Brief Extracts - Argumentation, Description and Narration
 

I had, during my Masters, made notes from the book that was recommended for our course on Essay Writing titled: "Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide" by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R Mandell. These notes were brief extracts about different kinds of essays. I am sharing these with you for hopefully they might be of some use. In the following three posts briefly outlining about Argumentative, Narrative and Descriptive essays.

Regards

[B]WHAT IS ARGUMENTATION[/B]

1) Argumentation is a reasoned, logical way of convincing an audience of the soundness of a position belief, or conclusion.

2) Argumentation takes a stand – supportive by evidence – and urges people to share the writer’s perspective and insights.

3) Unlike an informal exchange of opinion, formal arguments follow rules designed to ensure that ideas are presented fairly and logically.

4) The first rules governing argument were formulated thousands of years ago by the ancient Greeks.

I. One purpose of argument is to convince reasonable people to accept your position.

II. Another is simply to defend your position, to establish its validity even if other people cannot be convinced to agree.

III. A third purpose of argumentation is to question or refute some position you believe to be misguided, untrue, or evil, without necessarily offering an alternative of your own.

[B]ARGUMENTATION AND PERSUASION[/B]

1) Although persuasion and arguments are terms frequently used interchangeably in everyday speech, they are quite different.

2) Persuasion is a general term used to describe a technique a writer uses to move an audience to adopt a belief or follow a course of action.

3) To persuade an audience a writer relies on various appeals – to the emotions, to reasons, or to ethics.

4) Argument is the appeal to reason. In an argument a writer connects a series of statements in an orderly way so that they lead to a conclusion.

5) Argument is different from persuasion in that it does not try to move an audience that certain ideas are valid and that others are not.

6) Unlike persuasion, argumentation has a formal structure: To support a conclusion, an argument makes points, supplies evidence, establishes a logical chain of reasoning, refutes opposing arguments, and accommodates the views of an audience.

7) Most effective argumentation essays appeal to the emotions as well as to reason.

8) For Example: A combination of logical and emotional appeals to argue against lowering the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen years of age.

9) One can appeal to reason by constructing an argument that leads to the conclusion that policies that have a high probability of injuring and killing citizens should not be condoned.

10) One can appeal to the emotions by telling a particular sad story about an eighteen-year-old alcoholic.

11) What appeals, you decide and how you balance them depend in part on your purpose and your sense of your audience. But ethical questions are also involved.

12) Some extremely effective means of persuasion are quite simple unfair.

13) Although most people would agree that lies, threats, and appeals to greed and prejudice are unacceptable ways of motivating an audience to action, such appeals are commonly used in political campaigns, international diplomacy, and daily conversation.

14) One, however, should use only those appeals to emotion that most people would perceive as being fair.

[B]CHOOSING A TOPIC[/B]

1) In an argumentative essay, choosing the right topic is important.

2) It should be one in which you have an intellectual or emotional interest.

3) Nevertheless, you should be open-minded and willing to consider all sides of a question.

4) If the evidence goes against your position, you should be able to change your thesis or even the subject.

5) You should also be able, in advance, to consider your topic from other people’s viewpoints so that you understand what they believe and can build logical case. If you cannot, then you should abandon your topic and pick another one that you can deal with more objectively.

6) You should be well informed about your topic.

7) You should select a limited issue, narrow enough to be treated effectively in the space available to you.

8) Confine your discussion to a particular aspect of a wider (broad) issue.

9) Also consider your objective/purpose what you expect your argument to accomplish and how you wish your audience to resend.

10) If your topic is so far-reaching that you cannot identify what you want yo convince a reader to think, or so idealistic that your expectations are impossible or unreasonable, your essay will not be effective.

[B]TAKING A STAND[/B]

1) To state the position you will argue in the form of a thesis.

2) Before going any further you should examine your thesis to make sure that it is Debatable.

3) There is no point in arguing a statement of fact or a point that people accept as self-evident.

4) A good argumentative thesis would contain a proposition that has at least two sides and could function as the basis of an argument.

5) A good way to test the suitability of your thesis for an argumentation essay is to formulate an antithesis, a statement that asserts the opposite position.

6) It is also imperative that your own attitude toward your thesis should be tested.
7) If you are so convinced you are right that you cannot understand or respect opposing views and the people who hold them, you do not have the objectivity you need to develop a sound and persuasive argument.

8) Argument is demanding, and it requires clear thought and a reasonably cool head.

9) Of course, you should care about your subject and believe you position is right, but the strength of your conviction will not guarantee a strong argument.

[B]ANALYZING YOUR AUDIENCE[/B]

1) One must analyze the characteristics, values, and interests of your audience.

2) After assessing your audience, you need to assess what beliefs or opinions they are likely to hold and whether they are friendly, neutral, or hostile to your thesis.

