DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH

1. Describe: I am going to DESCRIBE a sunset!

Sunset is the time of day when our sky meets the outer space solar winds. There are blue, pink, and
purple swirls, spinning and twisting, like clouds of balloons caught in a blender. The sun moves slowly to hide
behind the line of horizon, while the moon races to take its place in prominence atop the night sky. People slow
to a crawl, entranced, fully forgetting the deeds that still must be done. There is coolness, calmness, when the
sun does set.

INFORMATIONAL PARAGRAPH AND A NARRATIVE PARAGRAPH

2. Inform: I am going to INFORM you about the Apollo 11 space mission.
On July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 spacecraft launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its
mission was to go where no human being had gone before—the moon! The crew consisted of Neil Armstrong,
Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin. The spacecraft landed on the moon in the Sea of Tranquility, a basaltic flood
plain, on July 20, 1969. The moonwalk took place the following day. On July 21, 1969, at precisely 10:56 EDT,
Commander Neil Armstrong emerged from the Lunar Module and took his famous first step onto the moon’s
surface. He declared, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” It was a monumental
moment in human history!
Narrate: I am going to NARRATE a story about the Apollo 11 space mission.
It was July 21, 1969, and Neil Armstrong awoke with a start. It was the day he would become the first
human being to ever walk on the moon. The journey had begun several days earlier, when on July 16th, the
Apollo 11 launched from Earth headed into outer space. On board with Neil Armstrong were Michael Collins
and Buzz Aldrin. The crew landed on the moon in the Sea of Tranquility a day before the actual walk. Upon
Neil’s first step onto the moon’s surface, he declared, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for
mankind.” It sure was!

PROCESS OR HOW-TO PARAGRAPH

3. Process: I am going to explain the PROCESS of cleaning and organizing your room.
OR
How-to: I am going to describe HOW-TO clean and organize your room.
Here is the perfect system for cleaning your room. First, move all of the items that do not have a proper
place to the center of the room. Get rid of at least five things that you have not used within the last year. Take
out all of the trash, and place all of the dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. Now find a location for each of the items
you had placed in the center of the room. For any remaining items, see if you can squeeze them in under your
bed or stuff them into the back of your closet. See, that was easy!

COMPARE AND CONTRAST PARAGRAPH

4. Compare/Contrast: I am going to COMPARE and CONTRAST an ocean and a lake.
Oceans and lakes have much in common, but they are also quite different. Both are bodies of water,
but oceans are very large bodies of salt water, while lakes are much smaller bodies of fresh water. Lakes are
usually surrounded by land, while oceans are what surround continents. Both have plants and animals living in
them. The ocean is home to the largest animals on the planet, whereas lakes support much smaller forms of life.
When it is time for a vacation, both will make a great place to visit and enjoy.

CRITICAL PARAGRAPH
5. Critique: I am going to CRITIQUE the Blue Whales’ first baseball game of the new season.
The Blue Whales just played their first baseball game of the new season; I believe there is much to be
excited about. Although they lost, it was against an excellent team that had won the championship last year.
The Blue Whales fell behind early but showed excellent teamwork and came back to tie the game. The team
had 15 hits and scored 8 runs. That’s excellent! Unfortunately, they had 5 fielding errors, which kept the other
team in the lead the entire game. The game ended with the umpire making a bad call, and if the call had
gone the other way, the Blue Whales might have actually won the game. It wasn’t a victory, but I say the Blue
Whales look like they have a shot at the championship, especially if they continue to improve.

PERSUASIVE PARAGRAPH AND ARGUMENTATIVE PARAGRAPH

6. Persuade: I am going to PERSUADE my neighbors to buy tickets to the school fair.
The school fair is right around the corner, and tickets have just gone on sale. We are selling a limited
number of tickets at a discount, so move fast and get yours while they are still available. This is going to be an
event you will not want to miss! First off, the school fair is a great value when compared with other forms of
entertainment. Also, your ticket purchase will help our school, and when you help the school, it helps the entire
community. But that’s not all! Every ticket you purchase enters you in a drawing to win fabulous prizes. And
don’t forget, you will have mountains of fun because there are acres and acres of great rides, fun games, and
entertaining attractions! Spend time with your family and friends at our school fair. Buy your tickets now!
Argue: I am going to present a logical ARGUMENT as to why my neighbor should attend the school fair.
The school fair is right around the corner, and tickets have just gone on sale. Even though you may be
busy, you will still want to reserve just one day out of an entire year to relax and have fun with us. Even if you
don’t have much money, you don’t have to worry. The school fair is a community event, and therefore prices
are kept low. Perhaps, you are still not convinced. Maybe you feel you are too old for fairs, or you just don’t like
them. Well, that’s what my grandfather thought, but he came to last year’s school fair and had this to say
about it: “I had the best time of my life!” While it’s true you may be able to think of a reason not to come, I’m
also sure you can think of several reasons why you must come. We look forward to seeing you at the school
fair!

