Some essays use only one major pattern, but many writers combine several patterns to engage their readers and support their ideas. For example, an essay may mainly tell a story (the primary pattern), but it may also include description and illustration (secondary patterns). The following excerpt is from an essay that mainly uses cause-and-effect but also uses several other patterns of development.
Narration: The writer tells the story of restaurant meals.
1
We ate breakfast at the hotel, but we had to eat lunch and dinner at the little seafood restaurants around the old port. We quickly discovered that having two restaurant meals a day with a toddler deserved to be its own circle of hell.
Description: The writer helps you picture the child’s behavior.
2
Bean would take a brief interest in the food, but within minutes she was spilling salt shakers and tearing apart sugar packets. Then she demanded to be sprung from her high chair so she could dash around the restaurant and bolt dangerously toward the docks.
Process: The writer explains how they proceeded through a meal.
3
Our strategy was to finish the meal quickly. We ordered while being seated, then begged the server to rush out some bread and bring us our appetizers and main courses at the same time. While my husband took a few bites of fish, I made sure Bean didn’t get kicked by a waiter or lost at sea. Then we switched. We left enormous, apologetic tips to compensate for the arc of torn napkins and calamari around the table.
Comparison-Contrast: The writer contrasts her child’s behavior with that of French children.
4
After a few more harrowing restaurant visits, I started noticing that the French families around us didn’t look like they were sharing our mealtime agony. Weirdly, they looked like they were on vacation. French toddlers were sitting contentedly in their high chairs, waiting for their food, or eating fish and even vegetables. There was not shrieking or whining. And there was no debris around their tables.
—Pamela Druckerman, Bringing Up Bébé
WRITING AN ESSAY THAT COMBINES THE PATTERNS OF ORGANIZATION
Recognizing that many writers combine patterns, Chapters 12–21 offer not only detailed instructions on how to write an effective essay in each pattern but how to combine the patterns into a mixed-mode essay. Each of these chapters also offers readings that show multiple patterns at work in a single essay. Use the following guidelines, along with the detailed instructions on writing in each mode in the chapters that follow, to plan and write a mixed-mode essay.