FORMS OF DISCOURSE

Module 4

Learning Outcomes
Discuss the four basic forms of discourse
Determine passages read into any of these basic forms
Write examples of the four basic forms of discourse

Brainstorm
There are four basic kinds of writing: expository, which explains, persuasive, which
seeks to change the readers mind; descriptive, which paints a picture for the reader; and
narrative, which relates a series of events.

EXPOSITORY PARAGRAPH
Expository writing explains an idea, presents information, or gives instruction. The word
expository comes from the term expose, meaning to reveal. Its purpose is to explain
something to the reader by providing facts and examples. All expository writing is directed
toward explaining something to a reader. To achieve the explanatory purpose, you should
establish and maintain an informative tone. The desire to communicate clearly with a particular
audience is also reflected in the supporting information and the word choice.

STRUCTURE OF AN EXPOSITORY PARAGRAPH

1. The topic sentence expresses the main idea clearly in words that define and limit the
topic for the reader.
2. The supporting sentences present factual and clear ides to be explained or compared.
These details support the main idea.
3. The concluding sentence summarizes the paragraph, evaluating the information given in
the supporting details.
Example:
There are two main types of whales: baleen whales and toothed whales. Baleen whales have slats that
grow from their upper jaws instead of teeth. These slats, called baleen, strain food out of sea water. Whales that get
their food this way include the blue whale, the right whale, the humpback, and the bowhead. Toothed whales, on the
other handsuch as the sperm whale, killer whale, narwhal, and dolphinuse their teeth to catch food. They eat

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fish, squid, and small sea mammals, which they swallow whole. The main difference between baleen whales and
toothed whales, therefore, is not only in their teeth structure but also the way they get food.
SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING EXPOSITORY PAPERS
1. Choose a topic that is appropriate to the length you have in mind and that lends itself to
a factual treatment.
2. Determine any secondary purpose and tone.
3. Determine your audiences knowledge of the topic.
4. Develop a main idea about the topic and break it down into several factual statements.
5. Gather the supporting information that you need to explain your main ideas thoroughly to
your audience.
6. Organize your paper for clarity.
7. Concentrate on explaining as you write.
8. Revise your work for unity and coherence and examine your word choices for an
objective, informative tone.

PERSUASIVE WRITING
Persuasive writing states an opinion and uses facts, examples, and reasons to
convince or urge a reader to action. It takes a stand on an issue. To persuade is to make the
readers accept a contrary opinion as more probable than the conclusion of the opposition, or a
new opinion where there was none, which serves as motive for some proposed action.
Persuasive writing can be found in editorials, speeches, reviews of books and movies, and
advertisements. Whenever you write to express an opinion or interpretation or to defend a
course of action, you are using persuasion.
Ideas and word choices in persuasive writing should work together to win the readers
acceptance of the opinion being presented. To convince the reader of something, the language
of persuasive writing must appeal to the readers interest and reason. Persuasive writing should
have a persuasive purpose and a reasonable, convincing tone. Like the other kinds of writing, a
persuasive paragraph has three main parts.

STRUCTURE OF A PERSUASIVE PARAGRAPH

1. The topic sentence states an opinion on a subject.
2. The supporting sentences use facts, examples, and reasons to back up the opinion.
3. The concluding sentence makes a final appeal to readers.
Example:
Although the United States Air Force has dismissed reports of UFOs, there is so much evidence that UFOs
exist that we should take them seriously. More than 12, 000 sightings have been reported to various organizations
and authorities. Many of these reports were made by pilots, engineers, air-traffic controllers, and other reliable
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individuals. According to the Gallop Poll, five million Americans believe they have sighted UFOs, and some have
even taken photographs. The great number of sightings warrants an open mind on the subject of UFOs.
SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING PERSUASIVE PAPERS
1. Use your knowledge and convictions to choose an opinion that you can support.
2. Determine the intensity of your purpose and tone (how persuasive you must be) and
consider any secondary purpose you might have.
3. Determine your audiences probable response to your opinion (unconcern, mild
disagreement, or strong disagreement).
4. Focus your opinion in a main idea that is direct, significant, and supportable.
5. Gather specific examples, facts, details, reasons, and incidents to support your opinion.
If you are presenting a highly controversial opinion, consider the opposition and list
evidence for and against your view.
6. Organize your supporting information logically by order of importance. For highly
controversial topics, consider the possibility of conceding one or more points to the
opposition early in your writing.
7. As you write your persuasive piece, try to concentrate on using concrete, specific words.
Your language should be reasonable but compelling and you should include smooth,
logical connections.
8. Revise your paper for persuasiveness by examining your words to make sure that the
tone is fair, and consistent throughout.

