6.1 Listing, Classification, and Sequence

Erin Thomas, MFA

6.1 Listing, Classification, and Sequence

Erin Thomas, MFA

Rhetorical Patterns

Rhetorical patterns are also called patterns of organization or methods of development; they are the ways that authors and speakers organize their ideas to communicate effectively. You might already be familiar with some of these patterns because instructors often assign essays organized in a particular pattern. For example, you might have been asked to write a cause-and-effect essay or a comparison and contrast essay.^[1]

Writers use rhetorical patterns to organize ideas and information in ways that readers find easy to follow and understand. Ancient rhetoricians called these patterns topoi, or commonplaces (from the Greek word “place”). A variety of rhetorical patterns are available, including the following:

Listing (reasons/description): often provides precise and accurate evidence and other expert supporting details to support an argument or line of reasoning. May also provide a list of descriptions that engage the senses.
Classification: often used in science, takes large ideas and divides them into manageable chunks of information, classifying and organizing them into types and parts.
Sequence (chronological order): describes and explains, step by step, chronologically, in detail, and with precision and accuracy, how to do something or how something works. Also, explains the order in which events occurred.
Definition: clarifies the meaning of terms and concepts, providing context and description for deeper understanding of those ideas.
Illustration (examples): provides examples and evidence in detail to support, explain, and analyze a main point or idea.
Comparison/contrast: demonstrates similarity or difference between ideas, people, or things.
Cause and effect: demonstrates the causal relationships between events. ^[2]

**Figure 6.1.1**: Painting titled “Cicero Denounces Catiline in the Roman Senate” by Cesare Maccari

Patterns of organization usually evolve naturally as writers organize information logically. For example, most writers don’t sit down and say, “I think I’ll write a cause and effect essay today.” Instead, a writer may decide to write on the state of drinking water in the local community, and as the writer begins to explore the topic, certain cause-and-effect relationships between environmental pollutants and the community water supply may begin to emerge. Many times, an essay may incorporate two or more rhetorical modes, as the author makes an argument for their point of view.

As readers, understanding an author’s rhetorical mode helps us to understand the text, and to read and think critically.
Knowing the rhetorical mode helps us to identify the author’s main ideas, which helps us to summarize the author’s work.^[3]

Keep in mind, though, that rhetorical patterns are not formulas to follow mechanically. Authors often can alter, bend, and combine these patterns to fit their purpose and genre. ^[4]

Listing

Listing is a basic rhetorical pattern which orders details under a main idea. In a listing pattern, there isn’t an obvious relationship between the details, such as cause-and-effect or compare and contrast. The items do not follow in chronological order, nor do they define or illustrate. Often the listing pattern is used to provide reasons or evidence to support an argument. When listing, writers often start with the most important idea and progress towards to the least important idea, as the attention of readers tends to wane at the end of a paragraph or a text.

Listing is also a common technique used to describe a place, person, or thing using language that engages the senses to create an impression or visual picture.

Consider this example from the Evening Star on September 22, 1929, where Amelia Earhart argues that women are sufficiently capable physically and emotionally to perform tasks that were considered to be in the male domain.

She lists the following reasons:

Men asserted that women were too weak and nervous to drive 20 years ago, but this has been proven inaccurate.
Men asserted the same thing in Earhart’s time about women aviators.
Both men and women have nerves.
Women have nerves of iron as demonstrated by her ability to multi-task while performing household chores.
Young business women have demonstrated their ability to thrive in a high pressure environment.

