Reading And Writing

• Discourse - Refers to any unit of connected speech or writing longer than a sentence.
• Discourse cannot be confined to sentential boundaries. It is something that goes beyond the limits of the sentence. In other words, discourse is any coherent succession of spoken or written.
• Discourse is one of the four systems of language, the others being vocabulary, grammar, and phonology. It is any piece of extended language (language that is more than one sentence, written, or spoken, that has unity, meaning, and purpose
• Narration - It is the first form of Discourse
• Narration - It is the description of an event, which occurs in chronological order. The differences of narration from description are: (1) it uses the pronouns like "I" and "me", (2) it includes an action; and (3) it follows a chronological order but the description does not.
• Elements of Narration

  • Setting - this is the time and the place of the action. This answers the questions WHEN and WHERE.
  • Character - these are the persons involved in the story. It answers Who in the narrative.
  • Actions - These are the incidents in the story, the causes responsible for the occurrence, and the manner that th outcome is brought about. It answers What, Why, and How.
• Types of Narration

  • Simple - narrative events which really happen
  • Plotted - fictional, results of the author's invention or ingenuity.
• Description - is the second form of discourse
• Description - It is the fiction-writing mode for transmitting a mental image of the particulars in the story. It can go hand in hand with narration and makes the events in the story more vivid.
• Patterns of Description

  • Spatial - describes how the subject occupies space.
  • Vertical - best with subjects that are taller than they wide. You may start at the top and work your way down, or start at the bottom and work your way up. Descriptions of peoples are often vertically organized.
  • Horizontal - moves from left to right, or from right to left, taking the details in a horizontal sequence. Depending on the perspective of the writer, the description could also move from the front to back or vice versa.
• Patterns of Description

  • Circular - used whenever a horizontal pattern involves something that is not in a straight line. The interior of a room, for example, could use a circular pattern, beginning at the door and working around the room until returning to the starting point.
  • Affective - describes the effect a person, place, or thing has on the writer. Recreating the same effect on the audience becomes the purpose of the writer. It uses description to convey feelings.
  • Temporal - refers to narration
• Different Kinds of Description

  1. Informative (Scientific and Technical)

  • appeals to the intellect
  • describes how it looks, feels, or does, tastes, smells, sounds
  • details in the apperance (color, size, and shape) of a person; a place or an object for the purpose of identification.

  2. Artistic (Suggestive/Evocative or literary)

  • aims to give pleasure
  • appeal to the sense of beauty by stimulating the imagination and emotion of the reader that he may have a vivid image of the object as felt and seen by the writer.
• Exposition - It is the third form of Discourse.
• Exposition -

  
• Exposition - the difference of exposition to argumentation is: An exposition gives the reader a balanced amount of the subject and it uses a neutral, objective tone. On the other hand, argumentation convinces the reader of the writer's overall point and suggests wider implication.
• Different patterns of Exposition

  • Circumlocution - this depicts a pattern in which the speaker discusses a topic, then diverts to discuss a related but different topic.
  • Narrative Interspersion - This pattern of sub pattern embedded in other patterns in which the speaker or writer intersperses a narrative within the expository text for specific purposes including to clarify or elaborate on a point or link the subject matter to a personal experience.
• Recursion - This is when the speaker discusses the topic, and then restates it using different words or symbolism. It uses to drive home a point and to give special emphasis to the text.

  Description - the author describes a topic by listing characteristicss, features, and examples.

  Sequence - The author lists items of events in numeral or chronological order (uses first, seconf, third, nest, then, finally).

  Comparison - the author explains how two or more.
• Cause and Effect - The author lists onne or more causes an the resulting effect or effects (uses reasons why, if then as a result, therefore, because).

  Problem and Solution - The author states a problem and lists one or more solutions for the problem. A variation of this pattern is the question-and-answer format in which the author poses a question and then answers it (uses problem is, dilemma is etc.)
• Types of Exposition

  Exposition of a process - the most frequently used organizational patterns

  Common types of exposition of a process

  1. How-to-do-it - gives directions for doing something in the manner of recipe.
  2. How-it-works - shows an operation in its succesive stages
  3. How-it-is-organized - shows how a complex organization functions by breaking it into deparment and showing what each does.
  4. How-did-it-happen - casual process, which seeks a cause for a known effect and shows why and how an event occured.
• Exposition of an abstract term - achieved by definition, by analogy, by comparison and contrast, by example, by cause and effect, by repetition, by question and answer or by combined.

  3 Parts of Definition

  > Term - word to be defined

  > Genus - the class or concept to which the term belongs.

  > Differentia - the characteristics that differentiate it from others belonging to the same class.
• Character Sketch - the process of writing individual traits to set forth our idea of the person. It is also giving details of the characterization of some personified animal or thing.

  Two kinds of character sketches

  ~ Individual Sketch - concerns on a particular person

  ~ Type Sketch - deals more with the characteristics common to a group.
• Essay - an exposition of an author's thoughts or reflections on some subjct of human interest.

  2 kinds of essay and its purpose

  1. Formal Essay - to give information and instruction
  2. Informal Essay - to reveal writer's personality, to entertain, to comment on interesting and important matters.
• Comment and Criticism - It is visually published in newspapers and magazines and is written in large variety of subjects such as books, play, music, painting, or anything that naturally evokes opinion or judgment. They are aimed at placing a book or any other piece of work in its proper niche of respect and authority.
• Argumentation - It is the fouth form of discourse
• Argumentation - It is the form of composition that aims to convince others of the truth or falsity of a disputed matter. It appeals to the understanding.