The Five Patterns of Development (Overview only)
Reading Passage
4 of 16
2
What to do
Read the five patterns. Name one pattern you have already used in your discipline.
The Five Patterns of Development (Overview only)
⏱ 4 min
Concept: A pattern of development is a recurring way of organising ideas so readers can follow your logic. Academic writing uses these patterns to structure paragraphs and whole essays.
Mechanism: You choose a pattern based on your purpose—explaining causes, comparing alternatives, illustrating with examples, arguing a position, or describing a process. The pattern determines the order and type of evidence you present.
- Cause & Effect: explaining why something happens or what results from it.
- Comparison: examining similarities and differences.
- Exemplification: supporting a claim with selected examples.
- Argument: taking a position and supporting it with reasons and evidence.
- Descriptive: presenting a clear, organised picture of a subject.
Worked example: To argue that "peer review improves research quality," you might use Exemplification (cited studies) and Cause & Effect (external scrutiny → better methodology).
Analysis question: Which pattern would you use to explain why a lab protocol failed? Which for comparing two methods?
How success is measured
You can list the five patterns and give a one-line definition for at least one.