Reading and Writing

Writing is the ‘’flipside’’ of reading, that is, when we write, we read. It is necessary
to do so, since the process of creating a piece of written discourse depends on
reading over what has already been written in order to formulate the next step in
the discourse preparatory to writing it down. In other words, the process of writing
depends upon reading before, during, and after the act of writing.
 Macro Skills
Macro skills are essential skills for
communication particularly in the
English language.
Speaking
• Create or form sounds
Listening
• Perceiving sounds

Reading
• Decoding or understanding meaning
of symbols

Writing Viewing
• Creating symbols • Perceiving, examining,
or forming words interpreting, and
constructing meaning
from visual images
 Reading and Writing Course Outline

I. Patterns of Paragraph Development V. Textual Evidence

I. Narrative
VI. Project Proposal
II. Descriptive
III. Classification VII. Research Report
IV. Comparison and Contrast
VIII. Movie Review
V. Cause and Effect
VI. Persuasive IX. Action Plan
II. Properties of Well-written Text X. Resume and Application Letter
III. Claims of Fact, Policy, and Value XI. Memorandum
IV. Hypertext and Intertextuality XII. Email Message
PARAGRAPH DEVELOPMENT
WEEK 1
What makes a great storyteller for
you?
Narrative Writing
Narrative writing focuses on telling a fictional story – one that is made up – or a real-life
story where the author follows a plot structure. It can also take the form of an essay where the
author uses a personal story to explain an issue or state an argument.

A narrative essay always tells a story. Although the narrative essay has an equivalent basic
format to other academic text, narrative is often anecdotal, experiential, and personal, allowing
students to express themselves in a creative and, quite often, moving ways. Furthermore, most
movies and YouTube videos that you simply watch are also samples of a narrative essay, depending
on the content.
Elements of a story

Setting –It is the Theme – It is the Mood –In Characters –the Plot - the most
when and where central message or literature, it participants important
the story takes meaning of the signifies the involved in the element of a
place. story. A theme can emotion/feelings story. A person, story. It is the
usually be of the narrator or animal, a thing or sequence of
expressed as a speaker. imaginary it can events. It is
Example: places generalization or be classified as centered around a
(like house, town, general statement the Protagonist or conflict that must
etc.), time about people or Example: Lively or Antagonist. be resolved
(twilight, dawn, life. happy, gloomy, (solved or ended)
*(anti-hero is a
festival, season, mysterious, etc. by the end of the
Example: Being story protagonist
etc.) charitable, honest, lacking heroic story.
faithful, qualities. Example
compassionate, etc. is Jay Gatsby from
The Great Gatsby)
Elements of a story
Plot is the sequence of events in a story or play. There are five essential parts of plot:

Climax - Turning point of the story.

Readers wonders what will happen next;
will the conflict be resolved
or not?

Rising Action - Events in the story Falling action - Resolution begins; events and
become complicated; the conflict complications start to fall into place. These are the
is revealed. These are events events between climax and denouement.
between the introduction and
climax.

Resolution (Conclusion) - Final Resolved

Exposition (introduction)
outcome of events in the story ending
- Beginning of the story;
characters, background, and Unresolved
setting revealed. ending
An effective narrative essay also includes these elements:

• A thesis that sets up the action in the introduction,

• Transition sentences that connect events and guide the reader to follow the story, and

• A conclusion that ends the story action and provides a moral, prediction, or revelation
 The Introduction

The introduction is a paragraph that will start your story. It establishes the narrator’s tone,
mood, voice, and point of view; it introduces or alludes the conflict you plan on addressing in your
story. The introduction must contain a hook and a thesis.

The Narrative Hook is the introductory part or the opening of the essay. It usually grabs the
attention and helps to set a mood for a reader. Hooks are essential in narrative essays because they
set the stage for the story. The hooks create enough interest that the reader will want to continue.
Narrative hook

EXAMPLE: I had never been more anxious in my life. I had just spent the last three endless
hours trying to get to the airport so that I could travel home.

Does the hook leave a question into your mind on what will happen next? The hook should make
the reader ask questions about the essay. You may have also thought of questions like these when
you read the preceding hook:

• Who is the narrator and why is he or she anxious?

• Where is the exact location of the airport?
• What made the trip to the airport seem endless?
• Why is this person going home?
Narrative hook

EXAMPLE: One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself
transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back, and
if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and
divided by arches into stiff sections.
-from Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

• Who is the narrator?

• Who is Gregor Samsa?
• What happened to him?
• Why is he transformed and who did it?
The Thesis
The thesis expresses the main idea of the essay and states the structure of the information.
However, in a narrative essay, the thesis introduces the action that begins within the first paragraph
of the essay. Check out these examples of thesis statements:

• Now, as I watched the bus driver set my luggage on the airport sidewalk, I realized that my
frustration had only just begun.
• I wanted my mother to watch me race down the steep hill, so I called out her name and then
nudged my bike forward.
• Because his pride would not allow him to apologize, Ken now had to fight the
bully, and he was pretty sure that he would not win.