DESCRIPTIVE WRITING
Description as one of the four classic types of discourse is a representation of an image
or impression in words designed to reveal appearance, nature, or attributes of a person, a place
or a thing. It focuses on a dominant impression which can be the strongest and most
noticeable quality of the topic through the use of colorful yet appropriate language that appeals
to the readers emotions, senses, and imagination.
Description may be objective or subjective. Objective description is informative and
factual and it appeals to the intellect while subjective description appeals to the emotions and
imagination. It primarily aims to present word images that will form pictures in the mind of the
readers.
In order for a descriptive writing to be effective, it must always contain strong, specific
details. Features such as color, size, texture, shape, and condition should be expressed clearly
and sharply in action verbs, precise nouns, and colorful adjectives. Colorful language
requires sensory impressions and figures of speech. Sensory impressions are specific details
that appeal to the senses while figures of speech such as metaphor, simile, personification,
etc. can help the reader see the thing described in the composition.
Weak Description: It was a windy day.
Strong Description: The coconut leaves trembled in the warm breeze that kisses my
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cheeks.
What do you notice in the first sentence? In the second sentence? Which is a more
effective description of a windy day?
Weak Description: Hes excited to see his father.
Strong Description: He ran to the front of the house, and craned his neck to see far
away. He couldnt sit still for a minute, but kept on standing and
looking out the window with squinting look.
What do you notice in the first sentence? In the second sentence? Which is a more
effective description of an excited child?
Descriptions, like all writing, need to be well organized. A writer cannot simply give
random catalog of everything in a room and expect the reader to see the room as the writer
sees it. Instead, details should be arranged in spatial order. Spatial description deals with
objects in relation to space arrangement; it can be from top to bottom or vice-versa and near to
far or reverse.

STRUCTURE OF A DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH

1. The topic sentence introduces the subject, often suggesting an overall impression of
the subject.
2. The supporting sentences supply details that bring the subject to life.
3. The concluding sentence summarizes the overall impression of the subject.
Example:
Beside the river was a grove of tall, naked cottonwoods. They were so large that they seemed to belong to a
bygone age. They grew far apart, and their strange twisted shapes must have come about from the ceaseless winds
that bent them to the east and scoured them with sand, and from the fact that they lived with very little waterthe
river was nearly dry here for most of the year. The trees rose out of the ground at the slant, and forty or fifty feet
above the earth all these white, dry trunks changed their directions, grew back over their base linehigh up in the
forks, or at the end of a preposterous length of twisted bough, would burst a faint bouquet of delicate green leaves.
The grove looked like a winter wood of giant trees, with clustered of mistletoe growing among the bare boughs.
Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop
SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING DESCRIPTIVE PAPERS
1. Choose a topicone particular person, place, object, or experiencethat you know well
and that you can describe with specific, interesting words.
2. Decide on a dominant impression, and draft a statement about that impression.
3. Determine any secondary purpose, such as entertaining or instructing your reader.

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4. Either by observing your topic directly or imagining it, list as many details and sensory
impressions as you can. In addition, think of particularly vivid words and imaginative
comparisons that will help communicate your dominant impression to a reader.
5. Organize your support in a way that will help make the reader familiar with your topic.
6. Concentrate on involving your readers emotions, senses, and imagination as you write.
7. Revise your work for vividness, consistency of mood, and strength and unity of its
dominant impression.

