An argumentative or persuasive paragraph is one in which you try to convince the reader of something. You state your reasons for believing something and try to get the reader to agree.
To write this type of essay, you need to decide what you actually believe - this is a personal thing, and nobody else can do it for you! Write a list of all the facts you can find which support your belief or which give examples of your belief. Make these into complete sentences and check for punctuation and grammar.
Here is an example of an argumentative or persuasive paragraph: You should do your own homework. Copying someone else is illegal, and you can get a failing grade or even be kicked out of school. If you cheat on your job, you can be fired or arrested and put into jail; the government will certainly find you if you cheat on your taxes! Copying someone else's homework also means that you never learn how to do that work for yourself, so when you need the information later (let's say the teacher actually gives you a test on it where you can't copy!) then you don't know how to do it and you get another bad grade. Also, if you don't do your homework, you never learn how to discipline yourself to do unpleasant things, and when you grow up you will always have trouble making yourself do things like your job, paying your bills, and saving money. In short, doing your own homework is the best way to go!



A persuasive essay is an essay in which you try to persuade the reader to believe a certain view or have a certain opinion. A persuasive essay usually contains relevant sources and statistics that persuade a reader to believe this viewpoint.
They are usually structured similarly to this:

  Introduction Paragraph: Includes a topic sentence, which quickly demonstrates the view you are trying to persuade. Includes the outline of what and how you will persuade the reader in the following paragraphs.
  Body Paragraphs: The amount of words you need to write and how many points you would like to present determine how many body paragraphs you will have. In the body paragraphs you present your points, present sources that support your points, and explain how they support your points
  Summary: This summarises and concludes your essay. It briefly skims over what you have already said, and you again state how what you have said supports your point.
source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_write_a_persuasive_or_argumentative_paragraph_

 

1. Describe particular smells and tastes in the paragraph. Use the most descriptive words possible to allow the reader to smell or taste what you are describing. For example: "The homemade cookies filled the air with the scent of warm chocolate, and the chocolate morsels filled your mouth with the taste of cocoa."
2. Add the senses of touch and hearing to your paragraph wherever possible. Describe certain textures and sounds. For example: "The silk garment felt smooth and fluid over my skin, and it had the sound of a gentle breeze."
3. Use similes and metaphors when you write your descriptive paragraph. These literary devices strengthen your paragraph if used properly.
4. Insert descriptive adjectives to modify your nouns. Don't just say "blue ocean." Describe the actual colors you see in the ocean. Use more descriptive words such as aquamarine or indigo to describe the shade.
5. Try personification to give human characteristics to inanimate objects. For example: "The tree stood proudly with her arms stretching toward the sky.
6. Be sure to make your paragraph long enough to give an adequate description. Describe the scene or object in as many ways as you can, but check that your paragraph is coherent.
source: http://www.ehow.com/how_2065748_write-descriptive-paragraph.html




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1) Find and Explore a Topic
Before you can write an effective descriptive paragraph, you need to do two things:

  • find a good topic;
  • study the topic carefully (a strategy that we call probing).
For guidelines and examples, visit Discovery Strategy: Probing Your Topic.
2) Draft a Descriptive Paragraph Once you have settled on a topic for your descriptive paragraph and collected some details, you're ready to assemble those details in a rough draft that begins with a topic sentence. You will find a common model for organizing a description at Draft a Descriptive Paragraph.

3) Revise a Descriptive Paragraph
Now you will revise your descriptive paragraph, concentrating on its organization. That is, you will check to see that your sentences follow a clear and logical order, each detail related to the one that came before and leading to the one that follows. These two exercises will give you practice in revising effectively:

4) Revise, Edit, and Proofread You're almost done. It's now time to invite someone else (a classmate, for example, or your instructor) to read your descriptive paragraph and suggest ways to improve it. Taking your reader's comments into consideration, revise the paragraph one last time, using as a guide this Revision Checklist for a Descriptive Paragraph. For examples of the finished product, see Model Descriptive Paragraphs.
source: http://grammar.about.com/od/developingparagraphs/a/descparhub.htm