3) It is probably best to assume that some, if not most, of your readers are at least skeptically neutral and possibly hostile.

4) This assumption will keep you from making claims you cannot support.

5) If your position is controversial, you should assume an informed and determined opposition is looking for holes in you argument.

6) Often you begin with a purpose in mind but must decide on an audience.

7) If you want to make something happen, who has the power to do it? Whom do you have to persuade, and how would those readers respond to your efforts? Sometimes you will need to appeal to several different audiences, tailoring your persuasive method and approach to each.

8) Each of these considerations influences your approach to your subject.

9) You could be reasonably sure, in advance, that each group would be friendly and would agree with your position.

10) But argument requires more than telling people what they already believe.

11) Whether your readers are mildly sympathetic, neutral or even hostile to your position, your purpose is to change their views to match your own more closely.

12) Remember, your audience will not just take your word for things. You must provide evidence that will support your thesis and reasoning that will lead to your conclusion.

[B]GATHERING EVIDENCE[/B]

1) All the points that you make in your paper must be supported.

2) If they are not, your audience will dismiss them as irrelevant or unclear.

3) Sometimes you can support a statement with appeals to emotion, but most of the time you support the points of your argument by appealing to reason – by providing evidence, material presented in support of your claim.

4) As you gather evidence and assess its effectiveness, keep in mind that evidence in an argumentative essay never proves anything conclusively. If it did there would be no debate and hence no point in arguing.

5) The best that evidence can do is convince your audience that an assertion is reasonable and worth believing. Choose you evidence with this goal in mind.

6) Evidence can consist of fact or opinion. Facts are statements that most people agree are true and that can be verified independently.

7) Examples are the most common type of factual evidence, but statistics – evidence expressed as numbers – are also factual.

8) Facts may be drawn from your own experience as well as from reading and observation.

9) Quite often, facts alone are not enough to support an assertion. In such cases, you need opinions, interpretations of facts.

10) Keep in mind that not all opinions are equal. You may form opinions based on personal experience and observation and use such opinions to support an argument.

11) Still the opinions of experts are more convincing than are those of individuals who have less experience with or knowledge of an issue.

12) Your personal opinions can be excellent evidence provided you are knowledgeable about your subject, but they seldom constitute enough evidence to support a major assertion of your argument.

13) In the final analysis, what is important is not just the quality of the evidence, but also the credibility of the person offering the evidence.

14) As soon as you decide a topic, you should begin to gather as much evidence as you can.

15) Brainstorm to think of experiences and observations that would support your claims.

16) If your topic is technical or demands support beyond your own knowledge of the subject, go to the library and search the card catalog, periodical indexes, and reference books to locate the information that you need.

17) When selecting and reviewing material, remember three things about your evidence: -

I. YOUR EVIDENCE SHOULD BE RELEVANT. Your evidence should support your thesis and should contribute to the argument that you are making. As you present evidence, you may concentrate so much on a specific example that you lose sight of the point you are supporting. As a result, you digress from your point, and your readers become confused.

II. YOUR EVIDENCE SHOULD BE REPRESENTATIVE. Your evidence should represent the full range of opinions about your subject, not just one side or the other. Examples and expert opinions should be typical, not aberrant. Look especially hard at opinions that disagree with the position you plan to take. They will help you understand your opposition and enable you to refute it effectively when you write your paper.

III. YOUR EVIDENCE SHOULD BE SUFFICIENT. Your evidence should be sufficient to support your claims. The amount of evidence that you need depends on your audience and your thesis. It stands to reason that you would use fewer examples in a two-page paper than in a ten-page research assignment. Similarly, an audience that is favorably disposed to your thesis might need only one or two examples to be convinced, while a skeptical audience would need many more. As you develop your thesis, consider the level of support that you will need as you write your paper. You may decide that a narrower more limited thesis might be easier to support than one that is more expansive.

18) As you can see, the evidence and reasoning you use in an argument depend to a great extent on whom you want to persuade and what you know about them.

[B]DEALING WITH THE OPPOSITION[/B]

1) Arguments against the author’s position must be deal effectively; this has to be kept in mind from the very start of the essay.

2) One should address the most obvious objections to the case.

3) It is imperative to think of objections that may logically be raised against your opinion.

4) Directly addressing such objections in your essay helps the audience to get convinced that arguments in your essay are sound and show both sides of the coin.

5) IMP: This part of the essay, in classical rhetoric, is called refutation and is considered essential to making the strongest case possible on behalf of your thesis.

6) Opposing arguments can be refuted by showing their weakness, unsoundness and unfairness.

7) Contrasting evidence is used frequently to show how weak the opposing arguments really are.

8) While refuting an opposite argument one must not distort it or make it seem weaker than it actually is. This technique is called creating a straw man and can put your work in harm’s way.

