Unit 4 Types of paragraphs

UNIT

TYPES OF PARAGRAPHS

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Organization

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

TYPES OF PARAGRAPHS

DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPHS

COMPARISON PARAGRAPHS

CAUSE-EFFECT PARAGRAPHS

CLASSIFICATION PARAGRAPHS

THREE COMMON SENTENCE ERRORS

Learning Objectives

• To understand descriptive, comparison, cause-effect, and classification paragraphs
• To understand subject-verb agreement
• To understand word forms

Types of Paragraphs

TYPES OF PARAGRAPHS

Four common types of paragraphs:

• Descriptive Paragraphs

• Comparison Paragraphs

• Cause-Effect Paragraphs

• Classification Paragraphs

TYPES OF PARAGRAPHS

Descriptive Paragraphs

Purpose:

• A descriptive paragraph gives the reader a virtual picture of the topic.
• It gives a point of view about how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, or sounds.
• The writer's goal is to involve the readers so that they can experience the idea or event through the text.

TYPES OF PARAGRAPHS

Descriptive Paragraphs

Key Features:

• A descriptive paragraph descirbes.
• It gives impressions, ideas, or feeling about something.
• It does not define.
• It paints a picture for the reader, that is, it shows with words.
• It uses sensory words that appeal to the five senses: hearing, taste, touch, sight, and smell.

TYPES OF PARAGRAPHS

Descriptive Paragraphs

Use

A descriptive paragraph can be used to do the following things:

• give the features or characteristics of something
• give impressions about something
• give feelings about something.

Practice Exerices

TYPES OF PARAGRAPHS

Comparison Paragraphs

Purpose

A comparison paragraph shows the similiarities and / or differences between two people, things, or ideas.

Key Features

A comparison paragraph has the following features:

• two subjects
• compared similarities or contrasted differences
• similarities or differences that are not obvious
• point-by-point method or block method

TYPES OF PARAGRAPHS

Comparison Paragraphs

Use

A comparison paragraph may show the following:

• similarities between two things
• differences between two things
• strengths and weaknesses of something
• advantages and disadvantages of something

Practice Exerices

TYPES OF PARAGRAPHS

Cause-Effect Paragraphs

Purpose

A cause-effect paragraph explains the reasons that a certain action or event occurs or the results, effects, or consequences of an action.

Key Features

The most common cause-effect paragraphs follow one of the two patterns below:

• reasons (or causes) of an action or event (focus-on-causes method) , or
• results (or effects) of an action or event (focus-on-effects method)

NOTE: Make sure that the topic you choose has a cause-effect relationship.

TYPES OF PARAGRAPHS

Classification Paragraphs

Purpose

• A classification paragraph seperates ideas into specific categories.
• It gives the distinguishing or identifying characteristics of something through specific details and examples.

TYPES OF PARAGRAPHS

Classification Paragraphs

Key Features

A classification paragraph has the following features:

• a thing being classified
• different groups
• distinct categories with no overlap
• descriptions
• identifying characteristics

TYPES OF PARAGRAPHS

Classification Paragraphs

Use

A classification paragraph can be used to do the following:

• show the different types of categories of something
• differentiate between the parts of something

NOTE: There is often more than one way to classify a group of items. In a classification paragraph, the controlling idea of tells the basis of the writer's categorizations, such as by physical characteristics, function, or type of the items that are being classified.

Common Sentence Errors

Subject-Verb Agreement

Common Sentence Errors

Subject-Verb Agreement

• When writing, it is important that the verbs agree with the subjects. Notice the subject-verb agreement rules for the simple present.

Common Sentence Errors

Subject-Verb Agreement

Exercise

A Fragment

Common Sentence Errors

A Fragment - An Incomplete Sentence

• A sentence without a subject or without a verb is called a Fragment.
• It is a piece of sentence.
• It is a dependent clause. A dependent clasue is never a complete sentence.

NOTE: To correct a sentence fragment:

• add a subject or verb, or
• combine two clauses

I went to Italy last summer. Was a wonderful trip. (no subject) I went to Italy last summer. It was a wonderful trip. Only 120 students majored in art. Because they are worried about job opportunities. (a dependent clause)Only 120 students majored in art because they are worried about job opportunities.

A Run-On Sentence

Common Sentence Errors

A run-on sentence

• It is two sentences in correctly joined without a comma or a coordinating conjunction (and, or, but, so, yet, nor, for).

NOTE: To correct a run-on sentence:

• add a comma and a connecting word, or
• seperate the sentences into two with a period.

I went to Italy and saw Rome I didn't get to see Milan. I went to Italy and saw Rome, but I didn't get to see Milan. (add comma and connecting word) I went to Italy and saw Rome. I didn't get to see Milan. (seperate into two sentences)

A Comma Splice

Common Sentence Errors

A Comma Splice

• It occurs when two or more sentences or independent clauses are connected with a comma.

I went to Italy last summer, it was a wonderful trip. I went to Italy last summer, and it was a wonderful trip. (add connecting word) I went to Italy last summer. It was a wonderful trip. (create two sentences) Only 120 students majored in art, because they are worried about job opportunities. Only 120 students majored in art because they are worried about job opportunities. Because they are worried about job opportunities, only 120 students majored in art. (add a subordinating conjunction)

Three Common Sentence Errors

A Comma Splice

NOTE: To correct a comma splice:

• add a connecting word after the comma,
• create two sentences from the one, or
• combine the most important words from the two sentences into one sentence and add a subordinating conjuction (because, since, although)

Exercise

Thank You!

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