TYPES OF WRITING

 Narrative writing tells a story.

-----Fictional Story is a story told from one’s imagination. Fiction narrative are literary texts that tell a story about
imagined people, events and ideas.
-----Non-Fictional Story is about actual events. Non-fiction narrative are any kind of literary text that tells a story
about real people, events and ideas.
 Fictional Narrative
 Realistic  portrays invented characters and events in everyday situation
 Fantasy  highly imaginative writing that contains elements not found in real life. (invented characters,
situations, and sometimes invented worlds and creatures.
 Historical  about imaginary people living in real places and times of history
 Mystery  presents unexplained or strange events that characters try to solve
 Myths  fictional tales that explain the actions of gods or heroes or the origins of the elements of
nature
 Legends  widely told stories about the past, one that may or may not have foundation in fact
 Science  writing that tells about imaginary events that involve science or technology
 Tall tales  tells larger-than-life characters in real-life settings.
 Non-Fictional Narrative
 Personal narratives tell true stories about events in a person’s life
 Biographical narratives  are accounts of a person’s life written by someone else
 Diary and journal  are personal experiences, thoughts, and feelings
 Blogs  are online journals that may include autobiographical narratives, reflections, opinions, and
other types of comments
 Eyewitness accounts  focus on historical or other important events
 Memoirs  written by somebody about meaningful scenes in his/her life and experiences
 Reflective essays  presents personal experiences that generally focus on sharing observations and
insights the writer had while thinking these experiences
 Descriptive writing  expresses ideas and feelings about real or imagined people , events and ideas
 Descriptive essays  use words that involve the senses to create a clear picture of the subject
 Travel essays  use sensory words to describe places
 Definition essays describe something abstract, ( courage or friendship, drawn from the writer’s
emotional experience)
 Expository writing  type of writing that intends to communicate ideas and information
Relies on fact to inform or explain.
 Persuasive  aims to convince the reader to adopt an opinion or a course of action.
 Responses to literature  it analyzes and interpret the authors works, they extend beyond literary analysis to
evaluate and discuss how and why the text is effective or not effective.
 Workplace and technical writing  it is a writing which is done on the job or as part of a job, often in an office
setting. It usually communicates details about a particular job or work project.
 Research report  is a presentation of evidence in support of a clear thesis statements. It is based on organized
ideas and factual information from outside sources.

STAGES IN THE WRITING PROCESS

 Prewriting - whatever it is one wants to write, it is important that planning be done at this stage. In this stage
the writers determine the purpose for writing and the intended audience, chooses a topic, narrows down the
topic, gathers detailed ideas, and develops the controlling idea or thesis of the piece of writing.
 Drafting - in this stage the prewriting notes and sentences turned into paragraphs for the first draft. It has three
important parts the introduction, body and conclusion
 The introduction must be strong enough to grab the reader’s attention and must include the thesis or
controlling ideas
 The body develops the controlling ideas and present details that elaborate on and supports that idea.
  The conclusion, very often restates the thesis and summarizes the most important concepts of the paper.
 Revising - Revising is going to through the paper to see how well the issues of purpose, audience and genre have
been addressed. It is also checking if there are ways of improving the style, word choice, figurative language,
sentence variety, and subtlety of meaning.
 Editing - is the process of checking the accuracy of facts and correcting errors. In spelling grammar, usage, and
mechanics (spelling punctuation, capitalization).
 Publishing - is producing a final copy of a piece of writing and presenting it to an audience. Decisions have to be
made about which form will best reach the intended audience and accomplish the intended purpose.

COMPONENTS OF GOOD WRITING

 Introduction - the introduction presents the thesis statement and should capture the reader’s attention.
 Paragraph - a paragraph is made up of sentences that work together to develop an idea or accomplish a
purpose.
 Transition - transitions are words, phrases, and sentences that show connections between details.
 Conclusion - a good conclusion sums up the ideas presented in the text.
 Elaboration - elaboration is the process of providing specific, relevant, and appropriate supporting details to the
main idea or thesis statement through the use of facts and statistics, description, anecdotes, examples,
quotations.

WRITING TRAITS
 Focus and coherence – a piece of writing is focused and coherent if it keeps to the topic and is clear and
supported by well-chosen details.
 Organization – a well-organized paper has a clearly recognizable plan, that is the ideas move from sentence to
sentence in a logical way and from paragraph to paragraph in an appropriate organizational pattern.
 Development of ideas - in a well-written paper, the ideas are clearly defined, logically developed, supported by
appropriate details, and connected in an interesting manner.
 Conventions – it refers to the correct use of all spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, usage, and
sentence structure rules.

ACTIVE STRATEGIES FOR READING PERSONAL ESSAY

 Activating prior knowledge – use previous personal experience to relate and to create meaning in reading a
personal essay.
 Understanding sequence of events – note or write down events which took place in chronological order to
help better understand reading a personal essay.
 Putting text information in an outline – prepare an outline to help put information in order. The heading and
sub headings in a text can help you determine the main topics and subtopics for your outline.