9) A strong argument that can not be totally eliminated should be acknowledged, this will portray you as a sensible and fair-minded person.

10) Many times a strong point represents only one element in a multifaceted problem. For this reason your ability to use process and classification and division will be important in establishing the strength of your argument.

11) When planning argumentative essay, one should write down all the objections to the thesis that one can identify.

12) These objections can than be scrutinized to make a list of those which may be refuted.

13) It, however, be reminded that audience and specifically sensible readers expect the author to refute intelligently the most compelling of your opponent’s arguments.

[B]DEDUCTIVE AND INDUCTIVE ARGUMENTS[/B]

Deductive: General to Specific

Inductive: Specific to General

1) Deductive reasoning proceeds from a general premise or assumption to a specific conclusion.

2) It is what most people mean when they speak of logic. Using strict logical form, deduction holds that if all the statements in the argument are true, the conclusion must also be true.

3) Inductive reasoning proceeds from individual observations to a more general conclusion and uses no strict form.

4) It requires only that all the relevant evidence be stated and that the conclusion fit the evidence better than any other conclusion would.

[B]A. Deductive Arguments[/B]

1) The basic form of a deductive argument is a syllogism*. A syllogism consists of a major premise, which is a general statement: a minor premise, which is a related but more specific statement; and a conclusion, which has to be drawn from those premises.

*SYLLOGISM: A basic form of deductive reasoning. Every syllogism includes three parts, i) Major premise: Makes a general statement ii) Minor Premise: Makes a related but specific statement iii) Conclusion: Drawn from the above two statements.

2) For Example:

Major Premise : All Olympic runners are fast
Minor Premise: John is an Olympic runner
Conclusion : Therefore, John is fast.

3) From the example, if you grant each of the premises, then you must also grant the conclusion – and it is the only conclusion that you can properly draw.

4) Any conclusion except this, e.g. John is slow, John is tall etc, is wrong because these contradict the premises.

5) A deductive argument can be powerful, and its premises can be fairly elaborated.

6) From the essay of Jonathan, The Declaration of Independence, following core evidence may be seen:
Major Premise: Tyrannical rulers deserve no loyalty.
Minor Premise: King George III is a tyrannical ruler.
Conclusion : Therefore, King George III deserves no loyalty.

7) When a conclusion follows logically from the major and minor premises, then the argument is said to be valid. But if the syllogism is not logical, the argument is not valid and the conclusion is not sound, for example
Major Premise: All dogs are animals.
Minor Premise: All cats are animals.
Conclusion : Therefore, All dogs are cats.

8) The above conclusion is absurd (irrational, illogical). The reason is, although cats and dogs are animals, cats are not included in the major premise of the syllogism. Thus the form of the syllogism is defective, and the argument is invalid. To be sound, the syllogism must be both logical and true.

9) Advantage of a deductive argument is that if you convince your audience to accept your major and minor premises, they should also accept your conclusion. The problem is to establish your basic assumptions. You try to select premises that you know your audience accepts or that are self-evident – that is, premises that most people would believe to be true.

10) All aspects and ideas are to be kept in consideration. Not all opinions should be in support of your idea. Opposing ideas should strictly be included so that the audience may get satisfied with your opinion.

11) If premises are too controversial or difficult to establish firmly, you should use inductive reasoning.

[B]B. Inductive Arguments[/B]

12) i) Induction has no distinctive form, and its conclusions are less definitive than those of syllogisms whose forms are valid and whose premises are clearly true.

ii) First, you decide on a question to be answered – or, especially in scientific work, a tentative (uncertain, not final) answer to such a question, called a hypothesis.

iii) You than gather all the evidence you can find that is relevant to the question and that may be important to finding the answer.

iv) Finally, you draw a conclusion often called the inference that answers the question and takes the evidence into account.

v) For Example:
Question: How did that living-room window got broken.
Evidence: There is a baseball on the living-room floor
That baseball was not there this morning.
Some children were playing baseball this afternoon.
They were playing in the vacant lot across from the window.
They stopped playing a little while ago.
They aren’t in the vacant lot now.
Conclusion: One of the children hit or threw the ball through the window.
Then they all ran away.

The conclusion seems obvious. That is because it takes all of the evidences into account. But if it turned out that the children had been playing softball, not baseball, that one additional piece of evidence would make the conclusion very doubtful – and the true answer would be much harder to infer…..

vi) Inductive leap: With induction conclusions are never certain, only highly probable. Although the form of induction does not point to any particular type of conclusion the way deduction does, making sure that your evidence is relevant, representative, and sufficient can increase the probability of your conclusion’s being sound.

vii) Considering alternate conclusions is a good way to avoid reaching an unjustified or false conclusion.

viii) Jumping on to conclusions without assessing the evidence is what audience accuses an author the most. A hasty conclusion is one that is not borne out by the facts.

ix). In induction, an hypothesis is merely the starting point. The rest of the inductive process continues as if the questions were to be answered – as in fact it is until all the evidence has been taken into account.

