Module 4: Paragraph Development: Exemplification and Narration

Posted By: Vivian D. Peremacio
Sources: 1. http://www.mhhe.com/mayfieldpub/tsw/para-dev.htm

                2. http://grammar.about.com/od/developingparagraphs/a/junkfoodjunkie.htm

                3. http://www.mhhe.com/mayfieldpub/tsw/narrativ.htm
                4. http://www.suite101.com/content/example-of-a-narrative-paragraph-a106737
                5. http://www.ehow.com/how_2046960_write-narrative-paragraph.html

INTRODUCTION

Develop paragraphs in a variety of patterns that reflect your thinking about the material. As you write the topic sentence and its supporting sentences, look for ways to structure your thinking. Where one author advances his or her material by narrating a series of events, another undertakes a physical description and another undertakes an analysis of the topic. These patterns of paragraph development usually emerge in the process of revision. More than one pattern of development may be used in a series of paragraphs.

Here are some important modes of paragraph development:

Exemplification
Use exemplification paragraphs to provide instances that clarify your topic statement. In the following paragraph, the topic sentence is supported inexamples that illustrate, support, and clarify the main point.

EXAMPLE #1:

 Vitamins and minerals can be added to enrich (replace nutrients lost in processing) or fortify (add nutrients not normally present) foods to improve their nutritional quality. Bread sand cereals are usually enriched with some B vitamins and iron. Common examples offortification include the addition of vitamin D to milk, vitamin A to margarine, vitamin C to fruit drinks, calcium to orange juice, and iodide to table salt.

--P. Insel and W. Roth, Core Concepts in Health

EXAMPLE #2:

The following paragraph is effectively developed with specific examples. The paragraph is also well organized, but it lacks a satisfactory concluding sentence. Respond to the questions that follow "Junk Food Junkie."

Junk Food Junkie

I confess: I am the worst junk food junkie in this great gluttonous galaxy of sugar and fat. You can keep your lentils, granola, and prunes. I want calories and carbohydrates, burgers and fries. Within minutes after waking up grouchy and puffy eyed in the morning, I stumble to the kitchen and pour myself a tall glass of ice cold Pepsi. Ahh! My tongue tingles and my eyes pop open. I then have the energy to eat. I rummage through the refrigerator, push aside the yogurt and apples, and there it is: a fat slice of leftover pepperoni pizza. That's enough to get me off to school and through my first class. Of course, I then head to the store on my first break for a Snickers bar and a Diet Pepsi. The "lite" soft drink, you see, compensates for the calories in the candy. An hour or two later, for lunch, I gobble down a row of Double Stuf Golden Oreos and a peanut butter sandwich, all sloshed down with a pint of chocolate milk. Later in the afternoon I stop at Bunny's to devour a triple bacon cheeseburger and a monster order of sodium-loaded fries. Finally, before going to bed, I knock off a bag of Philly Cheese Steak Rippled Potato Chips--dripping with onion dip.

Study Questions:

1. The writer uses time order to organize her examples. List the time transitions (see Coherence Strategies: Transitional Words and Phrases) that you find in the paragraph.
2. What short sentence does the writer use to guide us from the Pepsi example to the pizza example?
3. What sentence does the writer use to guide us from the pizza example to the next example?
4. Create a sentence that you think would conclude this sentence effectively.

NARRATION

Use narration to establish a series of events that tells the reader what happened. Narration follows a chronological pattern of development. It is a convincing mode of paragraph development to the extent that it tells a coherent story. This pattern or time line is usually very easy to understand. In the following narrative, the first narrative paragraph is followed by two descriptive paragraphs. Note the use of transitional words such as thereafter, first, next, and after.


EXAMPLE #1:

Containment and Treatment of the Love Canal Landfill Leachate Temporary Treatment Program

The carbon feasibility studies were completed in October, 1978. Immediately thereafter, the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "Blue Magoo" was dispatched to the site to provide on-site emergency treatment. First, waste water generated during construction was collected, pH adjusted, clarified, sand filtered, and carbon treated. Next, treated effluent was analyzed and was found to confirm Calgon's study findings. After this process, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation granted a discharge permit on October 27, 1978.

On October 29, 1978, the EPA Emergency Treatment System was replaced by a larger system provided by Newco Chemical Waste Systems, Inc. and Calgon Corp . . .

The two-stage adsorption system, providing ongoing treatment at the Love Canal site, is askid-mounted system designed for rapid installation. The adsorbers are pressure vessels complete with all process and carbon transfer piping, valving, and instrumentation. Each adsorber holds a full truckload of 9,072 kg (20,000 lb) of granular carbon and can hydraulically process up to 662l/min (175 gal) of waste water. When a carbon bed is spent, the spent carbon is pneumatically and hydraulically transferred to . . .

--W. McDougall and R. A. Fusco, "Containment and Treatment of the Love Canal Landfill Leachate," Journal of the Water Pollution and Control Federation

EXAMPLE #2:

Larry suddenly woke up from a deep sleep. The sun was dazzling his half-open eyes, and he couldn’t figure out what time it was. The door to his room was closed; the house was immersed in some sort of reckless silence. He slowly got out of his bed and approached the bench right next to the window. For a moment, he thought, he heard a tapping sound coming from the attic. Then again he heard the sound, only this time it seemed to be somewhat closer. He looked outside the window and saw a man going by the left side of the road. On seeing Larry, the man approached his garden’s fence and whistled. At this point, Larry recognized Nick and waved his hand. He quickly got dressed and was about the get down to open the gate, but he again heard someone murmuring in the other part of the house. Larry decided to go to the attic and see what was causing this, now buzzing, sound. He got to the second floor of his house and looked toward the attic. He quickly opened its door and looked inside. Nothing was found. He was about to turn back and attend to his guest when he, suddenly, slipped on the stairs and fell. He called out to Nick to help him get up.


Elements of a Narrative Paragraph:

Narrative paragraphs contain several regular elements:

    * Protagonist – in the above paragraph, the protagonist is Larry who is introduced at the very beginning of the story;

    * Setting – Larry’s house is the setting. From the paragraph, reader can learn about his bedroom (where he woke up), it is also clear that it’s a two-storey house with an attic, and a fenced garden;

    * Goal – the goal of the story is Nick visiting Larry;

    * Obstacle – what stops Larry from coming down, and earlier on, from concentrating on getting dressed are repeating bizarre sounds coming from all parts of the house;

    * Climax – Larry trying to check what was causing the sound;

    * Resolution – Larry falls from the stairs and calls out to Nick to help him get up.

Narrative paragraphs don’t need to be chronological. Action can use flashbacks and retrospection in order to move the story forward. In order to write good paragraphs, you need to know how paragraphs are constructed and what types of paragraphs can be used in writing.

How to Write a Narrative Paragraph

Instructions:

1. Choose a topic that will appeal to the designated audience for your narrative paragraph.
2. List several details that you know or have learned about your chosen topic.
3. Write a topic sentence that introduces what key information will be in the paragraph.
4. Create an outline of your paragraph that begins with your topic sentence and contains at least three important details from your list.
5. Write your three detail sentences. Use transitions between each sentence to lead your reader logically through the narrative.
6. Add your final clincher or concluding sentence that sums up your paragraph without simply repeating the details from your paragraph.
7. Check your paragraph for errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation, or have an adult or peer read your paragraph to identify mistakes.

 Study Questions:

1. What is a narrative paragraph?

2. What are the elements of a narrative paragraph?

3. What are the steps in writing narration?