Universidad De Manila

A.J. Villegas C.M. Palma Streets, Ermita Manila

ADVANCE ENGLISH
COMMUNICATION

Submitted by:

Garcia, Karen

Submitted to:

Sir Pineda
Subject Professor

This

Sept. 24 2016

Types of Composition
The different usage of the types of compositions really depends upon the
writers ends or objectives. If he or she wants to tell a certain scenario and make the
readers like actually witnessing it then the writer might use the narration type. If he
or she wants to give information or analyze a certain situation and the like, then the
writer might use the exposition type. If he or she wants argue with a certain idea,
then the writer might use the argumentation type and if he or she wants to describe
something and tells the readers what he or she physically saw or experienced then
he or she might use the description type.

Narration
Narration refers to the way that a story is told, and so belongs to the level of
discourse (although in first-person narration it may be that the narrator also plays a
role in the development of the story itself). The different kinds of narration are
categorized by each one's primary grammatical stance: either 1) the narrator
speaks from within the story and, so, uses "I" to refer to him- or herself (see firstperson narration); in other words, the narrator is a character of some sort in the
story itself, even if he is only a passive observer; or 2) the narrator speaks from
outside the story and never employs the "I" (see third-person narration). See also
third-person omniscient narration; third-person-limited narration; and objective shot.
Examples

Narrative Essay
The first example of narration below is an excerpt from a narrative essay
called Playground Memory. Notice the sensory details:
Looking back on a childhood filled with events and memories, I find it rather
difficult to pick on that leaves me with the fabled warm and fuzzy feelings. As the
daughter of an Air Force Major, I had the pleasure of traveling across America in
many moving trips. I have visited the monstrous trees of the Sequoia National
Forest, stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon and have jumped on the beds at
Caesars Palace in Lake Tahoe. However, I have discovered that when reflecting on
my childhood, it is not the trips that come to mind, instead there are details from
everyday doings; a deck of cards, a silver bank or an ice cream flavor."

Poetry

Other examples of narration come from poetry. Narrative poetry tells stories about
societies and heroic deeds. Many of them are very long, like some ballads and epic
poems.
The best examples of narration come from works like Geoffrey Chaucers "The
Canterbury Tales" and Henry Wadsworth Longfellows Hiawatha.

Here is an excerpt from Edgar Allan Poes The Raven.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,Over many a quaint
and curious volume of forgotten lore,While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there
came a tapping,As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.`'Tis
some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -Only this, and nothing
more.'

Narrative Novel
The last example is an excerpt from the novel, Moby Dick by Herman Melville.
"Landlord!" said I, "what sort of chap is he -- does he always keep such late hours?"
It was now hard upon twelve o'clock.The landlord chuckled again with his lean
chuckle, and seemed to be mightily tickled at something beyond my
comprehension. "No," he answered, "generally he's an early bird -- airley to bed and
airley to rise -- yea, he's the bird what catches the worm. -- But to-night he went out
a peddling, you see, and I don't see what on airth keeps him so late, unless, may be,
he can't sell his head.""Can't sell his head? -- What sort of a bamboozingly story is
this you are telling me?" getting into a towering rage. "Do you pretend to say,
landlord, that this harpooneer is actually engaged this blessed Saturday night, or
rather Sunday morning, in peddling his head around this town

Exposition
Exposition is an explanation of a theory, plan. Half of our speech is exposition,
though we may not be aware of that fact. It plays an important part in our everyday
relationships. The office equipment salesman explains to his prospective buyer the
superiority of steel desks over those made of wood; the physician explains to his
patient the dangers of infection; the mother explains to her child what makes the
day and night.

Exposition has as its object making clear a general term or principle. In this it differs
from description and narration, both of which describe specific instances of things. If
you embody description and narration in your explanation, you must subordinate
them.