“Twenty years ago the idea that woman could learn to drive automobiles was considered preposterous. The eternal bogies, feminine nerves and physical weakness, were advanced
as final and conclusive arguments when all others failed. And strangely enough, today, in the face of superlative proof to the contrary, one sees these same threadbare, bromidic arguments solemnly dusted off and brought forth again to be used against woman aviators.” Miss Earhart smiled. “I doubt if men will ever believe that there is no such thing as feminine nerves as opposed to nerves of the masculine variety. Yet, If anything, virtually all of woman’s experience and training has been of the sort to give her nerves of iron. No man could endure for a half hour what is just part of a day’s work to a woman—cooking a dinner with one hand, rocking a cradle with the other, at the same time keeping a watchful eye on sonny and sister, who are probably very much underfoot. Certainly, the performance of young business women in our great cities is a daily tribute to their ability to thrive under the tension of noise, big business and high-pressure work.”^[5]

**Figure 6.1.2**: Amelia Earhart in Department of Commerce Airplane

Classification

Classification allows writers to divide objects and people into groups, so they can be discussed in greater depth. It is similar to a listing pattern, but it lists information categorized into groups. A classification can take up a single paragraph, or it might be used to organize an entire section. A classification paragraph uses a principle of classification in order to properly order sort and order the details. Often, this entail coming up with subtopics under the main topic, and then details are added within that subtopic.

For example, a student decides to write a paragraph about her plan to quit smoking. She begins by listing all the reasons that she can think of, and then she sorts them according to categories:

Lifestyle changes: exercise daily, eat healthy snacks, break routines, distract yourself, set up rewards, keep busy
Smoking-like activities: chew gum, drink hot tea, breathe deeply, eat vegetables, eat nuts that need to be shelled
Nicotine replacement: nicotine patch, nicotine gum, sprays, inhalers, lozenges, nicotine fading
Medical help: acupuncture, hypnosis, antidepressants, support group

This classification example used the outline above to describe a plan to stop smoking and is structured around four major categories:

I really want to quit smoking because it wastes my money and I’m tired of feeling like a social outcast. Plus, someday, smoking is going to kill me if I don’t stop. I have tried to go cold turkey, but that hasn’t worked. The new e-cigarettes are too expensive and just make me want to start smoking again. So, I began searching for other ways to stop. While doing my research, I found that there are four basic paths to stopping smoking:

The first and perhaps easiest path is to make some lifestyle changes. Break any routines that involve smoking, like smoking after meals or going outside for a smoke break. Start exercising daily and set personal rewards for reaching milestones (e.g., dinner out, treat, movie). Mostly, it’s important to keep yourself busy. And, if needed, keeping pictures of charcoal lungs around is a good reminder of what happens to people who don’t give up smoking.

For many of us, the physical aspects of smoking are important, especially doing something with the hands and mouth. Some people keep a bowl of peanuts around in the shells, so they have something to do with their hands. Drinking hot tea or breathing deeply can replicate the warmth and sensation of smoking on the throat and lungs. Healthy snacks, like carrots, pretzels, or chewing gum, will keep the mouth busy.

Let’s be honest—smokers want the nicotine. A variety of products, like nicotine gum, patches, sprays, and lozenges can hold down those cravings. Also, nicotine fading is a good way to use weaker and weaker cigarettes to step down the desire for nicotine.

Medical help is also available. Here on campus, the Student Health Center offers counseling and support groups to help people stop. Meanwhile, some people have had success with hypnosis and acupuncture.

My hope is that a combination of these methods will help me quit this habit. This time I’m going to succeed.

In this case, the author has used the organizational pattern of classification to evaluate her plan to stop smoking; however, the rhetorical pattern of classification is most often used in scientific texts.^[6]

Listing and Classification Transition Words

Both listing and classification patterns often use addition words to add more reasons, facts, or descriptions to a text. Refer to the table below for some examples of addition transitions.

Table 6.1.1 Addition Expression, Function, and Example

Expression

Function

Example

Also

Almost interchangeable with “and.” Prefers identical subjects and usually appears after the subject.

The community is working to meet the needs of its citizens. The Town Council has just authorized a new senior center for the elderly. It has also implemented new social programs for teens and will be discussing a pre-school program at the next meeting.

Besides

Used as a transitional adverb, “besides” adds information emphatically. It implies that previous information can be disregarded because the new information is so powerful.

I’m not planning to accept the job at Harvard. It doesn’t offer enough research funding, and Boston is too cold for me. Besides, I’ve already accepted a position at UNC.