PROBLEM AND SOLUTION PARAGRAPH (NARRATIVE VERSION AND INFORMATIONAL VERSION)

7. Problem/Solution: I am going to describe a kitty door PROBLEM and then explain the kitty door SOLUTION.
Narrative Version (1st person)
Last week we installed a kitty door so that our cat could come and go as she pleases. Unfortunately, we
ran into a problem. Our cat was afraid to use the kitty door. We tried pushing her through, and that caused her
to be even more afraid. The kitty door was dark, and she couldn’t see what was on the other side. The first step
we took in solving this problem was taping the kitty door open. After a couple of days, she was confidently
coming and going through the open door. However, when we removed the tape and closed the door, once
again, she would not go through. They say you catch more bees with honey, so we decided to use food as
bait. We would sit next to the kitty door with a can of wet food and click the top of the can. When kitty came
through the closed door, we would open the can and feed her. It took five days of doing this to make her
unafraid of using the kitty door. Now we have just one last problem; our kitty controls our lives!

CAUSE AND EFFECT PARAGRAPH

8. Cause/Effect: I am going to explain the CAUSES that had the EFFECT of making me a high achieving student.
(Note: This is also a first person narrative.)
I do well in school, and people think I am smart because of it. But it’s not true. In fact, three years ago I
struggled in school. However, two years ago I decided to get serious about school and made a few changes.
First, I decided I would become interested in whatever was being taught, regardless of what other people
thought. I also decided I would work hard every day and never give up on any assignment. I decided to never,
never fall behind. Finally, I decided to make school a priority over friends and fun. After implementing these
changes, I became an active participant in classroom discussions. Then my test scores began to rise. I still
remember the first time that someone made fun of me because “I was smart.” How exciting! It seems to me
that being smart is simply a matter of working hard and being interested. After all, learning a new video game
is hard work even when you are interested. Unfortunately, learning a new video game doesn’t help you get
into college or get a good job.

PERSONAL NARRATIVE PARAGRAPH

9. Personal Narrative: I am going to give a PERSONAL NARRATION of an event that changed my life.
Last year was the first time I had ever been the new kid at school. For the first four days, I was
completely alone. I don’t think I even spoke to a single person. Finally, at lunch on the fifth day, Karen Watson
walked past her usual table and sat down right next to me. Even though I was new, I had already figured out
who Karen Watson was. She was popular. Pretty soon, all of Karen’s friends were sitting there right next to me. I
never became great friends with Karen, but after lunch that day, it seemed like all sorts of people were happy
to be my friend. You cannot convince me that Karen did not know what she was doing. I have a great respect
for her, and I learned a great deal about what it means to be a true leader.

THE ACADEMIC WRITING STYLES

Writing is a form of communication that is shaped by the following factors:

1. TOPIC – What is the text about? What details am I imparting to the readers?
2. ROLE – Who am I as a writer? Do I write as a sibling? A student? Son/ a daughter? Customer?
3. PURPOSE – Why I am writing this in the first place?
3. AUDIENCE – Who is reading this piece? What knowledge does he/she need to understand in my writing?

-Academic writing requires sophisticated use of language.

IMPORTANT FEATURES OF LANGUAGE USE

1. Formality – reflects dignified stance in writing as a member of academic community.

Language use – PRECISE

Formality can be achieved through the following ways:

1. Choosing expanded modal forms over contracted forms.

Cannot - Can’t, Do not – Don’t

2. Choosing one verb form over two (2) verbs form

Damage – Mess up

3. Choosing expanded terms over abbreviated.

As soon as possible – ASAP

4. Avoid colloquial/ trite/ idiomatic expressions

Ex. Kind of like, as a matter of fact.
2. Objectivity – means that writing is impersonal and maintains a certain level of social distance.

Objectivity can be achieved by:

1. Avoiding the use of personal pronouns such as: you, I, we

Example: The Researcher instead of you

2. Avoiding rhetorical questions as it marks “closeness”

Wrong: How can these problems be solved?
Correct: Certain measures must be discovered to solve the problems.

