Some expressive writing is eloquent and articulate. Other expressive writing is substandard in grammar and vulgar in style. Conveying the personal experience of the writer dictates the style of the writing. A refined London gentleman would likely have a different writing style than some regular joe from the south side of Dumbuttown.
Personal style is one minor characteristic of expressive writing. Grammar is another minor characteristic of expressive writing, especially substandard grammar. But be aware that bad grammar can cripple the effectiveness of the writer using any purpose. If your reader can't understand what you mean, whose fault is that? The responsibility of the reader does not include trying to figure out what your sloppy writing means. The writer is responsible for conveying the information, not for assuming the reader "gets it."
History is the chronicle of humanity's interaction. At first, most history is expressive. (History does not become factual until later.) People witness events every day. They are part of history. Sometimes the event is as mundane as a ball game (e.g., the Super Bowl). Other times, the event may be as dramatic as a natural disaster or the assassination of a world leader. Often, people involved in such dramatic events write about them. From those expressive accounts, history grows. Your diary might be history one day! You will encounter several expressive writings in Assignment 7 and perhaps in Assignment 8. There are also several examples below.
Example: by R.U. Goofie
You know, boys and girls, I hate commercials. Stupid fake people saying stupid things to make you want to buy something you don't need. Half the time, I can't even figure out what they are advertising. In this matter, I agree with my old daddy, who says, "Why can't they just talk about the damn product?" How can I tell if I want to buy something--a car, for example--if all the ad shows me is that people who ride in it act kinda stupid? Why do they try to be so cute or clever? That crap really irks me. |
Read other expressive examples below.
In "Bad Ads Make Me Mad," R.U. Goofie clearly presents his personal views using the expressive purpose. Two main characteristics of expressive writing, first-person pronouns and personal emotions, are evident in the first sentence of the essay when the writer proclaims, "I hate commercials." The writer includes another main characteristic of expressive writing, self-evaluation, when he states that he agrees with his father on the subject of advertising. Other minor characteristics of expressive writing, such as vulgarity and substandard grammar, are also apparent in the essay. The writer says that many ads are "crap" and people in the ads are "kinda stupid." The presence of these various characteristics of expressive writing demonstrates the writer's effective use of the expressive purpose.
Primary Purpose: Expressive
Main Patterns: Narration, Description
To my Lord's in the morning, where I met with Captain Cuttance, but my Lord not being up I went out to Charing Cross, to see Major-general Harrison hanged, drawn; and quartered; which was done there, he looking as cheerful as any man could do in that condition. He was presently cut down, and his head and heart shown to the people, at which there was great shouts of joy. It is said, that he said that he was sure to come shortly at the right hand of Christ to judge them that now had judged him; and that his wife do expect his coming again. Thus it was my chance to see the King beheaded at White Hall, and to see the first blood shed in revenge for the blood of the King at Charing Cross.
From thence to my Lord's, and took Captain Cuttance and Mr. Sheply to the Sun Tavern, and did give them some oysters. After that I went by water home, where I was angry with my wife for her things lying about, and in my passion kicked the little fine basket, which I bought her in Holland, and broke it, which troubled me after I had done it. Within all the afternoon setting up shelves in my study. At night to bed.
Having seen as much as I could now, I away to White Hall by appointment, and there walked to St. James's Parks, and there met my wife and Creed and Wood and his wife, and walked to my boat; and there upon the water again, and to the fire up and down, it still encreasing, and the wind great. So near the fire as we could for smoke; and all over the Thames, with one's face in the wind, you were almost burned with a shower of firedrops. This is very true; so as houses were burned by these drops and flakes of fire, three or four, nay, five or six houses, one from another.
When we could endure no more upon the water; we to a little ale-house on the Bankside, over against the 'Three Cranes, and there staid till it was dark almost, and saw the fire grow; and, as it grew darker, appeared more and more, and in corners and upon steeples, and between churches and houses, as far as we could see up the hill of the City, in a most horrid malicious bloody flame, not like the fine flame of an ordinary fire.
Barbary and her husband away before us. We staid till, it being darkish, we saw the fire as only one entire arch of fire from this to the other side the bridge, and in a bow up the hill for an arch of above a mile long: it made me weep to see it. The churches, houses, and all on fire and flaming at once; and a horrid noise the flames made, and the cracking of houses at their ruins. So home with a sad heart. . . . and the newes coming every moment of the growth of the fire; so as we were forced to begin to pack up our owne goods; and prepare for their removal. . . .
Testimony such as this could also be regarded as referential purpose because it purports to be factual.
I am a practicing physician in this city, and was the family physician of the late President of the United States.
