Patterns of development help us sort out information and shape paragraphs or essays.

They can help organize an outline, or depending on the purpose they can determine the
form that a paper will take. Remember that most paper will use a combination of methods,
working together in function of each other.

I. Patterns of Development in Writing

A. Narration
 Describes what, when, and where something happened.
 It is simply telling a story, usually from the viewpoint of one
person. Many times, the writer is also making a point as well as
recounting events that occurred.
 Narration can be found in any form of literature, including plays,
short stories, poems, novels, or even jokes. They are considered
narration, or narrative, as long as they tell a story.
Example Text:
Narrative Novel
The last example is an excerpt from the novel, Moby Dick by Herman
Melville.
"Landlord!" said I, "what sort of chap is he -- does he always keep such
late hours?" It was now hard upon twelve o'clock. The landlord chuckled
again with his lean chuckle, and seemed to be mightily tickled at
something beyond my comprehension. "No," he answered, "generally he's
an early bird -- airley to bed and airley to rise -- yea, he's the bird
what catches the worm. -- But to-night he went out a peddling, you see,
and I don't see what on earth keeps him so late, unless, may be, he
can't sell his head. “Can’t sell his head? -- What sort of a bamboozingly
story is this you are telling me?" getting into a towering rage. "Do you
pretend to say, landlord, that this harpooner is actually engaged this
blessed Saturday night, or rather Sunday morning, in peddling his head
around this town?”
B. Description
 Details what something looks like and its characteristics.
 Descriptive writing uses sensory writing and includes vivid and
rich details. It portrays certain events, people, or objects in a
way that the reader can visualize what the writer is describing.
The writer uses figurative language, like metaphors and symbolism,
to enhance the sensory experience for the reader. In descriptive
writing, the author does not tell the reader what was seen, felt,
tested, smelled, or heard. Rather, he describes something that he
experienced and, through his choice of words, makes it seem real.
In other words, descriptive writing is vivid, colorful, and
detailed.
Examples Text:
•The sunset filled the entire sky with the deep color of rubies,
setting the clouds ablaze.
•The waves crashed and danced along the shore, moving up and
down in a graceful and gentle rhythm like they were dancing.
•The painting was a field of flowers, with deep and rich blues
and yellows atop vibrant green stems that seemed to beckon you to
reach right in and pick them.
•The old man was stooped and bent, his back making the shape of
a C and his head bent so far forward that his beard would nearly
have touched his knobby knees had he been just a bit taller.
•His deep and soulful blue eyes were like the color of the ocean
on the clearest day you can ever imagine.
•The soft fur of the dog felt like silk against my skin and her
black coloring glistened as it absorbed the sunlight, reflecting
it back as a perfect, deep, dark mirror.
C. Definition
 Explains what something is in comparison to other members of
its class, along with any limitations.
Examples Text:
“If someone or something is unaffected by an event or
occurrence, they are not changed by it in any way.”

This definition shows the typical grammar structure in which we

use the word unaffected — after a form of be (is, was, will be,
etc.), and before the preposition by. So it tells you that we often
say “is unaffected by”, “was unaffected by”, “will be unaffected
by”, etc. It also shows that people or things can be unaffected by
an event.
“You say that something is stupid to indicate that you do not
like it or that it annoys you”.
The beginning of this definition (“You say that...”) shows that
you use the word stupid to talk about your feelings, and not about
facts. If you say to somebody “You’re stupid”, you don’t mean that
the person is not intelligent. You simply mean that you don’t like
them.
In tennis, an ace is a serve which is so fast that the other player
cannot reach the ball”.
This is the definition of one of the meanings of ace. It gives you
the context of this meaning — it tells you that you use it when
talking about tennis.
D. Exemplification\Classification
 Provides typical cases or examples of something.
Example Text:
An exemplification paragraph develops a general statement--the
topic sentence--with one or more specific examples. Not only do
these examples illustrate and explain the topic sentence, but they
also make your writing more interesting and more convincing. The
following paragraph about the Woodstock festival uses a number of
short examples to illustrate its main idea.
In most respects, after all, Woodstock was a disaster. To
begin with, it rained and rained for weeks before the festival,
and then, of course, it rained during the festival. The promoters
lost weeks of preparation time when the site had to be switched
twice. They rented Yasgur’s field less than a month before the
concert. The stage wasn’t finished, and the sound system was
stitched together perilously close to the start of the show. As
soon as the festival opened, the water- and food-delivery
arrangements broke down, the gates and fences disintegrated, and
tens of thousands of new bodies kept pouring in. (One powerful
lure was the rumor that the revered Bob Dylan was going to perform;
he wasn’t.) In response to an emergency appeal for volunteers,
fifty doctors were flown in. The Air Force brought in food on Huey
helicopters, and the Women’s Community Center in Monticello sent
thirty thousand sandwiches. One kid was killed as he was run over
by a tractor, one died of appendicitis, and another died of a drug
overdose.
Hal Espen, “The Woodstock Wars”