[B]Fallacies of Argument[/B]

1). Fallacies are statements that may look like arguments but are not logically defensible and may actually be deceptive. When detected they can backfire and turn even a sympathetic audience against your position. Here are some of the more common fallacies that you should try to avoid.

I. Begging the question: is a logical fallacy that assumes in the premise what the arguer is trying to prove in the conclusion. This tactic asks us to agree that certain points are self-evident when they are not.

Example: The unfair and shortsighted legislation that limits free trade is clearly a threat to the American economy.

II. Argument from Analogy: An analogy is a comparison of two unlike things. Although analogies can explain an abstract or unclear idea and can be quite convincing, they never prove anything. When you base an argument on an analogy and ignore important dissimilarities between the two things being compared, you create a fallacy.

Example: The overcrowded conditions in some parts of our city have forced people together like rats in a cage. Like rats, they will eventually turn on one another, fighting and killing until a balance is restored. It is therefore, necessary that we vote to appropriate funds to build low-cost housing.

III. Personal Attack (Argument Ad Hominem): This fallacy tries to turn attention away from the facts of an issue by attacking the motives or character of one’ opponent.

Example: The Public should not take seriously Dr. Mason’s plan for upgrading county health services. He is a former alcoholic whose second wife recently divorced him.

IV. Hasty and Sweeping Generalization: This fallacy occurs when a general principle is applied mistakenly to a special case.

[B]WHAT IS DESCRIPTION?[/B]

1. Description tells what something or someone looks like.

a. As presented in the specimen example the writer uses and relies on sense impressions and figurative language to paint a word picture of the Jungle in Ecuador.

2. Before the judgments about the world, before the comparison or contrast or classification of experiences, one describes what he observes.

3. Scientists observe and describe whenever they conduct experiments, and one does the same thing whenever he writes a paper.

4. EXAPMLE: In a comparison-and-contrast essay, for example, you may describe the performance of two cars to show that one is superior to the other.

5. EXAMPLE: In an argumentative essay, you may describe a fish kill in a local river to show that factory pollution is a problem

6. Through description you introduce your view of the world to your readers.

7. If the readers are in agreement with your point of view than they will be most likely be sharing and accepting your conclusion and judgment.

8. Therefore, it is imperative to make yourself good in description, and know what it takes to describe an effective description.

9. Narration V/s Description:

a. A narration presents a series of events; it tells a story whereas a description tells what something looks like, feels like, sounds like, smells like or tastes like. (Sensual Description.)

b. A narrative always presents events in time, in some sort of chronological order, whereas a description presents things in spatial rather temporal order.

10. Novelists, scientists and historians may portray by words the phenomena which they or we have never seen. (Imaginative Description.)

11. In a description, language is used to create a vivid impression to readers. That’s why the descriptive details are used in narrations as well.

12. In support of an implied or explicit thesis, one may use description.

a. Writers often use an implicit thesis when they describe a person, place or thing.

b. This technique allows them to convey the narrative’s descriptive impression2– the mood or quality that is emphasized in the piece of writing – subtly through the selection and arrangements of details.

c. Many writers use description to support an idea or assertion, however, many writers prefer to use an explicitly stated thesis.

d. This strategy eliminates ambiguity by letting readers see immediately what point the writer is making.

13. Whether the thesis is stated or implied, the details of your narrative essay must work together to create a single dominant impression.

14. In cases the thesis may simply be the statement of the dominant impression; sometimes, however, your thesis may go further and make a point about the dominant impression.

[Foot Notes: 1. The purpose of description is to re-create or visually present a person, place, event, or action so that the reader may picture that which is being described. Descriptive writing may be found in the other rhetorical modes.

2. Dominant impression in descriptive writing is the principal effect the author wishes to create for the audience.]

[B]I. OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION[/B]

There are two basic approaches to description: objective and subjective.

[B]1. OBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION[/B]

A. In an objective description, the focus is on the object rather than on one’s personal reactions to it.

B. The purpose is to convey a literal picture of the subject.

C. Many writing situations require precise descriptions of apparatus or conditions, and in these cases the goal is to construct as accurate a picture as possible for the audience.

D. A biologist describing what he sees through a microscope and a historian describing a Civil War battlefield would both write objectively.

E. Newspaper reporters also try to achieve this camera-like objectivity, and so do writers of technical reports, scientific papers and certain types of business correspondence.

F. Indeed, objectivity is an ideal for which writers strive but never achieve.

G. Anytime writers select some details and eliminate others, they are not being completely objective.

H. Objectivity can be achieved to a level by giving all factual information to the readers which they need to visualize in the context.

