Lesson 3:

Patterns of
Development
Learning Objectives:

1. Distinguish the different patterns of

development in writing across
disciplines;
2. Apply appropriate use of pattern of
development in a written text.
1. Narration
2. Description
3. Definition
4. Classification and Exemplification
5. Comparison and Contrast
6. Cause and Effect
7. Problem-Solution
8. Persuasion
• These patterns are considered as
techniques and principles that
you can use to guide you based
on your intentions.
• It gives the writer a different
method in presenting a given
scenario or topic that must be
clearly conveyed to the readers.
 1. NARRATION
- The most basic pattern of development.
When a writer puts down an idea, he is
then considered as the narrator of the
literary work.
- It ultimately describes how, when, and
where an event or occurrence actually
happened.
• It is used by writers for a variety of
purposes:
1. To illustrate and support ideas with
anecdotes.
2. To entertain the readers with stories.
3. To predict what will happen with
scenarios, and
4. To explain how something happens (or
should happen) with process narratives.
• Narration tells a story or explains a
sequence of events. It can be fiction or
nonfiction.
It can be objective or subjective.
1. Objective Narration presents facts to
create an accurate timeline of events.
2. Subjective Narration conveys the
impressions, feelings, insight or point of
view.
• The following are the Components
that build up a story in itself.

1. Logical Actions. These actions are

conceivably happening within the
narrative. These actions are
considered the very movements
within the plot or the narrative that
the characters forward, be it during
the dialogue, or within a scene.
2. Way of Narration. This refers to how
the writer presents the story. It
includes the pace by which scenes are
given out; if they had enough time to
be fleshed out or properly depicted for
a reader, or if they were hurried
through.
Examples:
• Clipped Narration: “He came and talked to us. Then
he left the house and then he drove the car back
home.

• Paced Narration: “ He came and talked to us for a

few moments. He seemed upset, but he managed to
get through all the bad news. Shaking our hands
before he left the house come twilight, he seemed to
feel better now that he had delivered the news. He
waved from the car as he pulled out of the driveway,
narrowly missing the mailbox again, and drove off to
return home.
3. TERMINOLOGY. It places emphasis on the fact
that concepts are critical to narration. Once writers
know which ones they want to use, they are able
to paint a more appropriate setting.
Example:
“It was late spring the last time we saw Ross.
He was standing at the edge of the hill, and he
never so much as looked up even though we were
sure he knew we were there. There was a bunch
of flowers clutched to his fist, but there really was
no reason for him to be standing there. We knew
that Carrie wasn’t coming to see him. But he
stood there anyway, waiting, even as the
afternoon sunlight deepened towards the
evening. He must have been standing there for
hours.”
• “He was shivering violently from the cold.”
• “The joy in the air was palpable.”
• “He gave her a piece of jewelry.”
• “Each green stone had fire in its facets.”
• Concrete Terms words that identify things,
places, and events that can be measured and
observed. These often have a physical
manifestation in our world. In contrast, Abstract
Terms refers to ideas or concepts that are
intangible, such as the concept of love, freedom
and feminism.

• General Terms are commonly used to denote

groups , while Specific Terms refer to an
individual component of that group.
 Elements of Narrative Paragraph

1. Setting
- the time and location in which a story
takes place.
- details of the setting are identified at
the beginning of the story.
 Elements of Narrative Paragraph

2. Characters
- are significant part of the story.
A story features a main character,
protagonist, and a character that goes
against the protagonist is the antagonist.
 Elements of Narrative Paragraph

3. Plot
- is a planned, logical series of events
having a beginning, middle and end.
• There are five essential parts of plot:
a. Exposition – the part of the story where the
characters and the setting are revealed.
b. Rising Action – this is where the events in the story
become complicated and the conflict in the story is
exposed.
c. Climax – this is the highest point of interest and the
turning point of the story.
d. Falling Action – the events and complications begin
to resolve themselves. The reader knows what happens
next and if the conflict is resolved or not.
e. Denouement – the final resolution of the plot in the
story.
 Elements of Narrative Paragraph

