentences; they can make them short or comically long. If allowed in the author’s field, they can even use fragments and run-ons purposefully (scandalous!).

4. Point of view

Basically, there are 3 main points of view: first (I), second (you), and third (they); on top of that there can be different third person points of view like focused on one character or an omnipotent style focusing on many characters. Many blog posts are written in first person, many good (written in plain language) instructions are in second person, and most fiction is written in third person. However, authors can always break the ‘rules’ and write a genre in an unusual point of view like a nature article written in second person. 

5. Tone

Since readers can’t hear an author’s tone of voice, getting the tone to come across correctly in writing to readers can be difficult (sarcasm is an excellent example of this). This can be done by choosing words carefully, particularly modifiers such as adjectives and adverbs, and using specific phrases and necessary details to make the desired tone clear. 

Tone in writing can be:

• Professional
• Funny
• Serious
• Aggressive
• Objective
• Gloomy
• Ambivalent
• Excited
• Suasive

Writing Style Types

There are four main writing style types: narrative, persuasive, descriptive, and expository.

1. Narrative

Once upon a time, people started to write down stories in clay or stone that they have been telling for millennia. This would cause those stories to become better known today while many of the tales that were only told orally have been lost to time. These days most stories are written down or typed (a long way from carving in stone!) so that even the author doesn’t forget the details and so the stories can be distributed far and wide.

A narrative is a story or a report of a series of events; this kind of writing can be in any of the three points of view, with an emotional tone, and is usually arranged chronologically in the series of events.

2. Persuasive

This is the worst of the writing style types since it is usually used by advertisements trying to sell you things and politicians. All joking aside, persuasive writing is used when the author is trying to make the intended audience agree with them on a subject whether it be a budget or grant proposal, an opinion article on current issues, or just someone expressing their view on a topic (the horror!). Persuasive writing is usually written in third person with an emphatic tone in present tense and is structured logically.

3. Descriptive

This writing style type is usually found in instructions, manuals, and scientific and environmental/nature articles. It is used to make sure the readers understand exactly what the author is talking about by describing objects or organisms thoroughly with adjectives, phrases and clauses that describe the five senses as well as actions. 

Writing of this type is made up of:

• Any of the three points of view. 
• A professional, objective tone. 
• Specific details and descriptive language.
• A structure based on topics and subtopics.

4. Expository

This writing style type is used to educate and teach readers about a topic. There is a spectrum of content that use this style: textbooks, infographs, articles, magazines, advertisements (they’re not all evil), and posters. This style focuses on facts and other information and uses professional tone, usually third person point of view, structured based on what makes the most sense in learning the topic, and uses diction full of easy-to-understand words (at least the well-written content of this type does).

Summary:

Writing style types are how the content is composed or the tone in which the story is told.

The parts of different writing style types are:

• Diction
• Paragraph structure
• Sentence structure
• Point of view
• Tone
• Level of Description

The 4 main writing style types are:

• Narrative
• Persuasive
• Descriptive
• Expository