[B]2. SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION[/B]

A. Subjective or impressionistic description discloses your personal vision or your emotional responses to what you see and tries to get your readers to share them.

B. These responses are not necessarily expressed directly, through a straightforward statement of your opinion or perspective. Often they are revealed indirectly, through your choice of words and phrasing.

C. While describing a place or person, you could convey your subjective reaction to your topic by selecting and emphasizing details that show your feelings about the place or person.

D. A subjective or impressionistic description should convey not just a factual record of sights and sounds but also their meaning or significance. For example if you objectively described a fire, you might include its temperature, its duration, its dimensions. In addition, to these quantifiable details you might describe, as accurately as possible, the fire’s color, its movement, and its intensity. If you subjectively describe the fire, however, you will include more that these unbiased observations about it. Through your choice of language and your phrasing, you would try to re-create for your audience a sense of how the fire made you feel: your reactions to the crackling noise, to the dense smoke, to the sudden destruction.

1. Neither of the two approaches to description exists independently. Objective description almost always contains some subjective elements, and subjective description needs some objective elements to convey a sense of reality

2. The skillful writer adjusts the balance between objectivity and subjectivity to suit the topic, thesis, audience, purpose, and occasion of an essay.

[B]II. OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE LANGUAGE[/B]

1. Both objective and subjective description depend on specific and concrete words to convey, as precisely as possible, a picture of the person, place, or thing that the observer is describing.

2. Both approaches however use different kinds of language.

[B]OBJECTIVE[/B]

i. This description relies on precise, factual language that details your observation without including your attitude toward the subject.

ii. They describe things with words or phrases so unambiguous that many observers could agree that the descriptions were appropriate and exact.

[B]SUBJECTIVE[/B]

i. This description, however, generally relies on richer and more suggestive language than objective descriptions.

ii. Subjective descriptions are more likely to rely on the commutations of words, their emotional associations than on their denotations, or dictionary definitions

iii. They may deliberately provoke the individual reader’s imagination with striking phrases or vivid comparisons.

3. Although both kinds of description may use comparisons to evoke a subject, subjective descriptions rely more on elaborate or imaginative comparisons.

4. When you write subjective descriptions, you can compare two similar things.

5. Instead of comparing two things that are alike, you can find similarities between things that are unlike and provide a fresh view of both. Such special comparisons are known as figures of speech. Three of the most common are simile, metaphor and personification.

A. A simile compares two things that unlike, using like or as. These comparisons occur frequently in everyday speech, for example, when someone claims to be “happy as a clam,” “free as a bird,” or “hungry as a bear.” As a rule, however, you should avoid these clinches in your writing. Effective writers constantly strive to use original similes.

B. A metaphor identifies two unlike things without using like or as. Instead of saying that something is like something else, a metaphor says that it is something else.

C. Personification endows animals or objects with the qualities of man beings. If you say that the wind whispered to, that the engine died, you are using personification.

6. Your purpose and audience determine whether you should use predominantly objective or subjective description.

7. Legal, medical, technical, business, and scientific writing assignments frequently require objective description, but even in these areas you may be encouraged to tailor your descriptions so that they develop your own interpretations and arguments.

8. Still in all these instances your purpose is primarily to give your audience factual information about your subject.

9. In contrast, an assignment that specifically asks for your reactions demands a subjective or impressionistic description.

10. To produce an effective description, however, you must do more than just say something is wonderful – you must picture it as wonderful to the reader.

[B]III. SELECTION OF DETAIL[/B]

1. All good descriptive writing, whether objective or subjective, relies heavily on specific details that enable readers to visualize what you are describing.

2. Your aim in not simply to tell your readers what something looks like but to show them.

3. Every person, place and thing has its special characteristics, and you must use your powers of observation to detect them.

4. Concrete words must be selected for conveying your dominant impression that will enable readers to see, hear, taste, touch or smell what the author describes.

5. For Example: The example of showing “He looked angry.” “His face flushed and one corner of his mouth twitched as he tried to control his anger.”

6. In a given description, not all details are equally useful or desirable. Only those that contribute to the dominant impression the author wishes to create should be included.

7. The number of details used is less important than their quality and appropriateness.

8. To avoid a seemingly endless list of details that blur the focus of your essay, you must select and use only those details relevant to your purpose.

9. The level and knowledge of your audience also influence the kind of detail that you include.

10. For Example: A description of DNA molecule for first year college students VS for Junior Biology Majors.

[B]STRUCTURING A DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY[/B]

1. When writing a descriptive essay, it begins with a brainstorming list of unorganized details, which you proceed to arrange in a way that supports your thesis and communicates your dominant impression.

2. For Example: The author may begin from a specific description of an object to a general description of other things around it or s/he can reverse this order.