There are few simple rules that everyone can follow to achieve the essential
clearness of the exposition:

1) know your subject matter thoroughly;

2) present your statements in logical order; (start with the simple and proceed to
the complex);
3) be as brief as is consistent with an adequate explanation;
4) suit your language to your audience;
5) illustrate general principles by concrete examples; (introduce comparison,
contrast, description, narration);
6) use precise terms;
7) make exact statements.

Perhaps, the most familiar kind of formal exposition is the newspaper or magazine
editorial, because they use some event of immediate interest as an example of a
general truth.
Other forms of exposition are the essay, the monograph and the treatise (textbooks
and other long didactic explanations).
Examples:
1.
An exposition is typically positioned at the beginning of a novel or a movie
because the author wants the readers to be fully aware of the characters in the
story. The famous story for children titled The Three Little Bears applies this
technique of exposition.
Once upon a time, there were three bears. There was a Daddy Bear, who was very
big, a Mama Bear, who was middle-sized, and a Baby Bear, who was very small.
They all lived together in a little cottage in the middle of the woods. Their favorite
breakfast was porridge. One morning, after they made their porridge, Daddy Bear
said, Lets go for walk in the woods until it cools. Mama Bear and Baby Bear liked

the idea, so off they went. While they were away, a little girl named Goldilocks came
walking through the forest and smelled the porridge
With the help of a single passage, the author of the story has given us an overview
of the bear family, their residence and information on how the story sets in motion.
All of Shakespeares writings contain excellent exposition examples. Take Othello,
Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, and Richard III, and you will see how exceptionally he
has used the art of expository writing. Here, two examples from Othello have been
taken to elaborate the point.
2.

Romeo and Juliet

For fear of that, I still will stay with thee,

And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again. Here, here will I remain
With worms that are thy chamber maids.
In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo finds Juliet in a drugged sleep, he assumes her to be
dead and kills himself. However, Juliet was not dead. Upon awakening to find her
dead lover beside her, Juliet then kills herself. It is also ironic that many people think
of this story as so romantic when it is actually a tragedy.
3.

Othello

Why the wrong is but a wrong i th world, and

having the world for your labor, tis a wrong in your
own world, and you might quickly make it right.
Othello blames Desdemona for cuckholding him, but the audience knows that she
has been truthful! Iago lied to Othello about Desdemonas infidelity.

Description
The Description type of composition usually attempts to make the reader
realize how the writer felt under certain circumstances. It further makes the reader

see or hear something as the writer saw or heard. It also makes the readers to fell
the quality of direct experience. In here, the writer tries to describe what he sees
and feel to the readers, making the readers see what he saw and feel what he felt.
In composition, description is a rhetorical strategy using sensory details to portray a
person, place, or thing.
Description is used in many different types of nonfiction, including essays,
biographies, memoirs, nature writing, profiles, sports writing, and travel writing.
Description is one of the progymnasmata (a sequence of classical rhetorical
exercises) and one of the traditional modes of discourse.
Examples:
1.

Look at Your Fish!

by Samuel Hubbard Scudder

I was to keep the fish before me in a tin tray,and occasionally moisten the surface
with alcohol from the jar, always taking care to replace the stopper tightly. Those
were not the days of ground glass stoppers, and elegantly shaped exhibition jars; all
the old students will recall the huge, neckless glass bottles with their leaky, waxbesmeared corks, half eaten by insects and begrimed with cellar dust. Entomology
was a cleaner science than ichthyology, but the example of the professor, who had
unhesitatingly plunged to the bottom of the jar to produce the fish, was infectious;
and though this alcohol had "a very ancient and fish-like smell," I really dared not
show any aversion within these sacred precincts, and treated the alcohol as though
it were pure water. Still I was conscious of a passing feeling of disappointment, for
gazing at a fish did not commend itself to an ardent entomologist. My friends at
home, too, were annoyed, when they discovered that no eau de cologne would
drown the perfume which haunted me like a shadow.
2.