3. Avoiding emotive language that shows biases and lessens objectivity.

Wrong: The investigators were very shocked to see the results.
Correct: The investigators did not expect the results.

3. Explicitness – Academic writing demands the use of signposts that allow readers to trace the relationships
in the parts of a study.

Changing the line of argument through the following phrases:

1. This is due to the
2. This resulted in
3. This study showed
4. In addition
5. For example

4. Caution – academic writing requires CARE since knowledge is built from proven theories and concepts.
*Avoid sweeping GENERAILZATION
Example: “Government officials are corrupt.’

Statement can be improved by using:

VERBS: tends, suggest, appear to be, think, believed, doubt, indicate

Example: The finding of the study suggest that

MODAL VERBS: will, must, would, may, can, might, could, may lead to

ADVERBS OF FREQUENCY: often, sometimes, usually

5. Structure – sentences need to be constructed in such a way that they show a level of complexity.
- includes: nominalization and passivization.

Nominalization – verbs are made central as they denote action.

- Transforming verbs into nouns helps readers focus on the action and not on the
doer of the action

Poor: The president announced a three-day holiday this September.

Nominalization: The president’s announcement of a three-day holiday for September was
released

Passivization – highlights the results instead of the doer of the action

Poor: The researcher conducted experiments to validate the hypothesis

Passivization: Experiments were conducted to validate the hypothesis.

ACADEMIC TEXT - This is basically anything that can be used in a school or classroom. It can include school
books, newspapers, articles, textbooks, and anything that has been written by someone with experience in the
field.

Sentence clause structure

Simple Sentence
A simple sentence contains a subject and a verb, and it may also have an object and modifiers.
However, it contains only one independent clause.
Here are a few examples:
 She read.
 She completed her literature review.
 He organized his sources by theme.
  They studied APA rules for many hours.

Compound Sentence
A compound sentence contains at least two independent clauses. These two independent clauses
can be combined with a comma and a coordinating conjunction or with a semicolon.
Here are a few examples:
 She completed her literature review, and she created her reference list.
 He organized his sources by theme; then, he updated his reference list.
 They studied APA rules for many hours, but they realized there was still much to learn.

Using some compound sentences in writing allows for more sentence variety.
Complex Sentence
A complex sentence contains at least one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.
Dependent clauses can refer to the subject (who, which) the sequence/time (since, while), or the causal
elements (because, if) of the independent clause.
If a sentence begins with a dependent clause, note the comma after this clause. If, on the other hand, the
sentence begins with an independent clause, there is not a comma separating the two clauses.
Here are a few examples:
 Although she completed her literature review, she still needed to work on her methods section.
o Note the comma in this sentence because it begins with a dependent clause.
 Because he organized his sources by theme, it was easier for his readers to follow.
o Note the comma in this sentence because it begins with a dependent clause.
 They studied APA rules for many hours as they were so interesting.
o Note that there is no comma in this sentence because it begins with an independent clause.
 Using some complex sentences in writing allows for more sentence variety.

Compound-Complex Sentence
Sentence types can also be combined. A compound-complex sentence contains at
least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

 She completed her literature review, but she still needs to work on her methods section even though she
finished her methods course last semester.
 Although he organized his sources by theme, he decided to arrange them chronologically, and he
carefully followed the MEAL plan for organization.
 With pizza and soda at hand, they studied APA rules for many hours, and they decided that writing in
APA made sense because it was clear, concise, and objective.
 Using some complex-compound sentences in writing allows for more sentence variety.
 Pay close attention to comma usage in complex-compound sentences so that the reader is easily able
to follow the intended meaning.

PLAGIARISM - serious form of academic dishonesty and is frowned upon in the academe.
- Copying verbatim of language and ideas of other writers and taking credit for them.

To address plagiarism: note-taking, using quotations, summarizing

Two (2) Types of Plagiarism

a. Plagiarism of Ideas
- when credit of work is ascribed to oneself truthfully.
- you write without citation, either explicitly or implicitly claims.

To address this:

Author-oriented citations –starts with surname of the author, followed by year of

publications in parentheses
Example: Pulido (2012) believes that…

Text-oriented citations – paragraph or sentence from a source is followed with

surname of the author of the work and year of publication
Example: …………………………………………….(Estacio, 2010)

Another-way citations – start the sentence/ paragraph by using the phrase according to
Example: According to Pulido (2012)…..
Aside from texts, music, movies, image should be cited if used on your paper

Images: Luna Spoliarium (1884)

In 1884, Luna Spoliarium

Video: Spencer’s (2009) “The Matchmaker”

“The Matchmaker” (Spencer, 2009)

Music: The Beatle’s song “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964) features John Lennon and Paul
Mccartney

b. Plagiarism of language – author uses the language of another writer and claims it as his on
her own
- copied word-for-word
Patchwork Plagiarism – ideas from the source are mixed with
interpretations of the writer.

