A. Narration Describes what, when, and where something happened. It is simply telling a story, usually from the viewpoint of one person. Many times, the writer is also making a point as well as recounting events that occurred. Narration can be found in any form of literature, including plays, short stories, poems, novels, or even jokes. They are considered narration, or narrative, as long as they tell a story. Example Text: Narrative Novel The last example is an excerpt from the novel, Moby Dick by Herman Melville. "Landlord!" said I, "what sort of chap is he -- does he always keep such late hours?" It was now hard upon twelve o'clock. The landlord chuckled again with his lean chuckle, and seemed to be mightily tickled at something beyond my comprehension. "No," he answered, "generally he's an early bird -- airley to bed and airley to rise -- yea, he's the bird what catches the worm. -- But to-night he went out a peddling, you see, and I don't see what on earth keeps him so late, unless, may be, he can't sell his head. “Can’t sell his head? -- What sort of a bamboozingly story is this you are telling me?" getting into a towering rage. "Do you pretend to say, landlord, that this harpooner is actually engaged this blessed Saturday night, or rather Sunday morning, in peddling his head around this town?” B. Description Details what something looks like and its characteristics. Descriptive writing uses sensory writing and includes vivid and rich details. It portrays certain events, people, or objects in a way that the reader can visualize what the writer is describing. The writer uses figurative language, like metaphors and symbolism, to enhance the sensory experience for the reader. In descriptive writing, the author does not tell the reader what was seen, felt, tested, smelled, or heard. Rather, he describes something that he experienced and, through his choice of words, makes it seem real. In other words, descriptive writing is vivid, colorful, and detailed. Examples Text: •The sunset filled the entire sky with the deep color of rubies, setting the clouds ablaze. •The waves crashed and danced along the shore, moving up and down in a graceful and gentle rhythm like they were dancing. •The painting was a field of flowers, with deep and rich blues and yellows atop vibrant green stems that seemed to beckon you to reach right in and pick them. •The old man was stooped and bent, his back making the shape of a C and his head bent so far forward that his beard would nearly have touched his knobby knees had he been just a bit taller. •His deep and soulful blue eyes were like the color of the ocean on the clearest day you can ever imagine. •The soft fur of the dog felt like silk against my skin and her black coloring glistened as it absorbed the sunlight, reflecting it back as a perfect, deep, dark mirror. C. Definition Explains what something is in comparison to other members of its class, along with any limitations. Examples Text: “If someone or something is unaffected by an event or occurrence, they are not changed by it in any way.”
This definition shows the typical grammar structure in which we
use the word unaffected — after a form of be (is, was, will be, etc.), and before the preposition by. So it tells you that we often say “is unaffected by”, “was unaffected by”, “will be unaffected by”, etc. It also shows that people or things can be unaffected by an event. “You say that something is stupid to indicate that you do not like it or that it annoys you”.
The beginning of this definition (“You say that...”) shows that
you use the word stupid to talk about your feelings, and not about facts. If you say to somebody “You’re stupid”, you don’t mean that the person is not intelligent. You simply mean that you don’t like them. In tennis, an ace is a serve which is so fast that the other player cannot reach the ball”. This is the definition of one of the meanings of ace. It gives you the context of this meaning — it tells you that you use it when talking about tennis. D. Exemplification\Classification Provides typical cases or examples of something. Example Text: An exemplification paragraph develops a general statement--the topic sentence--with one or more specific examples. Not only do these examples illustrate and explain the topic sentence, but they also make your writing more interesting and more convincing. The following paragraph about the Woodstock festival uses a number of short examples to illustrate its main idea. In most respects, after all, Woodstock was a disaster. To begin with, it rained and rained for weeks before the festival, and then, of course, it rained during the festival. The promoters lost weeks of preparation time when the site had to be switched twice. They rented Yasgur’s field less than a month before the concert. The stage wasn’t finished, and the sound system was stitched together perilously close to the start of the show. As soon as the festival opened, the water- and food-delivery arrangements broke down, the gates and fences disintegrated, and tens of thousands of new bodies kept pouring in. (One powerful lure was the rumor that the revered Bob Dylan was going to perform; he wasn’t.) In response to an emergency appeal for volunteers, fifty doctors were flown in. The Air Force brought in food on Huey helicopters, and the Women’s Community Center in Monticello sent thirty thousand sandwiches. One kid was killed as he was run over by a tractor, one died of appendicitis, and another died of a drug overdose. Hal Espen, “The Woodstock Wars”
The writer of this paragraph piles on many examples, one after