The writer of this paragraph piles on many examples, one after

the other, to support his main idea. Each example gives a specific
illustration of how Woodstock was a disaster: it rained, the
promoters had to switch sites, water and food were not delivered
as planned, and so on.
 If a single example is particularly vivid and compelling, it
can sometimes be enough to support a topic sentence. The following
paragraph uses one extended example to support its main idea--that
fear can move one to action.
Classification Paragraph
Different students attend various types of schools; however,
they can usually be classified as either public, private religious,
private non-religious, or alternative. Public schools are funded
by the state, and the majority of students in the United States
attend them. Private religious schools are based around a
particular faith, such as Catholicism, Judaism, and so forth. The
religion is part of the everyday lives of the students and they
also learn about the faiths. All types of private schools do not
receive state funding. Therefore, private non-religious schools
are simply just that: schools which do not receive state funding
and have the ability to make their own rules. Alternative schools
can be made up of a variety of different categories, such as the
Montessori program or technical schools. Most students who attend
class in an actual school building go to one of these types of
institutions.
E. Comparison and Contrast
 Tells how something is like other things or how something is
different from other things.
Example Text:
Contrast Paragraph

Even though Arizona and Rhode Island are both states of

the U.S., they are strikingly different in many ways. For example,
the physical size of each state is different. Arizona is large,
having an area of 114,000 square miles, whereas Rhode Island is
only about a tenth the size, having an area of only 1,214 square
miles. Another difference is in the size of the population of each
state. Arizona has about four million people living in it, but
Rhode Island has less than one million. The two states also differ
in the kinds of natural environments that each has. For example,
Arizona is a very dry state, consisting of large desert areas that
do not receive much rainfall every year. However, Rhode Island is
located in a temperate zone and receives an average of 44 inches
of rain per year. In addition, while Arizona is a landlocked state
and thus has no seashore, Rhode Island lies on the Atlantic Ocean
and does have a significant coastline.
Comparison Paragraph
My hometown and my college town have several things in
common. First, both are small rural communities. For example, my
hometown, Gridlock, has a population of only about 10,000 people.
Similarly, my college town, Subnormal, consists of about 11,000
local residents. This population swells to 15,000 people when the
college students are attending classes. A second way in which these
two towns are similar is that they are both located in rural areas.
Gridlock is surrounded by many acres of farmland which is devoted
mainly to growing corn and soybeans. In the same way, Subnormal
lies in the center of farmland which is used to raise hogs and
cattle.

F. Cause and Effect

 Details why something happens, what causes it, what are the
effects and how it is related to something else.
Example Text:
When water is heated, the molecules move quickly, therefore
the water boils. A tornado blew the roof off the house, and as a
result, the family had to find another place to live. Because the
alarm was not set, we were late for work.
G. Problem and Solution
 In composition, problem-solution is a method for analyzing
and writing about a topic by identifying a problem and
proposing one or more solutions.
 A problem-solution essay is a type of argument. "This sort of
essay involves argumentation in that the writer seeks to
convince the reader to take a particular course of action. In
explaining the problem, it may also need to persuade the
reader concerning specific causes" (Dave Kemper et al.,
Fusion: Integrated Reading and Writing, 2016).
Example Text:
Problem
Drug abuse causes multiple problems for countries and
communities.
The medical and psychological effects are very obvious.
Addicts cannot function as normal members of society. They neglect
or abuse their families, and eventually require expensive
treatment or hospitalization.
The second effect is on crime.
Huge police resources are needed to fight smuggling and dealing.
Criminal gangs and mafia underworlds develop with the money from
drugs.
Solution
However, the menace of drugs can be fought.
Education is the first battle.
Children need to be told at home and in school about drugs. People
need to be aware of the effects so that they can avoid this problem.
A second approach is to increase police manpower and create
effective laws to stop dealers.
However the main target should be the user
: Families and counselors need to talk to children and people at
risk. Parents need to look at their children and help them to
become responsible. Worthwhile jobs and housing are also needed to
give people a role in society.
H. Persuasion
Describes an issue and your position or opinion on the subject.
Example Text:
Barack Obama makes a public speech a night before his election
campaign in Virginia on November 3, 2008 by saying,
“This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio,
on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from
disaster after a lifetime of hard work…This country is more
generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the
equipment he’s worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off
to China… We are more compassionate than a government that lets
veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty;
that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before
our eyes…”
This emotional speech plays on the sense of the guilt of people —
the reason that it is a good example of pathos. Although Obama
employs snob appeal fallacy in his argument, however, it is a very
influential and emotional appeal.