These thesis statements will not give the action to the reader on what will
happen. They will only drop hints on the following sequence. The sentences in
the body will refine the story
 The Body

In a narrative essay, the body contains most of the supporting information which is the
plot. The sequence in the plot can be arranged in numerous ways. One of the examples is the
chronological order. In this method, the story will begin with the first scenario, then the second
paragraph will elaborate on the second scenario and so on.

In an essay with a chronological organization, the last part of each paragraph will be a
transitional sentence. Transitional sentences have two purposes: (1) to signal the end of the action
in one paragraph, and (2) to provide a link to the action of the next paragraph. These sentences are
essential because they give your story unity and allow the reader to follow the action easily.
The body
Notice how the ideas in the last sentence of Paragraph 2 (the transitional sentence, underlined) and
the first sentence of Paragraph 3 (underlined) are connected.

(2) This was my first visit to the international terminal of the airport, and nothing was familiar. I
could not make sense of any of the signs. Where was the check-in counter? Where should I take my
luggage? I had no idea where the immigration line was. I began to panic. What time was it? Where
was my plane? I had to find help because I could not be late!

(3) I tried to ask a passing businessman for help, but my words all came out wrong. He just scowled
and walked away. What had happened? I had been in this country for a whole semester, and I could
not even remember how to ask for directions. This was awful! Another bus arrived at the terminal,
and the passengers stepped off carrying all sorts of luggage. Here was my chance! I could follow
them to the right place, and I would not have to say a word.
 The Conclusion
Just like academic essays, narrative essays must have a conclusion. In the conclusion, you must write
a brief statement of the main point; it doesn’t mean that you have to rewrite everything. The last
sentence can have two functions:

1. It can deliver the moral of the story by telling the reader what the character(s) learned
from the experience.

2. It can make a prediction or a revelation (disclosure of something that was not known
before) about future actions that will happen as a result of the events in the story.
The conclusion
Look at these examples:
a. Moral (from My Father Goes to Court by Carlos Bulosan)
The sweet tinkle of coins carried beautifully into the room. The spectators turned their faces toward the sound with wonder.
Father came back and stood before the complainant.
“Did you hear it?” he asked.
“Hear what?” the man asked.
“The spirit of the money when I shook this hat?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Then you are paid.” Father said.
The rich man opened his mouth to speak and fell to the floor without a sound. The lawyer rushed to his aid. The judge pounded
his gavel.
“Case dismissed,” he said.
Father strutted around the courtroom. The judge even came down to his high chair to shake hands with him. “By the way,” he
whispered, “I had an uncle who died laughing.”
“You like to hear my family laugh, judge?” Father asked.
“Why not?”
Did you hear that children?” Father said.
My sister started it. The rest of us followed them and soon the spectators were laughing with us, holding their bellies and
bending over the chairs. And the laughter of the judge was the loudest of all.
The conclusion

My Father Goes to Court by Carlos Bulosan

Available Online source: https://
docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1-Tn4yTYxYhIixFilddsmf-sh2XSKZJBXZvE6gsmqRnk/mobilebasic?pli=1
The conclusion

b. Prediction: (from Hunger in Barok by N.V.M Gonzales)

He thought he would find Pare Crispin in his hut at the edge of his new clearing. He thought he would see the
man and his wife pounding rice while three hungry boys looked on. But when he came to the hut it was
empty. The three skinny boys and thin, though strong-limbed woman, as Mang Cesar knew them all, were
not there but were away up in the clearing. Mang Cesar did not see them at first, but he heard voices in that
direction and recognized one of these as Pare Crispin’s. Then he saw—first the father’s head, then those of
the boys, then the wife’s—behind the huge trucks of felled trees. They were planting upland rice.
“That’s a good cavan of rice seed he has,” said Mang Cesar, “And the man has a way with the
soil.”
With his horsewhip he struck a big banana leaf, and it made a sound like laughter.
The conclusion

Hunger in Barok by N.V.M Gonzales

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbw_G6lrnPk
The conclusion
c. Revelation:–(from The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant)

“Do you remember that diamond necklace that you lent me to wear to the Ministry party?"
"Yes. Well?"
"Well, I lost it."
"What do you mean? You brought it back."
"I brought you back another exactly like it. And it has taken us ten years to pay for it. It wasn't easy for us,
we had very little. But at last it is over, and I am very glad."
Madame Forestier had stopped.
"You say that you bought a necklace of diamonds to replace mine?"
"Yes. You never noticed it, then! They were very alike."
And she smiled with a joy which was proud and naïve at once..
Madame Forestier, strongly moved, took her two hands.
"Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was a paste. It was worth at most five hundred francs!"
The conclusion

The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

https://americanliterature.com/author/guy-de-maupassant/short-story/the-necklace
Thank you

Don't demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well
-Enchiridion, Epictetus