NARRATIVE WRITING
Narrative writing tells a real or an imaginary story by relating a sequence of events. Its
purpose is usually to entertain. Narrative writing may have many different purposes and may
appear in forms as different as letters, novels, and newspaper articles.
The fundamental purpose of narrative writing is to relate a series of events. To achieve
this purpose, narrative writing uses graphic language which captures both action and sensory
impressions to help the reader witness the events. Narrative writing focuses on telling a series
of related events with graphic language. To serve its purpose, a narrative may be a selfcontained story or it may be a part of a longer story. When the piece is self-contained, it will
have its own beginning, middle, and end. Even when it is not self-contained, it will give the
reader the sense that time is passing, that something has happened, that one event has lead to
another.
Narrative papers will often have explicitly stated main ideas, particularly if the narrative is
self-contained. A narrative always has a storyteller or narrator who tells the story from a
particular point of view. The chart below shows the three basic points of view that you can
choose from.
POINTS OF VIEW (OR NARRATORS)
Points of View
How they Work
First Person
Tells the story as he or she experienced it;
uses the pronouns I and me
Tells the story from the outside, using the
Limited Third Person
pronouns he, she and they; does not
know what the characters are thinking.
Tells the story using the pronouns he, she
Omniscient Third Person
and they; can see into the minds of
characters and reports their thoughts
The point of view determines the kind of supporting information that can be included in
the story. For example, a limited third-person narrator cannot reveal the mental activity of any of
the characters. Instead, a paragraph with such a narrator would concentrate on the observable
physical actions of characters. All of the events in a narrative should be arranged in
chronological order. Occasionally, a writer may begin with the end point to show the events that
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led up to it. But even in this case, the writer should maintain a sense of the normal flow from one
point to another.
The language of narration should include colorful details of descriptive writing, but it
must also show the actions. Besides the exact and vivid nouns and modifiers, a narrative should
make use of strong action verbs, which will draw the reader on to the next event in the story.
Transitions and other connecting words can also help move the story along, linking one event to
the next.
STRUCTURE OF A NARRATIVE PARAGRAPH
1. The topic sentence makes a general statement about the story, captures attention, or
sets the scene.
2. The supporting sentences tell the story, event by event, of how the problem or situation
developed, what happened at its height, and how it was resolved.
3. The concluding sentence summarizes the story or makes a point about its meaning.
Example:
I never thought I would prefer a glass of water to a birthday cake, but thats what happened when I had my
tonsils out. It was the morning before I turned 14. I woke up in the recovery room, thinking only of water. Then, a
nurse wheeled me to my room where my mother was waiting. She told us that all I could have was chipped ice, and
definitely no water. Immediately, I asked my mother for a cup of ice, but it melted so slowly that my thirst wasnt
quenched. Throughout the long afternoon, I dozed in thirst misery, waking only to get more ice and see my mother
patiently reading a book. At dinnertime, my mother left for 15 minutes, and I finally saw my chance to get a good gulp
of water. The ice in the pitcher had melted and just as I was pouring a glass of cold, wonderful water, a nurse came
and whisked it away. I was still miserable the next morning until I heard some voice singing Happy Birthday and I
saw my mom and the nurse enter my room. They had a big pitcher of water with a bright red ribbon it. The water
tasted better than any birthday cake laid before me.
SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING NARRATIVE PAPERS
1. Choose an experienceeither real or imaginedthat you can tell in a series of events
and translate into clear and graphic language.
2. Decide on the point of view from which you will tell your story. Experiment with several
different narrators to see which approach seems most comfortable to you and to the
story that you want to tell. Once you have chosen your narrator, do not switch to another
point of view.
3. Determine any secondary purpose, such as amusing or instructing your reader, and any
mood that the passage will convey.
4. Decide upon and write a main point that either conveys the general truth your story
illustrates or that sets the scene and launches the action of the story.
5. List the events that are part of the experience you want to relate, making sure that they
are consistent with the point of view you have chosen.
6. Organize the events in your story according to chronological order.
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7. As you write, concentrate on the action of the story as presented from a consistent point
of view. Keep the reader reading by helping him or her to visualize the action through
your graphic language.
8. Revise your paper for consistency of point of view and for clarity and vividness of action.
Reread your story, looking for spots that could confuse your readers or that could lose
their attention.
Skill Fixer

