when it comes to analyzing the rhetoric of a written text or it's time for you to write your own argument one strategy to consider is methods of development we don't normally consider organization a rhetorical strategy but it absolutely is so what exactly is a method of development methods of development are common approaches writers frequently use to develop and organize the reasoning of their arguments you cannot just throw all of your evidence at your reader's head your audience needs your help you need to organize it in a way that is reasonable a method of development provides an audience with the means to trace a writer's reasoning in an argument method of development and line of reasoning are connected generally methods of developing content usually happen naturally as a consequence of the way the writer engages with and organizes information while writing that just means that there's going to be a logical Choice depending on the kind of text you're analyzing or the kind of essay you're writing yourself there's going to be a logical method to use based on the information that you have it is normal for methods overlap it's also normal for an author to use two or even three methods in the same text it depends on your topic and it depends on the length so what are the methods method one narration you know what narration is it describes what when and where something happened usually it contains characters a setting a conflict and a resolution and usually it's told chronologically in other words narration is telling a story you guys have been telling stories your entire life it is a way you can organize information and don't think that it applies just to like a biography if you're doing scientific research a research report often includes narration this was our starting point these were the different experiments we tried these were the outcomes that's narration for example every Disney movie ever is organized narratively you have the characters you have what happens to them you have a happy ending method two cause and effect this is another way of organizing information that you're familiar with details why something happens what causes it what the effects are and how it is related to something else and you can have multiple causes and effects if you are writing about history cause and effect is a very common method of development if you're looking at something like the Revolutionary War it has multiple causes it had multiple effects you can also put the effect first if you prefer if you want to mix things up a little bit as long as that connection between them is clear by the end of your text so for example there's an invitation to the ball that eventually leads to Cinderella's clothes being ripped and then the Fairy Godmother appears and then Cinderella goes to the ball cause effect cause effect method three comparison contrast this is something you know how to do already it tells how something is like other things or how something is different from other things and it is very useful in extending a definition sometimes if you want to Define what something is you give lots and lots of comparisons for example in Beauty and the Beast Belle Compares and contrasts herself with the townspeople in Bell bonjour she's saying this is what I'm like this is what they're like and she they're by show us why she's unhappy living where she is method four is definition this is one you may not be quite so familiar with explains what something is in comparison to other members of its class along with any limitations that kind of sounds like compare and contrast never Define anything by the according to Webster's method meaning is found in the world not in the dictionary so don't say a cat is defined by Webster's as if you're trying to Define what a cat is you would describe other animals that are similar to a cat you would compare it with animals that are different from a cat and anytime you say according to the dictionary it makes you sound really young and immature in your writing and you don't want to sound immature in your writing you want to sound like you know exactly what you're talking about and sometimes when you're giving a definition saying what something is not can help so if you're trying to Define what a cat is you can say a cat is not a bird that can help with the definition if you think about the Lion King when Mufasa is delineating the pride land he's giving it essentially a definition everything that the sun touches is ours anything that is beyond that is not definition and the fifth type is description it details what something looks like and its characteristics again this is something you're going to see quite a bit in science describes what readers need to see in order to imagine the same person object Etc this sounds a lot like well that's creative writing that goes along with narration yeah but also history also crime also I mean there are a lot of different types of writing that include description if this is where you're going to use more sensory language what does it sound like what does it feel like what does it look like for example if you're familiar with Hercules the song Zero to Hero is description it describes what he does you see him go through all those changes that is description so when it comes to rhetorical analysis don't forget that methods of development are one of the tools that authors and you can use to create an effective argument