 
1. Decide on a perspective. A first-person narrative is written from one character's point of view, using first-person pronouns. "I started writing my narrative paragraph in the first person" is an example of a first-person narrative. The first person puts the reader in the mind of the one telling the story, but also limits the emotions and knowledge of events to that of a single character. The third-person limited perspective is written with the narrator watching from a distance, and uses third-person pronouns. "He chose to start writing his narrative in third-person limited form" is an example.
2. Create your narrator and begin crafting her personality. A defining trait of a narrative is that the story comes through the perspective of the narrator, so you need to know how your narrator will view events as they unfold. Autobiographical stories are relatively easy to write in narrative form compared with fiction, in which you must take time to understand how your narrator sees things and keep that in mind in every narrative paragraph.
3. Choose a setting: the time and place where your narrative is taking place. The setting is just as important as your characters, so you should give it just as much life. Use vivid imagery to in your narrative paragraphs to create a sense of time and place. Remember to filter your descriptions through the eyes of your narrator. Don't describe things necessarily as they are, but as the narrator sees them.
4. Use as few words as possible without sacrificing content. A well-written narrative draws the reader in with needed details, but also must move the story along at a steady pace. Don't bog your narrative down by being overly descriptive. Keep the story moving forward, especially at the start of each narrative paragraph.
source:
 
By Bart Kalin

The first step in writing a good essay is making sure you completely understand the question posed in your essay topic.

Begin researching your topic. Go to your local library to find publications related to your topic and also search the Internet for additional information.

Once you collect enough material to begin, you should plan your essay. Think about how to assemble all the information you have collected including your your own ideas and interpretations.

Begin writing your essay. Write clear sentences which encapsulate the main ideas arising from the information you have gathered, and the ideas you have formed yourself. Start with formulating topic sentences that will begin each argument (paragraph). Try to write active sentences with active verbs. Make sure your topic sentences link with the previous paragraphs.

Once you have written the body of the essay you should then proceed to write the introduction to your essay. Including an interesting fact is a very good beginning and may capture the reader's interest.

After you finish writing the introduction you should proceed to your conclusion. Remember that the primary function of the conclusion is to summarize the main points in your essay, and to confirm your arguments which supported your topic.

Often presentation is worth up to 20% of the allotted marks. Observe correct spelling and grammar and essay formatting rules. You may want to use our essay marking service to help you out with the presentation of your final piece.

Always write multiple drafts and make sure your ideas flow from one argument to the next. Never plagiarize! Always keep track of any quotes or citations and include them in footnotes and bibliography. Remember that universities often use computer software that can turn-up plagiarism.

source: http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Write-Academic-English-Essays&id=738224

this is useful because this shows you the steps to have a good essay.

 

Writing clearly is not easy. 
Writing concisely is also not easy.
Doing both simultaneously is challenging.

But we need to start somewhere. 

This lens is about the mechanics of writing clearly and concisely. There are a ton of books and material written that delve into the specifics of articles, novels, short stories, plays, and technical writing.

I just want to tell you how to get there with each sentence. 

#1 Always always always think about your audience

Our mutual friend, Seth Godin, wrote about this recently.

The attention span of an internet audience is getting shorter and shorter. They tolerate less. Before they're finished reading your your 80 word masterpiece of a sentence, they will have moved on to different sites.

Think of your own surfing habits. Do you read lots and lots and lots on one site? Probably not.

#2 Use strong action (active) verbs.

He clobbered the ball.  vs.   The ball was clobbered by him.

She loved her husband.  vs.   Her husband was loved by her.

They conquered the world.  vs.   The world was conquered by them.

We enjoyed our vacation.  vs.   Our vacation was enjoyed by us.

It sounds easy. It isn't.

#3 Use simple English.

Why use a $2 word when a $0.10 will do?

Simple doesn't mean boring. It means language that your reader will understand every time she reads it (the first time). If a person must re-read the sentence, it probably needs to be changed.

Again, think of your audience. Get to the point using the simplest word available.

Example? In my technical editing, I come across utilize several times a day. Nothing wrong with it. It sounds more important than its simpler synonym, use.

So why do these highly intelligent and trained engineers utilize that form of the word? Why do they persist in utilizing its noun counterpart, utilization, when a simpler word like usage will work?

I don't know.

#4 Keep it brief.

Keep your sentences brief and you'll enjoy success as a clear writer.

What I'm about to do is excruciatingly painful and can possibly ruin my stellar and unblemished credibility as a highly educated and experienced technical and business writer whose main 9-5 job is to create text that is readable, understandable, and vibrant, all of which do not necessarily point to the main reasons that I am read by hundreds if not thousands of people all over the world, of course, not including the seven or eight people at work that I must provide clearly written and readable prose because if I were to obscure my meaning and intent with run-on sentences, flowery but meaningless text, incredibly obnoxious sentence structure, and a dearth of punctuational flaws and grammatical miscues, I would be out of gainful if not meaningful employment, if you get my drift, which at this point should be fairly muddied.