the other, to support his main idea. Each example gives a specific illustration of how Woodstock was a disaster: it rained, the promoters had to switch sites, water and food were not delivered as planned, and so on. If a single example is particularly vivid and compelling, it can sometimes be enough to support a topic sentence. The following paragraph uses one extended example to support its main idea--that fear can move one to action. Classification Paragraph Different students attend various types of schools; however, they can usually be classified as either public, private religious, private non-religious, or alternative. Public schools are funded by the state, and the majority of students in the United States attend them. Private religious schools are based around a particular faith, such as Catholicism, Judaism, and so forth. The religion is part of the everyday lives of the students and they also learn about the faiths. All types of private schools do not receive state funding. Therefore, private non-religious schools are simply just that: schools which do not receive state funding and have the ability to make their own rules. Alternative schools can be made up of a variety of different categories, such as the Montessori program or technical schools. Most students who attend class in an actual school building go to one of these types of institutions. E. Comparison and Contrast Tells how something is like other things or how something is different from other things. Example Text: Contrast Paragraph
Even though Arizona and Rhode Island are both states of
the U.S., they are strikingly different in many ways. For example, the physical size of each state is different. Arizona is large, having an area of 114,000 square miles, whereas Rhode Island is only about a tenth the size, having an area of only 1,214 square miles. Another difference is in the size of the population of each state. Arizona has about four million people living in it, but Rhode Island has less than one million. The two states also differ in the kinds of natural environments that each has. For example, Arizona is a very dry state, consisting of large desert areas that do not receive much rainfall every year. However, Rhode Island is located in a temperate zone and receives an average of 44 inches of rain per year. In addition, while Arizona is a landlocked state and thus has no seashore, Rhode Island lies on the Atlantic Ocean and does have a significant coastline. Comparison Paragraph My hometown and my college town have several things in common. First, both are small rural communities. For example, my hometown, Gridlock, has a population of only about 10,000 people. Similarly, my college town, Subnormal, consists of about 11,000 local residents. This population swells to 15,000 people when the college students are attending classes. A second way in which these two towns are similar is that they are both located in rural areas. Gridlock is surrounded by many acres of farmland which is devoted mainly to growing corn and soybeans. In the same way, Subnormal lies in the center of farmland which is used to raise hogs and cattle.
F. Cause and Effect
Details why something happens, what causes it, what are the effects and how it is related to something else. Example Text: When water is heated, the molecules move quickly, therefore the water boils. A tornado blew the roof off the house, and as a result, the family had to find another place to live. Because the alarm was not set, we were late for work. G. Problem and Solution In composition, problem-solution is a method for analyzing and writing about a topic by identifying a problem and proposing one or more solutions. A problem-solution essay is a type of argument. "This sort of essay involves argumentation in that the writer seeks to convince the reader to take a particular course of action. In explaining the problem, it may also need to persuade the reader concerning specific causes" (Dave Kemper et al., Fusion: Integrated Reading and Writing, 2016). Example Text: Problem Drug abuse causes multiple problems for countries and communities. The medical and psychological effects are very obvious. Addicts cannot function as normal members of society. They neglect or abuse their families, and eventually require expensive treatment or hospitalization. The second effect is on crime. Huge police resources are needed to fight smuggling and dealing. Criminal gangs and mafia underworlds develop with the money from drugs. Solution However, the menace of drugs can be fought. Education is the first battle. Children need to be told at home and in school about drugs. People need to be aware of the effects so that they can avoid this problem. A second approach is to increase police manpower and create effective laws to stop dealers. However the main target should be the user : Families and counselors need to talk to children and people at risk. Parents need to look at their children and help them to become responsible. Worthwhile jobs and housing are also needed to give people a role in society. H. Persuasion Describes an issue and your position or opinion on the subject. Example Text: Barack Obama makes a public speech a night before his election campaign in Virginia on November 3, 2008 by saying, “This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work…This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he’s worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China… We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes…” This emotional speech plays on the sense of the guilt of people — the reason that it is a good example of pathos. Although Obama employs snob appeal fallacy in his argument, however, it is a very influential and emotional appeal.