Patterns of Development in Writing

Across Disciplines
Objectives:
The student must be able to:

1. generalize the various patterns of

development in writing across
disciplines.
2. analyze how the writing patterns
are used in a text.
3. complete the table by supplying
words or phrases that best
describe the given subjects.
Patterns of Development in
Writing Across Disciplines
A. Narration
B. Description
C. Definition
D. Exemplification/Classification
E. Comparison and Contrast
F. Cause and Effect
G. Problem-Solution Essay
H. Persuasion
Narration
• presents a series of events in a
chronological order. It tells the reader
what happened at what time and
where. A narrative text contains the
plot which gives direction in making
a story.
• In developing narration, sequential
presentation of events plays an
important role. Signal words help to
create unified thought and to show
the transition of events to the next.
This leads us to focus on the use of
the action words in the story. It also
• The chronological ordering of
events helps to show the
reader how the story moves.
Most of the common
transitional words are first,
next, then, after and
suddenly. Moreover, it is
also important to give
specific details in pointing
out the direction of the story.
Read the paragraph and answer the following questions.

Being a transferee is never easy. At first, I was

hesitant to come but my mother told me that I
would find new friends in Masayahin Senior
High School. I would never forget the day I first
entered this school, I felt so shy and nervous. I
did not know anyone for I was a new Grade 11
student. When I entered my first class looking
for a chair to sit in, a boy sitting beside the
window sill asked me, “Are you new in this
school?” and I answered shyly, “Yes.” Then, he
offered me the vacant seat beside him. He was
Jasper, an old student in that school. We got
along with each other well in our class. We
worked on our assignments and school
projects. He slept in our house doing our
research work. After a year, we both realized
1. Where and when did the story
happen?
2. What transitional devices are used to
indicate the chronological order of time?

3. What event happened first?

4. What does the paragraph tell?

5. What sequence is presented in the

story?
Description
 give us details—an explanation or an
account of a person, place, time, and events.
It helps readers experience and understand
what we are writing about.
 A series of detailed observation about the
subject can help you create a good
descriptive paragraph.
 This involves the use of adjectives and
adverbs in the paragraph.
 The kind of words we used to describe how
your subject looks, sounds, feels, smells or
even tastes like are called sensory
languages. It also concerns how you will
arrange the details to provide an image of
Two Types of
Description
OBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION - where the writer
presents impartial and actual picture of the
subject without biases and excluding personal
impression of the subject just like when you give
your description of an experiment in class.

SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION - where the writer

gives personal impression of what is observed.
This is often used in making fiction stories. For
instance, when you are asked to write about a
place you visit during summer vacation, you tend
to give your personal judgment of how you
experience the place.
Tell whether the description is
subjective description or objective.
1. Sampaloc Lake is an inactive volcanic maar on the island
of Luzon, the Philippines. It is the largest of the Seven
Lakes of San Pablo, Laguna. Nearly half of the lake's depth
has a shallow depression at the bottom, indicating its
volcanic origin. It is approximately 104 hectares and 3.5-
kilometer boardwalk. The lake is behind San Pablo City
Capitol and at the foot of the Doña Leonila Park.

2. Sampaloc Lake is one of the best tourist spots in San

Pablo. It is where you can bring your friends and loved ones
for picnic and bonding. Most of San Pableños jog around
the lake and do ride bicycles not only to have morning
good exercise but also have fresh air. You can witness the
beauty of nature for it is surrounded with mountains.
Definition
 used when we want to explain a new idea,
thought or concept. Paragraph like this
present readers with the meaning and
explanation of a concept.
 What to define always depends on the needs
of the reader and the purpose of
communication. It can be done in either of
the two distinct methods of definition.
 First, informal definition as either
denotation or connotation. Denotation is the
dictionary meaning of the word.
Two Distinct Methods of
Definition
INFORMAL DEFINITION as either
denotation or connotation.
Denotation is the dictionary
meaning of the word.
Connotation is the secondary
meaning of a word and not
necessarily included in the
dictionary. Rather it is how a writer
understands a word based on their
own personal experiences.
FORMAL DEFINITION consists of three
principal parts: the species (WORD) +
(CLASS) + (DIFFERENTIAE).

