PARAGRAPH WRITING (SECOND OF FIVE PARTS)Ma. Jezia P. Talavera

BA Linguistics

University of the Philippines Diliman

1. PARAGRAPH WRITING Fictional and Non-fictional

1. PARAGRAPH WRITING

I was walking alone in the woods. Someone seemed to follow me because I hear footsteps from behind. It was dark, and the dry leaves make the sound of the night more eerie and spine-chilling. Someone was definitely following me because I hear another set of footsteps. Not human footsteps though. They were small, light animal footsteps that seemed to mirror my walking. When I looked back, I suddenly woke up from my dream.

FICTIONAL PARAGRAPH

1. PARAGRAPH WRITING

I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer in the summer of 1987. I didn’t know how to feel; the doctor said it was only a matter of five months until I draw my last breath. I went out of the hospital and looked around. Nobody seemed to care that someone as famous and noble as me was going to die in five months. People were walking listlessly, busy with their own whereabouts. I wanted to disappear right in that moment. At the same time I wanted to shout to the world, “Why me?”

NON-FICTIONAL PARAGRAPH

2. TYPES OF PARAGRAPH

2.1. NON-FICTIONAL DESCRIPTIVE

“Let’s walk,” she says serenely, slipping her arm in mine and heading into Central Park. As she strolls along, folks check her out and occasionally point. She is tall, strong, and straight-backed, glowing with vegan health and moving confidently through the crowds in her all-black ensemble. In videos and photos, she looks like she has a prominent jaw, but in person it is much softer, as are her other features (Windex-blue eyes, glossy black hair). Her voice is gentle and melodious, and she looks you square in the eye when she speaks.

—from Jancee Dunn’s “The Cole Truth,” Rolling Stone 786, May, 1998.

2.1. NON-FICTIONAL DESCRIPTIVE

“Let’s walk,” she says serenely, slipping her arm in mine and heading into Central Park. As she strolls along, folks check her out and occasionally point. She is tall, strong, and straight-backed, glowing with vegan health and moving confidently through the crowds in her all-black ensemble. In videos and photos, she looks like she has a prominent jaw, but in person it is much softer, as are her other features (Windex-blue eyes, glossy black hair). Her voice is gentle and melodious, and she looks you square in the eye when she speaks.

—from Jancee Dunn’s “The Cole Truth,” Rolling Stone 786, May, 1998.

2.2. FICTIONAL DESCRIPTIVE

It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn’t pointed it out, Harry wouldn’t have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn’t glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn’t see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it. Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside. For a famous place, it was dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in.

—from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling (Scholastic, 1999)

2.2. FICTIONAL DESCRIPTIVE

It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn’t pointed it out, Harry wouldn’t have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn’t glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn’t see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it. Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside. For a famous place, it was dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in.

—from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling (Scholastic, 1999)

ACTIVITY

Write a five-sentence fictional and non-

fictional descriptive paragraph in 10

minutes.

2.3. NON-FICTIONAL NARRATIVE

During the final years of his life, [Franz] Kafka’s health deteriorated rapidly. In 1923 he fell in love with Dora Dymant and settled in with her in Berlin; he asked Dora’s father for permission to marry her but was refused. In the winter of 1923-24 he moved into a series of clinics and sanitariums. He died, Dora at his side, on June 3, 1924, at a sanitarium in Kierling, near Vienna. His surviving family, including his sisters, all perished several years later in Nazi concentration camps.

—from “The Modern Period” of Literature of the Western World, Vol. II, 3rd edition. Eds. Brian Wilkie and James

Hunt

(Macmillan, 1992)

2.3. NON-FICTIONAL NARRATIVE

During the final years of his life, [Franz] Kafka’s health deteriorated rapidly. In 1923 he fell in love with Dora Dymant and settled in with her in Berlin; he asked Dora’s father for permission to marry her but was refused. In the winter of 1923-24 he moved into a series of clinics and sanitariums. He died, Dora at his side, on June 3, 1924, at a sanitarium in Kierling, near Vienna. His surviving family, including his sisters, all perished several years later in Nazi concentration camps.

—from “The Modern Period” of Literature of the Western World, Vol. II, 3rd edition. Eds. Brian Wilkie and James

Hunt

(Macmillan, 1992)

2.4. FICTIONAL NARRATIVE

None of it came up until my early thirties, when I got involved with a woman. Her name was Jeanne. We had been classmates at Cornell, both pre-med, both of us seeing someone else. Years afterward I was working for a drug company in N— that was coming under fire for manufacturing an anti-depressant that had bad side effects. We were trying to gather some support for the drug from the medical community, and I met Jeanne again at a conference. She had become a shrink. Excuse me, a psychiatrist. And yes, she had done a lot of research on posttraumatic psychosis and even had a healthy share of Holocaust survivors and incest victims and Vietnam veterans among her clients.

—from Pink Slip, by Rita Ciresi (Delta Publishing, 1999)

2.4. FICTIONAL NARRATIVE

None of it came up until my early thirties, when I got involved with a woman. Her name was Jeanne. We had been classmates at Cornell, both pre-med, both of us seeing someone else. Years afterward I was working for a drug company in N— that was coming under fire for manufacturing an anti-depressant that had bad side effects. We were trying to gather some support for the drug from the medical community, and I met Jeanne again at a conference. She had become a shrink. Excuse me, a psychiatrist. And yes, she had done a lot of research on posttraumatic psychosis and even had a healthy share of Holocaust survivors and incest victims and Vietnam veterans among her clients.

—from Pink Slip, by Rita Ciresi (Delta Publishing, 1999)

ACTIVITY

Write a five-sentence fictional and non-fictional narrative

paragraph in 10 minutes.