I was sent for by Mrs. Lincoln immediately after the assassination. I arrived in a very
few moments, and found that the President had been removed from the theater to the
house of a gentleman living directly opposite; and had been carried into the back room of
the residence, and was there placed upon a bed. I found a number of gentlemen, citizens,
around him, and, among others, two assistant surgeons of the army, who had brought him
over from the theater, and had attended to him. They immediately gave the case over to
my care, knowing my relations to the family.
I proceeded to examine the President, and
found that he had received a gun-shot wound in the back part of the left side of his head,
into which I carried my finger. I at once informed those around that the case was a
hopeless one; that the President would die; that there was no positive limit to the duration
of his life; that his vital tenacity was very strong, and he would resist as long as man
could; but that death would certainly soon close the scene.
I remained with him, doing
whatever was in my power, assisted by my friends; but, of course, nothing could be done,
and he died from the wound the next morning at about half-past 7 o'clock. . . .
Camp 69. T. -22 degrees at start. Night -21 degrees. The Pole. Yes, but under very different circumstances from those expected. We have had a horrible day - add to our disappointment a head wind 4 to 5, with a temperature -22 degrees, and companions labouring on with cold feet and hands.
We started at 7.30, none of us having slept much after the shock of our discovery. We followed the Norwegian sledge tracks for some way; as far as we make out there are only two men. In about three miles we passed two small cairns. Then the weather overcast, and the tracks being increasingly drifted up and obviously going too far to the West, we decided to make straight for the Pole according to our calculations. At 12.30 Evans had such cold hands we camped for lunch - an excellent 'week-end one.' ...To-night little Bowers is laying himself out to get sights in terrible difficult circumstances; the wind is blowing hard, T. - 21 degrees, and there is that curious damp, cold feeling in the air which chills one to the bone in no time. We have been descending again, I think, but there looks to be a rise ahead; otherwise there is very little that is different from the awful monotony of past days. Great God! this is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority. Well, it is something to have got here, and the wind may be our friend to-morrow. ...Now for the run home and a desperate struggle. I wonder if we can do it.
This article appeared in 1909 in The Elson Grammar School Reader, edited by William H. Elson and Christine M. Keck. In the early 1930s, William Elson created the iconic "Fun with Dick and Jane" beginner reading series.
There are boys who kill the birds, and girls who want to catch them
and put them into cages, and there are others who steal their eggs.
The birds are not partners with them; they are only servants. Birds,
like people, sing for their friends, not for their masters. I am sure
that one cannot think much of the springtime and the flowers if his
heart is always set upon killing or catching something. We are happy
when we are free, and so are the birds.
If the birds want to live with us, we should encourage them. The first
thing to do is to leave them alone. Let them be as free from danger
and fear as you and I. Take the hammer off the old gun, give pussy so
much to eat that she will not care to hunt for birds, and keep away
the boys who steal eggs and who carry sling-shots and throw stones.
Plant trees and bushes about the borders of the place, and let some of
them, at least, grow into tangles; then, even in the back yard, the
wary catbird may make its home.
As noted, Mary Maverick wrote her memoirs in 1880. This excerpt is from Chapter XIV of the 1921 publication of those memoirs. The memoirs were published by Alamo Printing Company in San Antonio.
On Monday 23rd, O, world of
grief! my darling Augusta complained of colic in the
evening—it was damp and cold. We gave her the remedies which were ready in every house and she felt pretty
well and went to sleep a perfect picture of rosy health and beauty. About midnight she awoke vomiting and purging violently. Dr. Sturgis was down with the cholera and
we called in two other physicians, but all that could be
done gave no relief.
God willed to take our darling. In four hours, her case
was pronounced hopeless and she looked thin and emaciated, purple and sunken, but conscious to the last, and
suffering fearfully. We humbly gave her up, beseeching
God to stay the hand of the pestilence, for Lewis and
George were both attacked at daylight. At eight a.m.,
Augusta felt no more pain and tried to get out of bed;
at nine o'c1ock, one hour afterward, she breathed her
last. She was six years and twenty-five days old. They
buried her the next day by the side of Tita—I could not
go.
God I thank Thee that we could yield her up unsullied
by earth—her memory a white and shining light.
Just before she died, knowing she had only a few moments to live, I took her in my arms and held her in my
lap before the fire, and said to her: "Gussie, do you know
our Father in Heaven?" "Oh, yes, mamma," she answered earnestly. She said: "I hear them singing, mamma, put my bonnet on and let me go to church." I put
the little fresh muslin bonnet on her head. She loved the
bonnet and was content—she looked up, listened intently,
and said: "Don't you hear them, mamma?"