Score

Directions: Write NA if it is a narrative paragraph, DE if descriptive, EX if expository, and PE for persuasive.

Directions:
Differentiate
each
ofbe
important
briefly.
only To
thelearn
most
words
_____ 1. Dogs
who will aid the
blindpair
must
trained to words
overcome
some Write
basic fears.
howimportant
to keep calm
in a crowd,
them
from
one another.
Two
points
each.
the dogs are that
takenwill
to differentiate
school playground
when
students
are leaving
school.
The
dogs are sharply corrected if they get
excited in all the bustle. To overcome fear of loud noise, they must hold still when the blanks are fired above their heads.
1-2.
Dominant
vs. Sensory
impression
Sometimes,
theyimpression
are even trained
on an airport
runway. Especially important is overcoming fear of heights, for the day may
come when a dog will have to lead its master down a fire escape. A well trained dog is more than a pair of eyes; it can be a
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lifesaver.
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_____2. The study room was a catastrophe. On the floor was a layer of partially typed pages and near the desk chair were
books and magazines opened flat. On the seat of the chair was an empty glass, resting in a bowl which looked as if it had
heldObjective
tomato soup.
The desk lamp
was on and lit
the countless pages of the writers work and assorted writing and erasing
3-4.
description
vs. Subjective
description
tools. The shelves above the desk held books positioned at every imaginable angle. Crowning the mess was a stack of
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newspapers on top of the bookcase. The scene lacked only the writer, who clearly had gone out for air.
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_____3. Until better sources of energy are found, nuclear power is the answer to our growing energy needs. Given the
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enormous demands by the industry and private consumers for electrical power, conventional means of generating power
and coal have proved too costly or unclean as power sources, and in the foreseeable future, the worlds supply of
petroleum will be depleted. The use of solar energy and the development of synthetic fuels may prove valuable, but they
5-6.Weak description vs. Strong description
are still in their infancy whereas, nuclear power is available today.
Although Nuclear power plants are expensive to contract, they are more efficient and economical in the long run
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because breeder reactors can recycle nuclear waste. Though everyone looks forward to safer and more efficient sources of
____________________________________________________________________________________
energy, nuclear energy is still the best choice for today.
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_____4. It was in this place and at this moment that a strange thing happened to my fancy. I thought it a strange thing then
and I thought it a strange thing long afterwards. I turned my eyesa little dimmed by looking up at the frosty lighttowards
7-8.Third
Person
Limited
vs.nook
Third
Person
a great wooden
beam
in a low
of the
buildingOmniscient
near me on my right hand, and I saw a figure hanging there by the neck.
A
figure
in
yellow
white,
with
but
one
shoe
to
the
feet;
and it hung so that I could see that the fade trimmings of the dress
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were like earthy paper, and that the face was Miss Havishams, with a movement going over the whole countenance as if
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she were trying to call me. In the terror of seeing the figure and in the terror of being certain that it had not been there
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before, I first ran from it, and then ran towards it. And my terror was greatest of all when I found no figure there.
Mnemosynes Challenge
9-10. Spatial order vs. Chronological order

Score:

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Directions: Define briefly each kind of writing and give its primary purpose.
1. Expository writing
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2. Persuasive writing
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Relax, Think and Answer
3. Descriptive writing
Score:
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4. Narrative writing

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Dip Your Pen

Directions: Write either a narrative or descriptive paragraph about one your most unforgettable
experiences or one of your favorites.
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Prepared by: franztatel

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