Formalism as a Type of Writing - Essay Example

The paper "Formalism as a Type of Writing" is a worthy example of an essay on humanitarian. The characteristic of this genre can be termed as a white paper since it is criticizing and arguing certain information and notions put across by various reports and documents. Audiences to white papers expect arguments about certain points in previous reports or articles. Organizations use white papers to mainly put forward ideas in an open-ended manner that is also arguing other reports and documents.
Most genres of writings are bound by certain rules so that they can be categorized and resourceful to the people who will use them. Forms of genres are mostly fixed. This is because a variation of a certain form will form a different genre. From this article, I have learned how to approach several issues using the required technique when it comes to presenting them in writing.
Formalism is a type of writing that critics literature without paying attention to any other facts. A formalist article only focuses on the said article, report or proposal without analyzing the sources, history or author of the literature. Formalism is, therefore, a very important form of criticism because it has an independent approach towards the literature in question. It steers clear of any other historical issues regarding the article but focuses on the content, context and stylistic features of an article that integrate to piece up the whole literature.
The examples given by Rude are quite understandable. The theoretical problems are debatable problems hence their reports contain pros and cons of the matter being discussed. Empirical problems are factual in nature and are based on tests and observations made, thus, their reports give the observations and facts found. On the other hand, practical problems are those that require a choice to be made; hence, their reports give a course of action.
Rude feels like rhetoric is important in decision making because it assists in breaking down the findings of a report. Rhetoric assists in ascertaining the facts and displaying the effects of the said facts in a report hence its importance. According to Frances (89), the use of rhetoric as a style can be perfect in the writing of decision-making reports.
From this article, I have learned that the kind of report I write will be subject to the nature of the problem at hand. This means that decision-making depends on the issue at hand. This means that without being too formalistic, the kind of problem will determine the kind of report to write for the purposes of decision-making.