"Gussie, do you want to see God?"
"Yes, Mama."
"Do you want to see Tita?"
"Yes, mama." And these were her last words.
Diary of Samuel Pepys
by Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys [pronounced Peeps] (1633-1703) was one of the great diarists of the western world. He recorded his extensive observations of life in London for decades in the 17th century. He details his daily events in the two excerpts below. In the first, he speaks of retribution for the beheading of Charles I in 1649. In the second, he details his experience during the Great London Fire of 1666.
13 October 1660
2
2 September 1666
Primary Purpose: Expressive
Main Patterns: Narration, Description, Evaluation
Testimony Relating to John Wilkes Booth 24
by Dr. Robert King Stone
On April 14, 1865, as he watched a play at Ford's Theater, President Abraham Lincoln was shot by an actor named John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln was shot in the back of the head at close range. Booth escaped temporarily but was later captured and hanged. Lincoln died the next morning. The next month, testimony relating to the event was gathered. The testimony below comes from Dr. Robert Stone, Lincoln's physician.
For the Prosecution.—May 16, 1865
Primary Purpose: Expressive
Main Patterns: Narration, Description
Journal of Scott's Last Expedition
by Captain Robert Falcon Scott
Just after the turn of the 20th century, numerous expeditions were launched to reach the South Pole. In 1910, an expedition led by Roald Amundsen of Norway and another expedition led by Robert F. Scott of Great Britain raced to be the first to reach the South Pole. Amundsen's team reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911. Scott's team, unaware that the Norwegian team had beaten them, reached the South Pole on January 17, 1912. When Scott found that the Norwegian team had won the race, he was understandably disheartened, as he expresses in the following excerpt from his journal. On the journey back to their base camp, Scott and his four team members all died because of exhaustion, lack of food, and the bitter cold. After almost reaching their camp, Scott and two remaining team members pitched their tent in March 1912. A blizzard struck, and the three froze to death, not to be discovered until eight months later. Scott's journal was found along with the three frozen bodies.
Wednesday, January 17 [1912]
Primary Purpose: Expressive
Patterns: Narration, Description
The Birds and I
by Liberty H. Bailey
Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858-1954) wrote many books on
nature and outdoor life. He was chairman of the Commission on Country
Life, appointed by Theodore Roosevelt.
The springtime belongs to the birds and me. We own it. We know when
the mayflowers and the buttercups bloom. We know when the first frogs
peep. We watch the awakening of the woods. We are wet by the warm
April showers. We go where we will, and we are companions. Every tree
and brook and blade of grass is ours; and our hearts are full of song.
2
The birds and I get acquainted all over again every spring. They have
seen strange lands in the winter, and all the brooks and woods have
been covered with snow. So we run and romp together, and find all the
nooks and crannies which we had half-forgotten since October. The
birds remember the old places. The wrens pull the sticks from the old
hollow rail and seem to be wild with joy to see the place again. They
must be the same wrens that were here last year, for strangers could
not make so much fuss over an old rail. The bluebirds and wrens look
into every crack and corner for a place in which to build, and the
robins and chirping-sparrows explore every tree in the old orchard.
Primary Purpose: Expressive
Patterns: Narration, Description
Cholera
by Mary A Maverick
Mary Ann Adams Maverick (1818-1898) was a famous Texas pioneer and diarist. Born in Alabama, she married Samuel A. Maverick in 1836. Mary and Samuel Maverick moved to Texas in 1838 and witnessed the tumultuous growth of the country. In 1880, Mary recalled her life experiences in The Memoirs of Mary A. Maverick, a marvelous chronicle of her association with many of the early leaders of Texas and a touching recount of her many personal tragedies, especially the loss of four of her ten children. The events in this excerpt occurred in 1849. Tita was Augusta's older sister Agatha, who had died a year earlier from a fever.
Monday the second of April, cholera appeared in San
Antonio. For two weeks it was confined to Mexicans in
low, damp places, and Dr. Cupples thought it was easily
managed and would not become epidemic, but suddenly,
in gloom overhead and in our hearts it appeared everywhere in the most violent form and would not yield to
treatment. April 22nd, twenty-one died of cholera.
2
Two nights before her attack, Augusta had a lovely
dream, which made me tremble when she related it to
me on Saturday morning, she smiling and happy the
while over its loveliness. In her dream she was clothed
in a new dress, all white and shining and flowing down
below her heels. She got into a carriage and with a large
procession went "way off to a big church" resounding
with sweet music, and filled with people dressed in white.
It was prophesy of her shroud and burial and resurrection.
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English/Austin Community College
Last update: October 2012