3. The author can progress from the lease important feature to a more important feature until s/he finally focuses on the most important feature.

4. The progress can also be from the smallest to the largest item or from the least unusual to the most unusual detail.

5. The details of the description can be presented in a straightforward spatial order, moving from left to right or right to left, from top to bottom or bottom to top.

6. At final, you can also combine organizing schemes, using different schemes in different parts of the description.

7. The particular technique you choose depends on the dominant impression you want to convey, your thesis, and your purpose and audience.

[B]I. Points for Special Attention[/B]

[B]Objective Description:[/B]

1. In an objective description, subjectively describing the things is not appropriate. Instead of giving subjective reaction, the author must present the facts and give special attention towards the object. Sometimes simple details and conveying straightforward intention of and about thesis is well enough.

[B]Objective Language:
[/B]
1. The language is also dependent on the readers, what level they belong to. If the description is written for readers already having know-how about the particular thing, place or person, the language may be more direct and technical for there will not be pains for the author to explain things.

2. For Example: In a scientific descriptive essay written for science students, the language will be technical, as the example of the objective description of a microscope.

3. In objective descriptions, subjective language and elaborate figures of speech are not used.

4. The objective language is technical, factual and concrete, and concentrates on the size shape and composition of the specimen.

[B]Structure:[/B]

1. For Example: In the essay about the description of a microscope, the author starts from the bottom of the microscope, with its largest part – the stand. He next directs the reader’s attention upward from the optic tube to the eyepiece and than downward. In the introduction, the author comments on the microscope’s purpose and general appearance; in his conclusion, he summarizes the microscope’s historical significance and briefly considers its future.

[B]Selection of Detail:[/B]

1. For Example: The identification of readers who will read the essay is important for selecting the details of the objective essay. The level of readers, for example, in “The Light Microscope” is a group of well-educated nonscientists who know what a microscope looks like but that he would have to describe the individual components in detail.

[B]II. Points for Special Attention[/B]

[B]Subjective Description:[/B]

1. Vivid details are used. Using language the place is described and shown.

2. Using language in specific way helps the author to create dominant impression of the subject.

3. The language is specific, just like in the previous objective description, but this is used to create a different kind of dominant impression.

4. The thesis of the description, here, comes at the last paragraph.

[B]Subjective language and Figures of Speech:[/B]

1. In “The Valley of Windmills” the author upon first introducing the windmills, questions about their reality. The questions rather her imaginative responses are all menacing connotations.

2. She, the author, personifies the windmills by describing them dark, evil, sneering figures with “arms hanging derelict.”

[B]Structure:[/B]

1. The author’s purpose in writing this paper was to give the readers the sensation of actually being in the Valley of Windmills in Burma (Myanmar).

2. She uses and organizing scheme that takes readers along the road to Taungaleik, up into the Tennesserim Mountains, and finally to the pass where the windmills wait.

3. The details are described “According to her.”

4. Throughout her description she builds up her thesis, about the nature of life in Burma.

5. She withholds the explicit statement of her main point until her last paragraph, when readers have been fully prepared for it.

[B]WHAT IS NARRATION?[/B]

1. A narrative tells a story by presenting events in an orderly, logical sequence.

2. Narration can be the dominant pattern in many types of writing – formal, such as history, biography, autobiography, and journalism, as well as less formal, such as personal letters and entries in diaries and journals.

3. Narration is also an essential part of casual conversation, and it underlies tall tales, speeches and news and feature stories presented on television or radio.

4. In short, any time one “tells what happened,” he is using narration.

5. A narrative may be written simply to recount events or to create a particular mood or impression.

6. It also is written to prove a point by narrating a first-hand or else wise experience.

7. Narration is not simply telling a story, it also requires arrangement of details about the particular incident or event you are going to talk about.

8. Narrative writing may be part of an essay that is not primarily a narrative for example one may use narrative in argumentative essay or descriptive essay.

9. In other kinds of essay, when narrative is included, these paragraphs, though only a small portion of the essay, still have a definite purpose and are used to prove one’s point.

10. In such cases, however, the elements of the basic kind of essay (argumentative, descriptive).

11. The skills developed in narrative writing are also helpful in other kinds of writing. A process essay is like a narrative in that it outlines series of steps in chronological order.

12. A cause-and-effect essay also resembles narrative in that it traces a sequence of events.

[B]A. What Is Narrative Detail?[/B]

1. Narratives, like other types of writing, need rich, specific detail if they are to be convincing. Each detail should help form a picture for the reader; even exact times, dates and geographical locations can be helpful.

2. The list of details makes the narrative genuine and convincing.

[B]B. What is Narrative Variety?[/B]

1. Because Narrative is often told from one person’s prospective, and because they usually present a series of events in chronological order, a constant danger is that all the sentences will begin to sound alike.

