Are you aware of different types of writing styles?
The internet has transformed nearly everything, and one of them is writing. It is the go-to solution whenever you have problems, need information, or want to learn anything.
It has many texts, poems, news articles, promotional pages, fictional writing, blogs, ebooks, etc. If you have noticed carefully, all these forms of written content have a different approach to writing.
And this approach separates one content from the other. So, if you are a content writer or a business looking for the right talent, you need to know about each style.
This article will tell you what a writing style is, four types of writing styles, and tips for the same.
4 Main Types Of Writing Styles For Writing
There are multiple style types when it comes to writing for the internet that houses a variety of content.
Some are limited to offering information, while some content represents and promotes a brand.
But the four main types of writing styles are:
1. Expository
As the same suggests, expository writing means explaining a particular thing. So, this is a subject-oriented form of writing style. For this reason, a writer tells or describes a specific topic to the reader, like a friend explains something to another friend. It is the most common of all the four writing styles.
There is no addition of personal opinions in this form of writing. An author will tell you how they do a particular thing or explain a specific concept. It is logical, and you add facts for authenticity. The purpose of an expository form of writing is to share some information or ideas.
You will find the expository form of writing:
- Academic textbooks
- How to articles
- Blogs
- Recipe book
2. Descriptive
The next writing style is the descriptive style of writing. As the name suggests, it describes a particular scene, topic, or event. You may witness such writings in novels depicting scene-setting, where a writer describes an event, character, or place with every detail. It is a popular literary style and can be poetic at times.
For instance, you won’t write “Maya decorated Christmas tree.” There would be more details and scenes describing sentences to create an image in the reader’s mind.
It can be ‘Maya placed a small pine tree at the center filling it with small socks, colored balls, tiny candies, and wooden log slices hanging on it. Also, she topped it with a bright golden star and kept gift-wrapped toys covered with artificial snow under the tree’.
The writer can describe what they could see, hear, feel or listen to generate the reader’s interest. In descriptive writing, the writer aims to create a picture in the reader’s mind.
More importantly, it makes the reader feel they are in the scene or experiencing the events themselves. The historical events and action scenes are descriptive.
You can see a descriptive form of writing in:
- Diaries
- Poems
- Descriptive passages
- Personal journals
3. Persuasive
A persuasive form of writing aims to persuade or convince a reader of something. It is also known as copywriting and is mainly done for advertising purposes to create brand awareness or make people buy a product, service, or idea.
In this form, the author can also express their opinions and add facts, figures, or other evidence to convince readers. It makes it different from the expository form of writing. It can give reasons for a particular thing, like the ones found in opinion articles or commercials.
The persuasive form of writing is also known as copywriting.
Here are the differences between copywriting and content writing:
| Content Writing | Copywriting |
| Informs or educates the reader | Sells Products to target audiences |
| To inform | To persuade |
| Long-form content | Short-form content |
| Articles, blogs, newsletters, etc | Slogans copy for ads, web content, product descriptions, etc |
You can see the persuasive form of writing in the following:
- Advertising
- Opinion and editorial pieces
- Reviews
- Letter of companies
- Cover letters
4. Narrative
The last kind of writing is the narrative style of writing. It aims to tell or narrate a story or incident. The majority of novels are in a narrative style. Narrative writing can even take place in dialogues.
These novels are in first-person narration with characters, conflicts, settings, beginnings, and endings. Even the narrative style makes a reader visualize and feel the events.
The narrative style of writing includes the following ways:
- Fiction writing (Short stories and novels)
- Biographies
- Human interest stories
- Autobiographies
Types Of Writing Styles: The Last Words
There is diversified written content like novels, journals, Biographies, copywriting, diaries, recipe books, academic textbooks, etc.
The internet has brought more additions of blogs, social media, web content, and technical or long-form writing styles that you can commonly find online.
Any piece of content falls under the four categories mentioned above of the writing style expository, descriptive, narrative, and persuasive.
Each writing style has a different purpose, writing style, and tone. Every content writer writing for the internet or other forms of writing must analyze these basic writing styles carefully to excel in their writing field.