To Avoid:
3 Types of Note-taking Techniques

1. Using Direct Quotations

“………………………………….” (Reyes, 1994 p.2)

2. If text is too long, you may omit certain parts and parts and replace them
with and ellipsis (3 dots). If the words omitted are at the end of the
statement, another dot is added, making it 4.

3. Interpolation may be done to insert notes within the directly quoted

passage to help readers understand the context. Mark by open and closed
brackets.

Ex. “De Quiros, Zabal, Uy and Lee believe…

[Educators] believe that …

SUMMARIZING – short restatement of the main idea of a text.

1. Make sure to read the text thoroughly. Highlight the important details.
2. After getting the main idea, use your own word in your summary.
3. When done, recheck your output with the original.

PARAPHRASING – restatement in your own of the main idea and supporting details.
- may match the length of the original.

Several ways

1. Literal Paraphrasing – only replaces vocabulary terms from the original text.
2. Structural Paraphrasing – changes the sentence structure as well as the world class of key
words of the original text.
3. Alternate Paraphrasing – poses question about the text, then answers these questions using
his/her own words.

THESIS STATEMENT – the overall idea or argument of your work

- it is a general statement that presents essential points that leads the reader to the right
direction.

A good thesis statement

- focused and succinct
- framed as declarative sentence

Example:
The ASEAN region is a dynamic system because it capitalizes on cultural diversity, rich
resources and a variety of perspectives.

Qualities of Thesis Statement

1. declarative statement
2. focused – provide supporting points
3. has clear boundaries. It sets limits
CRITIQUE PAPER
The purpose for writing a CRITIQUE is to evaluate somebody's work (a book, an essay, a movie, a
painting...) in order to increase the reader's understanding of it. A critical analysis is subjective writing because it
expresses the writer's opinion or evaluation of a text.
A critique is a short paper, usually about one book or article. First, it gives a short summary of what the
author has said. Second, it looks at the work critically. You will need to assess the strengths and weaknesses of
the piece of research or writing. It is important to remember that criticism can be positive as well as negative.

Critique should be organized in the following manner:

1. Provide readers a sense of the ideas you want to tackle.
2. Summary of the concept
3. Strengths and weakness
4. Final recommendations of the work.

REACTION PAPER
is a type of written assignment, which requires personal opinion and conclusions on a given article or
abstract. Unlike a summary, a reaction paper should contain your own thoughts on the problem, discussed in
the original text.

POSITION PAPER
The purpose of a POSITION PAPER is to generate support on an issue. It describes a position on an issue
and the rational for that position. The position paper is based on facts that provide a solid foundation for your
argument.
The purpose of a position paper is to generate support on an issue. It describes a position on an issue
and the rational for that position. The position paper is based on facts that provide a solid foundation for your
argument.

CONCEPT PAPER
All research projects need a CONCEPT PAPER: a short summary that tells the reader what the project is.

BOOKS
General Format
Author’s surname, Initials (year of publication). Title of work (set in italics).
Place of Publication: Publisher.

Single authorized books

Martinez, A. (2008). Creating memories. Quezon City: Maxwell Publishers.

Books with two authors

Pulido, D., & Mirador, J. (1998). Academic writing for college students.
Tokyo: Lindell Inc.

Books with an editor

Mata, E. (Ed.). (2015). Workplace ethics: An introduction. Kuala Lumpur:
UPM Press.

Books with no author

Cycling primer for beginners. (1989). Ohio: West and West Publishing.

PERIODICALS (JOURNALS, NEWSPAPERS, AND MAGAZINES)

General Format
Surname of author/s, Initials (year of publication). Title of the article. Title
of the periodicals, volume (issue numbers), page numbers.

Journal articles
Valdez, G. (2010). Philippine perspectives on environmental politics.
Journal of New World Politics. 8(7), 25-32.

Magazines
Moore, B. (2001, August). Fashion for the new decade. Fashion Manila,
35 (2), 77.

Newspapers
Severino, P. (2013, Oct. 23). Creating possibilities for Muslim Mindanao.
The Metro Monitor, p. A17.