4. Point of View
- is the perspective of the writer in
narrating the story.
• A. First person point of view – the story is told by
the protagonist or one of the characters who
interacts closely with the protagonist or other
characters using pronouns I, me, we.
• B. Second person point of view – the author tells the
story in second person point of view using the
pronouns you, yours, and your.
• C. Third person point of view – the narrator is not
part of the story but describes the events that
happen. The writer uses the pronouns he, she, him
and her.
Activity:
• Write 10 sentences using
abstract and concrete
ideas in relation to
narration.
 2. DESCRIPTION
• A pattern of development which goes into
details about a specific object, person, or
location, in order to firmly set its
appearance into the readers’ minds.
• The guideline to remember with a
description is that it answers the question:
“What does it look like?” or “What are its
characteristics?”
• These concrete descriptions make
the readers visualize the situations
more thoroughly. As a result, the
reader becomes more immersed
with what they are reading, and with
every detail everything becomes
more realistic to them.
Example:
“The glade was strange. There were vines that
looped and leapt from one branch to another,
forming a massive canopy over the clearing. The
dome of branches dappled the lances of sunlight
falling in. Flowers, unlike anything I’ve ever seen,
blossomed in cracks of mossy stone and peeking
through the leaves. Past the tall columns of the
dark trees crept over with vines was a massive pool
of water that mirrored and rippled the sunlight.
And in the middle of that pool was a lone circle of
grassy land.”
• Two Varieties of Description that a
writer can use:

a. Objective Description. This looks into

factual and scientific characteristics of
what is being described as objectively
as possible.
Example: (Objective Description)
The Acer Barbatum is a small to medium-sized,
deciduous tree usually ranging from 15 to 25 m. (50
to 80 ft.) tall when mature. Its bark is light gray and
smooth on younger trees, and it becomes ridged and
furrowed with age. Leaves are opposite and shallowly
to deeply palmately lobed, with a few blunt teeth but
no serrations. The leaf sinuses are rounded, unlike
those of red maple (acer rubrum) which are sharply
V-shaped. Also, the sides of terminal leaf lobes are
more or less parallel, while those of red are widest at
the base, tapering to the tip.
b. Subjective Description. This is the sort of
description that the author would normally use to
“paint a picture” of how he sees a character, or
how he wants the reader to see a character.

Example:
My mother had hair so dark that it looked like a
waterfall of ink. She always kept it in a braid that
fell to her slim waist, and always tied with a plain
black band. The braid of black slung over her
shoulder, the plaits shining like scales.
Activity:
• Describe your Christmas
Eve and New Year’s Eve
Celebration.
 3. DEFINITION
• This occurs when there is an object or
fact in the story that the writer does not
want to explain through context clues.
• Oftentimes, a definition paragraph (also
called an essay) is used as form of
foreshadowing where it becomes vital to
the plot later on.
• Definition is used for two major purposes: to
EXPLAIN or to CONVINCE.
My father’s hands are grotesque. He suffers
from psoriasis, a chronic skin disease that covers
his massive, thick hands with scaly, reddish
patches that periodically flake off, sending tiny
pieces of dead skin sailing to the ground.
- Jan Gray, “Father”

In the example below, a definition for the

unfamiliar term psoriasis was provided.
• When explaining how to do something, words
unfamiliar to the readers should be defined. This
is shown in the example below.

The trouble is, though, that if, for any reason,

the body has more cholesterol than it needs,
there is a tendency to get rid of it by storing it on
the inner surface of the blood vessels – especially
the coronary vessels that feed the heart. This is
“atherosclerosis”
- Isaac Asimov, “Cholesterol”
• In an argumentative or persuasive objective in a
written text, terms should be defined so
readers will have a clear understanding of the
idea being presented to them. It is easy for
readers to be persuaded or be moved to take
on a position on something they understand.