Besides that

Adds information emphatically, but does not imply that previous information can be disregarded. (Compare to “besides” above.)

I’m not planning to accept the job at Harvard. It doesn’t offer enough research funding, and Boston is too cold for me. Besides that, there will be very few people to collaborate with, so UNC is the best choice overall.

Furthermore

Usually used when three or more reasons (or premises) are given for the same conclusion

Moderate exercise has many beneficial effects. It lowers blood pressure, reduces weight, and improves overall muscle tone. Furthermore, it has the added benefit of releasing endorphins, generally improving the mood of those who exercise.

In addition, Additionally

More formal than “and.” Used for joining sentences. Prefers non-identical subjects and appears before the subject.

The community is working to meet the needs of its citizens. The Town Council has just authorized a new senior center for the elderly. In addition, the Parks Department has instituted a summer arts program for teens.

In addition to

Use when adding a noun phrase to a sentence. Verbs in this phrase take the -ing form.

In addition to building a new senior center for the elderly, the community has implemented a free senior transportation system.In addition to the new senior center, there is a new transportation system.

Moreover

Usually used when two or more reasons (or premises) are given for the same conclusion

The Senator’s remarks have outraged the liberals; moreover, they have alienated the conservatives. He will surely suffer in the next election.

^[7]

Sequence

The sequence rhetorical pattern can take two forms: describing a process or describing the order of events. The similarity between the two patterns in encapsulated in the idea of a natural order. The process pattern expresses the sequence in which steps must take place, while the chronological pattern expresses the sequence of events that have occurred, are occurring, or will occur. The process pattern is used to give instructions in multiple academic and real-life settings. Sometimes this pattern is structure as a paragraph or text, and other times it is presented as a numbered list of steps.

The chronological order is often used in history texts or narrative writing. It’s the order that we use to tell our friends and family what happened during our day. This may be one of the easiest rhetorical patterns to understand and use since it’s so prolific in the way we understand our lives.

Consider the example below, describing Jesse Owens early life.

Jesse Owens was born on September 12, 1913, in the town of Oakville, Alabama, but he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, when he was nine. He was actually named James Cleveland Owens and nicknamed J.C. — but in Ohio, one of his teachers couldn’t understand his thick Southern accent. She thought he called himself Jesse. It stuck. His athletic career began at East Technical High School. He won three track and field events while competing in the 1933 National Interscholastic Championships. He went on to race for Ohio State University and was later nicknamed “The Buckeye Bullet,” as Ohio is known as the Buckeye State. While at university, he matched one world record in the 100-yard dash and broke three others: the long jump, the 220-yard dash, and the 220-yard low hurdles. Owens was used to winning. He competed in 42 different collegiate events in 1935 and won all of them. Owens was a star track performer in college, but he also faced major challenges. His school did not offer scholarships for track and field, as the sport was not as well respected back then, so Owens had to work a series of jobs throughout college to pay for his tuition. In addition, the University did not allow Owens to live on campus because of his race. Owens, like many African Americans during this time period, was subject to racist treatment and was often discriminated against.

Unless otherwise noted, this content is licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license

^[8]

Sequence Transition Words

The process pattern and the chronological pattern use specific transitions to order steps or events. You will notice that some of the transitions are shared between the two patterns.

Table 6.1.2 Process Transitions

First, Second, Third, etc.

While

Last

Finally

Then

Later

Table 6.1.3 Chronological Transitions

First, Second, Third, etc.

Formerly

In conclusion

Before

While, Meanwhile

Last, at last

Previously

Then

In the end

Now

After, Afterwards

Finally

Ultimately

Subsequently

Last

Instructions

Read through excerpts from “Give Women a Chance in the Air” a feature article about Amelia Earhart published in Evening Star on September 22, 1929.^[9]
Circle the transition words in each selection.
Explain what rhetorical pattern is being used to organize the text and how you know.