2. A narrative without sentence variety may affect readers to boredom.

3. This boredom can be avoided by varying the structures of the sentences e.g., by alternating sentence openings, inverting subject-verb order, or combining simple sentences.

[B]C. What Is Narrative Order?[/B]

1. Many narrative present events in exactly the order in which they occurred, moving from beginning to end, from first event to last.

2. If one is writing a straight-forward account of a historical even, he needs to move efficiently from beginning to end.

3. In writing personal experience essays or fictional narratives, however, one may choose to engage reader’s attention and interest by beginning with a key event from the middle of the story or even from the end, and than presenting the events that led up to it.

4. Starting into present and using a flashback to move into past may also be used but whatever the order is, it should shape and direct the narrative.

5. Verb-Tense is an extremely important clue in writing that recounts events in a fixed order because tenses show the temporal relationships of actions – earlier, simultaneous, later.

6. When one writes a narrative, he must be especially careful to keep verb tense consistent and accurate so the readers can easily understand the time sequence.

7. There are times when you must shift tense to reflect an actual time shift in your narrative. For example, convention requires that one use present tense when discussing works of literature. But a flashback to an earlier point in the story calls from present to past tense.

8. Nevertheless it is imperative to avoid unnecessary shifts in verb tense because this will lead to confusion in narrative.

9. Together with Verb Tenses, Transitions – Connecting words or phrases – are the most precise indicators of the relationships among events in time.

10. Transitions include first, second, next, then, later, at the same time, meanwhile, immediately, soon, before, earlier, after, afterwards, now and finally.


[B]STRUCTURING A NARRATIVE ESSAY[/B]

1. Like other essays, narratives usually have an introduction, a body and a conclusion.

2. The thesis of an essay appears to be in introduction.

3. After the thesis, the body of the essay will recount the series of events that makes up the narrative, following a clear and orderly plan.

4. The conclusion will give the reader the sense that the story is complete, perhaps by repeating the thesis.

[B]A. Introduction[/B]

I. It may begin with a simple sentence or statement. This must show that the entire essay will be woven around this very idea.

II. The introduction may also be able to move the readers smoothly into the main body without any interruption.

III. Introduction is the beginning of the essay and is connected with the main body. To maintain the order of Narration, the transition from introduction to main body should be obvious but not unrelated.

[B]B. Thesis[/B]

I. Usually the thesis appears in the introduction. The thesis is again presented in the conclusion to ensure that the thesis is proved. In the main body, the events directly or indirectly may relate to the main thesis presented.

[B]C. Structure.[/B]

I. The body of an essay has to be well-structured both in order and variety. The balance of the essay should proceed in chronological order, working up to the climax or high point of the narration.

[B]D. Detail[/B]

I. To present an actual picture of the events, all the significant details are to be supplied and presented.

II. Details should be limited to the context, no extra details be given lest it may confuse and divert the reader from the main idea.

[B]E. Dialogue[/B]

I. The relationships between the characters of a narration can be shown via dialogues.

II. Dialogues are also important in presenting the first person view about the events.

III. Usage of indirect and direct speech in dialogues to create variety.

IV. Whenever a new character starts a dialogue, it should be convened by a new paragraph.

[B]F. Sentence Variety[/B]

I. The sentences should be sufficiently varied to sustain reader’s interest.

II. In this respect, monotonous sequences of uneven sentences be avoided and sentence openings should be varied.

III. Usage of small sentence structures should be avoided. Instead of two or three small length sentences, one single sentence should be used.

[B]G. Verb Tense[/B]

I. Maintaining clear chronological order in events is very important similarly unwanted shifts in tense can confuse the readers.

II. The author should be careful to avoid unnecessary shifts in tense.

III. The necessary shifts are a must so one must do so wherever this is required.

IV. Along with Verb tense, Transitions should also be used effectively as time markers.

Really Appreciable! Sir if you have more do share them.

[QUOTE=courageneverdies;514910][B]WHAT IS NARRATION?[/B]

1. A narrative tells a story by presenting events in an orderly, logical sequence.

2. Narration can be the dominant pattern in many types of writing – formal, such as history, biography, autobiography, and journalism, as well as less formal, such as personal letters and entries in diaries and journals.

3. Narration is also an essential part of casual conversation, and it underlies tall tales, speeches and news and feature stories presented on television or radio.

4. In short, any time one “tells what happened,” he is using narration.

5. A narrative may be written simply to recount events or to create a particular mood or impression.

6. It also is written to prove a point by narrating a first-hand or else wise experience.

7. Narration is not simply telling a story, it also requires arrangement of details about the particular incident or event you are going to talk about.

8. Narrative writing may be part of an essay that is not primarily a narrative for example one may use narrative in argumentative essay or descriptive essay.