Social acceptability is a function of which group

controls society and to what extent minority
voices can influence the spectrum of opinion.
- Kristin Gross, Taking a Stand Against Sexism
• Sentence Definitions: Structure
Writers have to define unique concepts and
terms by using strategies in sentence definitions.

1. Strategy A: means
 Diagnostic testing means identifying the
learning weaknesses of the students.
2. Strategy B: which means that
 These qualities are inherent which means that
they were passed on from parents to offsprings.
3. Strategy C: is/are
 In business letter writing, the mechanical
arrangement of words on the page is format.

4. Strategy D: called/termed
 Many gardeners use materials from plants such
as chopped leaves, peat moss, grass clippings
which is called mulch.

5. Strategy E: refers to
 Photosynthesis refers to the food-making
process of plants.
6. Strategy F: or
 In humans, the gestation period or length of
pregnancy is approximately nine months.

7. Strategy G: insert with parenthesis

 An ecosystem contains both a biotic (living)
and abiotic (nonliving).

8. Strategy H: insert with dashes

 In reading, getting a lot of clues from the page
– bottom-up reading – is a helpful
comprehension strategy.
9. Strategy I: which/that/where
 Fraternal twins, which originate when two
different eggs are fertilized by two different
sperm, do not have identical chromosomes.

10. Strategy J: because

 Hemophilia is called the bleeders disease
because the afflicted person’s blood is unable
to clot.
11. Strategy K: when
 When a mutagen leads to an increase in
the incidence of cancer it is called
carcinogen.

12. Strategy L: if
 If the thyroid fails to develop properly, a
condition called cretinism results.
• Methods of definition:
1. Use synonym
2. Use comparisons
3. Use descriptions
4. Use examples by illustrating a
word’s meaning
Activity:
Recall several terminologies you learned
in your field of study. Be able to give the
definition of each term. Identify the type of
definition used.

Term: __________________
Definition: __________________
Type: ______________________
 4. CLASSIFICATION
• One strategies in writing which involves
combining objects or items into categories
based on its distinct characteristics. These
grouped and classified items are labeled under
new combinations.
Example:
1. Simple Machines
2. Programmable Machines
3. Robots
• Classification paragraphs can be
organized using an OFFICIAL or
PERSONAL classification.
Official classifications includes
widely-known and accepted
categories used by the government, a
business, or an organization.
Personal classification includes our
own classification.
Different students attend various types of schools; they can usually
be classified as either public, private religious, private nonreligious,
or alternative. Public schools are funded by the state, and the
majority of students in the United States attend them. Private
schools are schools that do not receive federal funding but are
instead supported by a private organization or funding from
individuals. Private religious schools are based around a particular
faith, such as Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, and so forth.
Religion is part of the everyday lives of the students and they also
learn about their faith in addition to regular subjects. On the other
hand, private nonreligious schools 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, which are typically self-paced and
hands-on. Most students who attend class in a school building go to
one of these types of institutions.
 Exemplification
• Presents the general statement
and provides concrete and
specific examples to expound on
the main idea
• The most important parts are
the main idea and specific
examples
While the Internet offers so many benefits to man,
it also has its downsides. One of these is
phishing, which refers to the act of obtaining
personal information, such as passwords and
credit card details, through online means. In
other words, phishing is a form of cybercrime. As
an example, let us consider the case of Mr. X. He
received an email stating that his Gmail account
has been compromised and that he needed to
click a link to update personal information. If Mr.
X clicks on the link, his personal information will
be illegally acquired by cybercriminals.
Note:
• A classification and exemplification
should be used with the purpose of
emphasizing the differences between
the different criteria.
 Activity:
Write a paragraph that uses classifications to
rank or categorize the types of one of the
following subjects:

a. Students at your department

b. Diets
c. New cars
d. Consumers
e. Disabilities
f. Careers
g. Recent movies
5. COMPARISON AND CONTRAST
• It occurs between two entities by
presenting their similarities and
differences based on their characteristics
or features.
• The general aim is to answer the
questions:
“What makes these things different?”
“What do they have in common?”
• The two ways in comparison and
contrast in writing are in chunks and
in sequence.
In Chunking, the characteristics of
the items being compared are
presented separately.
In Sequencing, the attributes of the
objects are presented point by point.
Example:
In chunking, the characteristics of
Honda Civic car are presented first
then followed by the features of
Toyota Corolla car. Using
sequenced comparison, the
features of two cars will be
analyzed feature by feature.
Activity:
Write a paragraph using comparison and
contrast to explain the similarities and
differences on any of the given topics
below.
a. Two sitcoms
b. Two cars
c. Two teachers
d. Two friends
 6. CAUSE AND EFFECT
• It explains reasons why things
happen or explains the results of
certain phenomena.
• Cause and effect can be written in
two ways. A paragraph may either
emphasize the cause or the effect.
1. Paragraph emphasizing cause.
As the name implies, this emphasizes the cause
and goes into detail about it while the effect is
subtly expressed in the sentence.
Example:
“Because she had hurled the urn down the
mountain, it is impossible to recover it now. She
had thrown it with all her strength, not even
watching it sail into the air before it disappeared.”
2. Paragraph emphasizing effect.
This emphasizes the effect and goes into detail
about it, with the cause subtly hinted at the
paragraph.
Example:
“One more delayed payment for the house
rent and it would soon be gone. They would be
left homeless. The children will have to stop
going to school, and she would have nowhere to
go.”
Activity:
Typhoon Yolanda took the lives of over
6,300 Filipinos and displaced thousands of
others. Perform a thorough research that
will explain why there were so many
casualties even when they were warned of
a storm surge beforehand by the officials.
Use the cause and effect pattern of
development in writing.
 7.PROBLEM-SOLUTION

• A problem-solution paragraph
in a text begins by identifying
the problem or situation, and
later on presents a solution to
the problem.
Deforestation is a serious problem because
forests and trees aren’t just pretty to look at, they
do an important job making the earth’s
environment suitable for life. They clean the air,
store water, preserve soil, and provide homes for
animals. In the past fifty years, more than half of
the world’s rain forests have been destroyed.
Today, the forests of the world are being cut
down at a rate of fifty acres every minute!
Scientists say that if deforestation continues, the
world’s climate may change, floods may become
more common, and animals will die.
One solution to the problem of deforestation is to use less
paper. If you use less paper, fewer trees will be cut for
paper making. How can you use less paper? One answer
is to reduce your paper use by using both sides of the
paper when you photocopy, write a letter, or write a paper
for school. A second answer is to reuse old paper when
you can, rather than using a new sheet of paper. The
backs of old envelopes are perfect for shopping lists or
phone messages, and when you write a rough draft of an
essay, write it on the back of something else. A final
answer is to recycle used paper products instead of
throwing them away. Most schools, offices, and
neighborhoods have some kind of recycling center. If you
follow the three Rs-reduce, reuse, and recycle-you can
help save the world’s forests.
 8.PERSUASION
• A writing strategy which involves
presenting a position or
standpoint which is a product of
careful research and supported
with valid claims in order to
change the attitudes or behavior
of others.
Example:
“Dear Linda, thank you for your letter. I must say
that I disagree with your view. Vaccinations are
actually an extreme necessary part of keeping
everyone, including your own children, safe from
disease. The herd immunity that protects us all is
only strong as long as everyone continues ensuring
that their children are vaccinated. There are children
who, for medical reasons, cannot receive vaccination,
and therefore are relying on the immunity of the
herd. To not vaccinate your children would be risking
so many more in danger to diseases that the human
race has nearly eradicated.”
Writing Exercise:
Write a short story incorporating at
least four of the patterns of
development. Indicate on each
paragraph what examples of the
pattern of development you have
used.