Excerpt 1

Born in Atchison, Kansas, Amelia Earhart lived there until she reached high school age. When the United States entered the World War she was at Ogontz School, in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Her sympathies were aroused by seeing four soldiers on crutches while she was visiting her sister in Toronto. She dropped school and started training under the Canadian Red Cross. Her first assignment was at Spadina Military Hospital. At the end of her hospital career Miss Earhart Joined her father and mother in Los Angeles. It was in California that she first became actively Interested in aviation. In 1920 she established the woman’s record for altitude. She holds the first international pilot’s license issued to a woman.

After some time in California, Miss Earhart decided to return to the East. She sold her plane for a car. After a Summer at Harvard, she joined her sister in teaching and doing
settlement work in Boston. Her Interest was soon reawakened in aviation and she became a member of the Boston chapter of the National Aeronautical Association and was ultimately made vice president. After her return from the transatlantic trip she was made president—the first woman president of a body of the N. A. A.

Until her epoch-making flight, Miss Earhart continued as a worker at Dennison House, Boston’s second oldest settlement. At present, Miss Earhart lives in New York. That is, when she is not flying about the country as assistant to the general traffic manager of Transcontinental Air Transport, with which organization Col. Charles A. Lindbergh is also associated. She is also aviation editor of a monthly magazine.

What kind of text is this? What rhetorical pattern is being used? How do you know?

Excerpt 2

Miss Earhart has noted a growing interest in aviation on the part of sportswomen throughout America. “The woman who likes to play a good game of golf or enjoys riding to the hounds has found flying one of the most enthralling of all sports. Now that manufacturers are marketing little sport planes with light engines—particularly easy for a woman to handle—aviation country clubs are springing up everywhere. It is only a question of time until woman golf teams will adopt travel by air from one country club to another for competitive matches as a matter of course. It should prove to be a highly advantageous mode of traveling for tournament players, because it is diverting and relieves the player of a great deal of the last-minute tension and nervousness which transportation by train or automobile aggravates.

Since the opening of the Transcontinental Air Transport Service, traveling by plane has begun to have a tremendous vogue among women. The cleanliness of traveling by plane
instantly appeals to them —no dirt, no cinders, no mussy, disheveled clothes. Women are innately fastidious, you know. They are also attracted by the friendliness of air traveling.
Plane passengers consider that they have a common bond of experience. They waive the customary formalities of the more earthy means of transportation, it all becomes much more interesting; at least, the women think so.

The fact that air transportation is the swiftest is also beginning to have as much weight with women as with men. A number of smart women on the West coast find that by slipping off to New York by airplane, they not only steal a march by being the first to appear with the news of the latest Fall fashions, but the novelty of being an ‘air shopper’ has its practical advantages. Of course, movie people who are obliged almost to commute from coast to coast consider the transcontinental air service an answer to their prayers.

Many women feel, and quite rightly, that they are advancing world progress by confining their efforts to aviation’s fringes. Although many of them have never been in an airplane
—many say they wouldn’t be paid to enter one—still they are turning their hands to the task of making landing fields more attractive—most of them are extremely barren, If not actually unsightly—and, what is more important, working out air-road marks for flyers. It is nice when one is flying 100 miles an hour over strange country to know the names of the different towns and cities over which one hovers. A number of women’s clubs have done excellent work in this respect I cannot praise too highly one club where the women them
selves got out and painted the name of their town on one of its buildings In huge bright letters as a guide and greeting to flyers.

I think there is no doubt about the average schoolgirl being air-minded. I receive so many letters from girls of 15 who bewail the fact that they are obliged to bootleg their airplane rides because their parents forbid them to go up. Although I cannot exactly commend it, their conduct shows a very definite trend. Many of them say they want to make aviation their ‘life work.’ All are anxious and willing to study to prepare themselves to be expert flyers. Still, I regret to say, they are being retarded, held back. But the pendulum is swinging. Women are determined to be an integral part of aviation. Speed the day when the announcement is made of the first aviation training school ‘exclusively for girls.’”