9. In other kinds of essay, when narrative is included, these paragraphs, though only a small portion of the essay, still have a definite purpose and are used to prove one’s point.

10. In such cases, however, the elements of the basic kind of essay (argumentative, descriptive).

11. The skills developed in narrative writing are also helpful in other kinds of writing. A process essay is like a narrative in that it outlines series of steps in chronological order.

12. A cause-and-effect essay also resembles narrative in that it traces a sequence of events.

[B]A. What Is Narrative Detail?[/B]

1. Narratives, like other types of writing, need rich, specific detail if they are to be convincing. Each detail should help form a picture for the reader; even exact times, dates and geographical locations can be helpful.

2. The list of details makes the narrative genuine and convincing.

[B]B. What is Narrative Variety?[/B]

1. Because Narrative is often told from one person’s prospective, and because they usually present a series of events in chronological order, a constant danger is that all the sentences will begin to sound alike.

2. A narrative without sentence variety may affect readers to boredom.

3. This boredom can be avoided by varying the structures of the sentences e.g., by alternating sentence openings, inverting subject-verb order, or combining simple sentences.

[B]C. What Is Narrative Order?[/B]

1. Many narrative present events in exactly the order in which they occurred, moving from beginning to end, from first event to last.

2. If one is writing a straight-forward account of a historical even, he needs to move efficiently from beginning to end.

3. In writing personal experience essays or fictional narratives, however, one may choose to engage reader’s attention and interest by beginning with a key event from the middle of the story or even from the end, and than presenting the events that led up to it.

4. Starting into present and using a flashback to move into past may also be used but whatever the order is, it should shape and direct the narrative.

5. Verb-Tense is an extremely important clue in writing that recounts events in a fixed order because tenses show the temporal relationships of actions – earlier, simultaneous, later.

6. When one writes a narrative, he must be especially careful to keep verb tense consistent and accurate so the readers can easily understand the time sequence.

7. There are times when you must shift tense to reflect an actual time shift in your narrative. For example, convention requires that one use present tense when discussing works of literature. But a flashback to an earlier point in the story calls from present to past tense.

8. Nevertheless it is imperative to avoid unnecessary shifts in verb tense because this will lead to confusion in narrative.

9. Together with Verb Tenses, Transitions – Connecting words or phrases – are the most precise indicators of the relationships among events in time.

10. Transitions include first, second, next, then, later, at the same time, meanwhile, immediately, soon, before, earlier, after, afterwards, now and finally.


[B]STRUCTURING A NARRATIVE ESSAY[/B]

1. Like other essays, narratives usually have an introduction, a body and a conclusion.

2. The thesis of an essay appears to be in introduction.

3. After the thesis, the body of the essay will recount the series of events that makes up the narrative, following a clear and orderly plan.

4. The conclusion will give the reader the sense that the story is complete, perhaps by repeating the thesis.

[B]A. Introduction[/B]

I. It may begin with a simple sentence or statement. This must show that the entire essay will be woven around this very idea.

II. The introduction may also be able to move the readers smoothly into the main body without any interruption.

III. Introduction is the beginning of the essay and is connected with the main body. To maintain the order of Narration, the transition from introduction to main body should be obvious but not unrelated.

[B]B. Thesis[/B]

I. Usually the thesis appears in the introduction. The thesis is again presented in the conclusion to ensure that the thesis is proved. In the main body, the events directly or indirectly may relate to the main thesis presented.

[B]C. Structure.[/B]

I. The body of an essay has to be well-structured both in order and variety. The balance of the essay should proceed in chronological order, working up to the climax or high point of the narration.

[B]D. Detail[/B]

I. To present an actual picture of the events, all the significant details are to be supplied and presented.

II. Details should be limited to the context, no extra details be given lest it may confuse and divert the reader from the main idea.

[B]E. Dialogue[/B]

I. The relationships between the characters of a narration can be shown via dialogues.

II. Dialogues are also important in presenting the first person view about the events.

III. Usage of indirect and direct speech in dialogues to create variety.

IV. Whenever a new character starts a dialogue, it should be convened by a new paragraph.

[B]F. Sentence Variety[/B]

I. The sentences should be sufficiently varied to sustain reader’s interest.

II. In this respect, monotonous sequences of uneven sentences be avoided and sentence openings should be varied.

III. Usage of small sentence structures should be avoided. Instead of two or three small length sentences, one single sentence should be used.

[B]G. Verb Tense[/B]

I. Maintaining clear chronological order in events is very important similarly unwanted shifts in tense can confuse the readers.

II. The author should be careful to avoid unnecessary shifts in tense.

III. The necessary shifts are a must so one must do so wherever this is required.

IV. Along with Verb tense, Transitions should also be used effectively as time markers.[/QUOTE]
Kindly share some detailed examples of different forms of exposition. It would help to practice essays in a concentrated way.