2.5. NON-FICTION EXPOSITORYThe use of wedding rings has evolved as the latest of all

the bridal traditions. From the earliest times, kings used initial rings to sign documents because they were unable to write. Since the initial, or signet, ring had the potency of the king’s signature, anyone possessing a facsimile was put to death immediately. Later, during Greek times, when Alexander the Great died, his vast kingdom was, according to his instructions, divided among his generals. They also got copies of his signet ring. They used these themselves and even allowed trusted advisors to use them when they served as the generals’ proxies. Eventually, rulers even allowed their courtiers to wear copies of their royal signets. Finally, the custom spread among the common people, and nearly everybody who couldn’t write signed official documents with a signet ring. Rings thus became a sign of contractual agreement, which meaning was eventually applied to wedding rings.

2.5. NON-FICTION EXPOSITORYThe use of wedding rings has evolved as the

latest of all the bridal traditions. From the earliest times, kings used initial rings to sign documents because they were unable to write. Since the initial, or signet, ring had the potency of the king’s signature, anyone possessing a facsimile was put to death immediately. Later, during Greek times, when Alexander the Great died, his vast kingdom was, according to his instructions, divided among his generals. They also got copies of his signet ring. They used these themselves and even allowed trusted advisors to use them when they served as the generals’ proxies. Eventually, rulers even allowed their courtiers to wear copies of their royal signets. Finally, the custom spread among the common people, and nearly everybody who couldn’t write signed official documents with a signet ring. Rings thus became a sign of contractual agreement, which meaning was eventually applied to wedding rings.

2.6. FICTIONAL EXPOSITORY Many of the Jews of Iberian origin had long ago been

robbed of the knowledge of their rituals, forced, during the time of the Inquisition, to convert to the Catholic faith. These so-called New Christians were sometimes sincere in their conversions, while others had continued to practice their religion in secret, but after a generation or two they often forgot why they secretly observed these now-obscure rituals. When these secret Jews fled Iberia for the Dutch states, as they began to do in the sixteenth century, many sought to regain Jewish knowledge. My father’s grandfather had been such a man, and he schooled himself in the Jewish traditions—even studying with the great Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel—and he raised his children to honor the Jewish traditions.

—from A Conspiracy of Paper, by David Liss (Random House, 2000)

2.6. FICTIONAL EXPOSITORY Many of the Jews of Iberian origin had long

ago been robbed of the knowledge of their rituals, forced, during the time of the Inquisition, to convert to the Catholic faith. These so-called New Christians were sometimes sincere in their conversions, while others had continued to practice their religion in secret, but after a generation or two they often forgot why they secretly observed these now-obscure rituals. When these secret Jews fled Iberia for the Dutch states, as they began to do in the sixteenth century, many sought to regain Jewish knowledge. My father’s grandfather had been such a man, and he schooled himself in the Jewish traditions—even studying with the great Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel—and he raised his children to honor the Jewish traditions.

—from A Conspiracy of Paper, by David Liss (Random House, 2000)

ACTIVITY

Write a five-sentence fictional and non-

fictional expository paragraph in 10

minutes.

2.7. NON-FICTIONAL ARGUMENTATIVE

Nothing gives the English more pleasure, in a quiet but determined sort of way, than to do things oddly. They put milk in their tea, drive on the wrong side of the road, pronounce Cholmondeley as “Chumley” and Belvoir as “Beaver,” celebrate the Queen’s birthday in June even though she was born in April, and dress their palace guards in bearskin helmets that make them look as if, for some private and unfathomable reason, they are wearing fur-lined wastebaskets on their heads.

—from Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson (Doubleday, 1995)

2.7. NON-FICTIONAL ARGUMENTATIVE

Nothing gives the English more pleasure, in a quiet but determined sort of way, than to do things oddly. They put milk in their tea, drive on the wrong side of the road, pronounce Cholmondeley as “Chumley” and Belvoir as “Beaver,” celebrate the Queen’s birthday in June even though she was born in April, and dress their palace guards in bearskin helmets that make them look as if, for some private and unfathomable reason, they are wearing fur-lined wastebaskets on their heads.

—from Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson (Doubleday, 1995)

2.8. FICTIONAL ARGUMENTATIVE

Some people say that my wife’s sister is a witch. My father, for one. My brother, for another. And while I will not dispute their use of the term when they are merely alluding to her somewhat contrary nature, I do take issue with them when they use the word to malign what she believes is her calling. After all, it is a calling that to a lesser extent my wife hears as well. No, my sister-in-law is no witch, at least not literally. She, along with my wife and my mother-in-law, is simply a dowser. She is capable of finding underground water with a stick. She is capable of divining underground water with a stick. And unlike my wife and my mother-in-law, she is an active dowser. She does not merely have the power, she uses it.

2.8. FICTIONAL ARGUMENTATIVE

Some people say that my wife’s sister is a witch. My father, for one. My brother, for another. And while I will not dispute their use of the term when they are merely alluding to her somewhat contrary nature, I do take issue with them when they use the word to malign what she believes is her calling. After all, it is a calling that to a lesser extent my wife hears as well. No, my sister-in-law is no witch, at least not literally. She, along with my wife and my mother-in-law, is simply a dowser. She is capable of finding underground water with a stick. She is capable of divining underground water with a stick. And unlike my wife and my mother-in-law, she is an active dowser. She does not merely have the power, she uses it.

ACTIVITY

Write a five-sentence fictional and non-

fictional argumentative paragraph in 10

minutes.

REFERENCES

Types of Paragraphs. Writers’ Digest University. Retrieved August 18, 2014 from http://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/resources/types-of-paragraphs/