The WORD is the name of the object,

process, or concept defined. This is usually
followed by “is” and “are” and the CLASS or
general group to which the objects belongs.
For example: Skimming (species) is a
reading technique (class) of allowing the
eyes to travel over a page very quickly,
stopping only here and there to gain an idea
(differentiae).
Comic books (word)
are subsquential and
narrative publications
(class) consisting of
illustrations, captions,
dialogue balloons, and
often focus on super-
powered heroes
(differentiae).
Reading (word) is a
cognitive process
(class) that invovles
decoding of meaning
(differentiae).
Write INSIDE the circle the most
valuable learning that you gained
from the lesson.

Write some questions or

clarifications that you gained
OUTSIDE the circle.
On a separate sheet, complete the table by
supplying words or phrases that best describe the
given subjects. Use any of your senses to provide
appropriate descriptions.
SUBJECT SIGHT HEARING SMEL TASTE TOUCH
L
example: long- soft voice heave silky
Beauty legged nly skin
Queen beauti scent
ful
Mount
Mayon
Teacher

Book

Fettuccin
e
Jackfruit
Exemplification
(orillustration) is the most
common and effective pattern to
explain an idea or point. In
developing this kind of
paragraph, the writer develops a
general statement –the topic
sentence, with one or more
examples to support it.
Here are some transitional
expressions in writing effective
exemplification paragraphs: for
 Exemplification writing uses specific, vivid
examples for the purpose of adding more
information to explain, persuade, define or
illustrate a general idea.
 Exemplification provides solid support and
strong evidence to prove the writer’s main
statement.
 By supplying specific examples, the writer
adds additional who, what, when, where, why
and how information to elaborate on the main
idea of a paragraph or essay. Good examples
are logically related to the topic and provide
the mental imagery needed by the reader to
make important connections. Making these
connections with suitable examples is
important so that the author’s intended
meaning, difficult concepts or unfamiliar ideas
are made known and clearly understood.
Other exemplification & support
language phrases
This is exemplified in the work
undertaken by …
This is evident in the case of …
X illustrates this point clearly . . .
This case has shown that …
The evidence presented thus far
supports the idea that …
This case demonstrates the need for
better strategies for …
This case reveals the need for further
investigation in patients with …
Exemplification paragraph
example:

While the internet offers so many

benefits to man, it also has its
downside. one of these is phishing,
which refers to the act of obtaining
personal information, such as
passwords, credit card details.
Through online means. In the 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
Classification
is used when a writer needs to
sort out or arrange subjects to
groups or categories based on
their common and shared
characteristics.
Here are some transitional
expressions in writing effective
classification paragraphs:
classified as, one kind, the
last group, another kind,
another, final type, the first
Earthquakes can be classified into
three main types based on the plate
movements, these are convergent
boundary, divergent boundary, and
conservative plate boundary. The
first type is known as a convergent
boundary. Also known s destructive
plate boundary, this type of
earthquake happens when two
tectonic plates move toward one
another and collide. The second
type of eathquake is called the
divergent boundary. During this
type of earthquake, two plates ae
forced to move away from each
other resulting in a rift zone. The
Comparison and Contrast
 Comparison focuses on similarities
between things, and contrast focuses on
their differences. We innately make
comparisons all the time, and they
appear in many kinds of writings. The
goal of comparison and contrast in
academic essays is generally to show
that one item is superior to another,
based on a set of evaluations included as
part of the writing.
 A compare-and-contrast essay, analyzes
two subjects comparing them,
contrasting them, or both.
 Its purpose is not to simply state the
In order to get a better understanding on how a
compare and contrast essay is written, take a
look at this essay.
“My sisters Tina and Jona differ in terms of
personality, appearance, and intelligence. Tina, the
middle child in the family, prefers staying at home
to going out with her friends. She is slim, petite,
and has dark skin. As she is not sociable, she
makes friends with the characters from the books
she reads most of the time. In addition, she is very
clever in subjects like math and science, which
helped her graduate with the highest honors from
Senior High School. In contrast, my youngest
sister, Jona, is the opposite. She has an outgoing
and friendly personality. There is never a dull
moment, as she is always ready with stories to tell.
She is tall with a round, plump face and fair skin.
Being the youngest in the family, she is often
asked to perform during family gatherings since
Cause and Effect
 is a text development pattern which explains
why something happens. It also states what
results a particular event produces. It usually
gives a statement emphasizing the cause and
another emphasizing the effect. The following
guide questions can be used for cause-effect
development:
• Why did it happen?
• What caused it?
• What does it cause?
• What are the effects?
• How it is related to something else?
Further, in developing your texts you can use
signal words like as a consequence of, as a result
of, because, because of, now that, and since, to
express cause, while accordingly, consequently,
Video game addiction is a serious problem in many parts of
the world today and deserves more attention. It is no secret
that children and adults in many countries throughout the
world, including Japan, China, and the United States, play
video games every day. Most players are able to limit their
usage in ways that do not interfere with their daily lives, but
many others have developed an addiction to playing video
games and suffer detrimental effects.
One common effect of video game addiction is isolation and
withdrawal from social experiences. Video game players
often hide in their homes or in Internet cafés for days at a
time—only reemerging for the most pressing tasks and
necessities. The effect of this isolation can lead to a
breakdown of communication skills and often a loss in
socialization. While it is true that many games, especially
massive multiplayer online games, involve a very real form
of e-based communication and coordination with others,
and these virtual interactions often result in real
communities that can be healthy for the players, these
communities and forms of communication rarely translate
to the types of valuable social interaction that humans need
to maintain typical social functioning. As a result, the social
 CAUSE EFFECT

• isolation and
withdrawal from
VIDEO GAME social experiences
ADDICTION
• often hide in their
homes or in
Internet cafés for
days at a time
• breakdown of
communication
skills and often a
loss in
Humans are often harmed by pollution.
The presence of the hazardous substances
brought about by these three major types
of pollution: land, air and water gravely
affect our health. For instance, a person
may acquire skin problems and other
deformities from the toxic wastes present
in the land that we live in such as
garbage, pesticides, heavy metals and
other chemicals. Air pollution caused by
toxic gases, solid and liquid particles or
aerosols, and other hazardous air
pollutants adversely contaminate the air
that we breathe. Long-term exposure to
air pollutants has been linked with
diseases of the heart and lungs, cancers
and other health problems. Lastly, water
pollution observed in our primary water
sources like oceans, rivers, and lakes is
ASSIGNMENT:

Make a compare and contrast essay about Junior High School

and Senior High School. Be guided by the following rubric below.
“If there is a problem, there
is always a solution"
A Problem-Solution
Essay
presents a problem, usually
discussing several aspects of the
problem, then concludes by
discussing solutions to the problem.
To write a problem/solution essay,
think about a problem that you have
experienced and how it could be
fixed.
A problem/solution essay is written
to explain the solution(s) for a
problem. This essay can describe
multiple solutions or one “ideal”
Structure of Problem-
Solution Essay
Block Structure - for the block structure,
all of the problems are listed first, and all of
the solutions are listed afterwards.
Chain Structure - for the chain structure,
each problem is followed immediately by
the solution to that problem.

 Both types of structure have their merits.

The former is generally clearer, especially
for shorter essays, while the latter ensures
that any solutions you present relate
directly to the problems you have given.
The two types of structure, block and
chain, are shown in the diagram below.