WRITING YOUR PERSONAL ESSAY

(PREPARING TO WRITE)
 Generating ideas for writing
 Choosing a topic – think about a significant period of time, which has shaped you into the person you
are now.
 Gathering events – use a cluster to help you think about significant events you experienced during the
time in question. Use sensory and memory details.
 Organizing the events – this time decide on an order for the details you have gathered.
 Organizing a personal essay
 Introductory point – usually begins with a notable or memorable experience (a reminiscence)
 Form – a personal essay, like in reminiscence, may be developed in a linear direction, with the details
unfolding one after the other until the story is told. In a personal essay however, it includes
explanation and analysis.
 Tone – refers to the feelings communicated by an essay. Express openly and honestly to sincerely
share thoughts and feelings.
  Point of view (POV) – a personal essay uses the first person point of view.
 Applying language skills
 3 point if view used I writing
 First point – represents you as the speaker of person sharing information, thoughts or ideas.
 Second person – represents the person (or thing) to which you are speaking or directing content.
 Third person – represents person (or thing) being spoken or written about.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MEMOIR
 Memoir – is a kind of narrative that focuses on an individual’s subjective reflection about events that he or she
experienced. It is filled with vivid descriptions and the writer’s own interpretations of the experience. It is
usually written in the first person and creates an atmosphere of closeness with the reader. A memoir is similar
to an autobiography but may be much shorter. Because it talks about the past it usually makes use of past
tense but may also employ the present tense to make the reader feel as if the events are unfolding during the
present time. However, a memoir need not be written chronologically.
 Memoir are usually written using the past tense. There are actually three aspects of the past tense – simple
past, past progressive, and past perfect
 Simple past – is the grammatical pattern used to indicate that an action occurred in the past without
saying whether the action was completed or not. This is done by using the past form of the verb alone.
Example:
 I looked out over the ruins of our great beautiful city.
 There was a silence all over the park.
 Everyone was on his feet.
 The sky clouded.
 A light rain began to fall.
 Past progressive – is the grammatical pattern used to indicate that an action occurred in the past and
was still occurring. It is usually expressed using was/were + the – ing form of the verb (called present
participle)
Example:
 In the Philippines we were assuming independence on the heels of a devastating war.
 Slowly at the same pace the two flags were moving.
 Then we were all watching the American flag come down slowly from its place against the sky.
 I was seeing the Philippines rise again.
 Try underlying other examples of past progressive in the selection.
 Past perfect – is the grammatical pattern used to indicate that an action occurred in the past and was
finished in the past. It is usually expressed using had/were + past participle of the verb.
Example:
 Business had ebbed to the vanishing point.
 The gold and silver coinage we ourselves had sunk there after burning the paper money.
 Many of the bands of defenders who had fought against the Japanese were refusing to turn in
their arms.
 And many had died defending it against the Japanese.

COMPARING AND CONTRASTING

 Comparing and contrasting – to find similarities, look for the words and phrases such as like both, similarly, all,
every, also, and in the same way. To find differences, look for words and phrase as unlike, but, more, less, on
the other hand, however, and in contrast.

CREDO OR RULE OF CONDUCT

 A credo is a statement of the beliefs or aims that guide a person’s or group of people’s actions. It should be
clear and specific.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A SHORT STORY
 It has limited number of characters often only one main character /protagonist and little/no character
development
 It has a single theme/plot
 Can be usually read in one sitting
 It is concise. Information offered in the story is relevant to the tale being told. This is unlike a novel, where the
story can diverge from the main plot.
 This usually tries to leave behind a single impression or effect; though, not always built around one character,
place, idea or act.

TYPICAL STRUCTURE OF THE PLOT

 Exposition - Introduction of main character, setting, theme, and atmosphere.
 Rising Action - Development of the conflict.
 Climax - Conflict reaching its highest point ending
 Denouement - Conflict is resolved.
 Open Ending - Conflict is not resolved, reader wonders what might happen next.
 Surprise Ending - Reader’s expectations are not fulfilled.

WORKPLACE WRITING BUSINESS LETTERS

 Business Letter - Is a conversational message but uses a polite language and tone.
 Parts of a business letter
 Heading- the sender’s complete address and date
 Inside Address- the recipient’s complete address and date
 Salutation- starts with “Dear, (recipient’s title and surname)
 Body- most important info. It writes the purpose of its letter
 Closing- formal identification of the sender. (Sincerely yours, Best regards etc.)
 Styles of business letters
 Block style- all parts of the letter are aligned with the left margin and paragraphs are separated with a
line space.
 Modified block style- date and closing are intended in this letter style. The address and the body are
also intended and no extra space is used between paragraphs. A subject line may also be included.
 Semi-block style

WORKPLACE WRITING RESUME AND COVEL LETTER

 Resume – it provides summary of your background including your education, work history and other
qualifications for a job, admission to a college or university, or a scholarship grant. The purpose of a resume is
mainly to interest an employer or a university official enough to call for an interview.
 TYPES OF RESUME
 Chronological resumes are the most commonly used format. They list work history in chronological
order, starting with your most recent job down to your earliest. This resume is preferred by most
employers because it provides a quick snapshot of work history, with most recent positions up front.
 Functional resumes focus on your skills and experience first. This type of resume de-emphasizes the
dates in which you have worked. Employment history is secondary, and is listed under the details of
your skills.
 Combination resumes let you detail both your skills and experience, while also backing this up with a
chronological listing of work history. Flexible in nature, the combination resume lets you tailor to the
prospective job opening and tell hiring managers a story.
 Targeted resumes are customized in detail to the prospective job you are seeking. Everything from your
objective, your qualifications to educational experience mirrors the job requirements.
 Cover Letter - A cover letter is a single-page letter written to the person or organization offering the job you're
applying for. A well-written cover letter should introduce you and encourage the person reading it to read your
resume.