Like I said, it was painful. Actually I've seen worse and longer sentences.

Keep your sentences short, or at least mix them up so that there are plenty of short sentences scattered among the longer sentences. Then people will want to read your work.

If a reader, any reader, must go back to reread the sentence because it was too long, then it was too long.

Writing Clearly

What Makes an Irresistible Business?

Look at the Lack of Ladies Leading

I Can Show You How to Do That in Less Than 20 Minutes

#5 Don't be afraid of punctuation

Remember that paragraph above? The huge run-on sentence that really didn't make any sense? Believe it or not, it is an actual sentence. Here's what it looks like without the punctuation.

What I'm about to do is excruciatingly painful and can possibly ruin my stellar and unblemished credibility as as highly educated and experienced technical and business writer whose main 9-5 job is to create text that is readable understandable and vibrant all of which do not necessarily point to the main reasons that I am read by hundreds if not thousands of people all over the world of course not including the seven or eight people at work that I must provide clearly written and readable prose because if I were to obscure my meaning and intent with run-on sentences flowery but meaningless text incredibly obnoxious sentence structure, and a dearth of punctuational flaws and grammatical miscues I would be out of gainful if not meaningful employment if you get my drift which at this point should be fairly obvious.

Yeah, you're right. It's unreadable.

Here's a general rule: if you would say the same phrase with a pause in your speech, put in a comma (read out loud what I just wrote and you'll see what I mean). If you come to a stop, put in a period.

source: http://www.squidoo.com/Clear-Concise

Comment: this is useful because this helps writers organize their essays easily

 
Narration 
Chapter Objectives


This chapter focuses on narrative as a method of development in writing. The main points presented are:

  • A narrative is a story, a retelling of a sequence of events or of “what happened.”
  • Proper narration has a clear point, which may be implied or stated in a topic sentence or thesis sentence.
  • Effective narration is usually organized in chronological (time) order and includes clear transitions.
  • Good narration includes specific, relevant details and may include dialogue.
  • In narration, point of view and tense should be consistent.
Description 
Chapter Objectives


This chapter focuses on description as a method of development in writing. When using description, keep in mind the following guidelines:

  • Effective description has a clear sense of purpose.
  • A good descriptive paragraph or essay has a main idea, which may be implied or stated in a topic sentence or thesis statement.
  • Effective description includes both factual and sensory details.
  • Sensory details appeal to the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.
  • Clear description often includes comparisons, many of which use the words like or as.
  • Descriptive paragraphs and essays may be organized according to space order, time order, or order of importance.
Persuasion 
Chapter Objectives


The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how to persuade people through writing, to convince readers to agree with a particular position or point of view.

  • Persuasive writing attempts to convince readers to agree with the writer’s position on an argument.
  • In persuasion, a writer’s topic sentence or thesis should be an arguable statement and not a statement of fact.
  • Effective persuasive appeals involve reason, emotion, and character.
  • Acceptable support for a persuasive claim should be reasonable, fair, and effective; types of support include examples, facts and statistics, and reliable sources.
  • Proper persuasive writing avoids oversimplification, irrelevant evidence, overly emotional words, and distorted or suppressed evidence.
  • Good persuasive writing recognizes and effectively refutes opposing arguments.
  • Successful persuasive writing uses an effective structure:
    1. Background and statement of the writer’s position on the subject
    2. Strong evidence for the writer’s position
    3. Recognition and refutation of the opposing argument(s)
    4. A conclusion that restates the writer’s position
sourcehttp://wps.ablongman.com/long_harris_scw_2/14/3621/927206.cw/index.html

Comment: This is useful because this provides students with basic knowledge of kinds of paragraph. From that, students will have orientation to develop their writing skills.

 

 
_1. Choose a topic that will appeal to the designated audience for your narrative paragraph.
2. List several details that you know or have learned about your chosen topic
_3. Write a topic sentence that introduces what key information will be in the paragraph.
4. Create an outline of your paragraph that begins with your topic sentence and contains at least three important details from your list.
5. Write your three detail sentences. Use transitions between each sentence to lead your reader logically through the narrative.
6. Add your final clincher or concluding sentence that sums up your paragraph without simply repeating the details from your paragraph.
7. Check your paragraph for errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation, or have an adult or peer read your paragraph to identify mistakes
source: http://www.ehow.com/how_2046960_write-narrative-paragraph.html
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