My Home of Yesteryear

by Mary White
Situated on the bend of a horseshoe-shaped dirt road that intersects a back country
highway is the place I called home as a child. Here my elderly father raised his two
girls without the help or companionship of a wife.
The house is set back about 200 feet from the road, and as we saunter up the
narrow dirt pathway, lined with neat rows of flamboyant orange gladiolas on each
side, the tidy appearance of the small, unpainted frame house entices us to enter.
Up the steps and onto the porch, we can't help but notice a high-backed rocker on
one side and a bench worn smooth by age on the other. Both remind us of the many
vesper hours spent here in the absence of modern-day entertainment.

Turning the door knob and entering the parlor is like taking a step back in time.
There is no lock on the door and no curtains on the windows, only shades yellowed
with age, to be pulled down at night--as if you needed privacy out here in the
boondocks. Dad's big over-stuffed armchair is set beside the well-stocked bookcase
where he enjoys passing a hot afternoon with a good book. His bed, an old army
cot, serves as a couch when company comes. One lone plaque with the words
"Home, Sweet Home" adorns the wall over the mantelpiece.
3.

A Nudist Trailer Park

from "Naked," by David Sedaris

My trailer's main room is paneled with artificial walnut planks, and the low,
fiberglass tiled ceiling is stained with water marks. A linoleum floor separates the
kitchen area from the carpeted living room, which is furnished with a worn gold
velvet sofa and two matching easy chairs that face a low table bearing the scuff
marks of a now absent television set. Two of the walls are lined with windows, and
the other supports a large, ornamental carpet picturing a family of polar bears
occupying an ice flow. My bedroom, like that of my potential roommate's, is cell-like
in both its size and simplicity, furnished with only a bed and a small chest of
drawers that easily accommodates the little I brought with me.

Argumentation
Argumentation - is any exchange of ideas designed to prove the truth or falsity of a
definite statement, to influence either the behaviour or belief of an individual or a
group. A great deal of our daily speech takes the form of an informal argument.

Every complete argument consists of 3 distinct parts: the introduction, the body, the
conclusion.

The introduction is a statement of the proposition to be argued. The statement must

be in the beginning of the discussion. It also must be an assertion. We cannot argue
the subject "Immigration", for example; we must set up a statement with which
someone may reasonably differ, as, perhaps, "Restricted immigration is a menace
to the welfare of the United States."

The body of the argument is the proceeding when every participant of the argument
gives the reasons for the opinion he holds. There are 6 kinds of proof which could be
used to support one's own opinion:

1. General illustrations.
2. Specific illustrations.
3. Personal testimony.
4. Testimony of other witnesses.
5. Written evidence.
6. Circumstantial evidence.

The conclusion of the argument is what may be justly inferred from the facts
presented, when all the proof has been assembled and shown to be trustworthy.
Examples:
1.

The Argumentative Situation

"An argumentative situation . . . is a site in which the activity of arguing takes place,
where views are exchanged and changed, meanings explored, concepts developed,
and understandings achieved. It may also be a site in which people are persuaded
and disagreements resolved, but these popular goals are not the only ones, and too
narrow a focus on them threatens to overlook much for which argumentation is a
central and important tool

"As a 'site,' the argumentative situation is a nongeographical space, located in and

created by discourse. We inhabit such spaces with different facility, some of us with
ease, others with discomfort. Yet they are crucial to our self-understanding and our
understanding of others."
(Christopher W. Tindale, Rhetorical Argumentation: Principles of Theory and
Practice. Sage, 2004)

2.

Argumentative Theory of Reasoning

"For centuries thinkers have assumed that the uniquely human capacity for
reasoning has existed to let people reach beyond mere perception and reflex in the
search for truth. . . .

"Now some researchers are suggesting that reason evolved for a completely
different purpose: to win arguments. Rationality, by this yardstick . . . is nothing
more or less than a servant of the hard-wired compulsion to triumph in the debating
arena. According to this view, bias, lack of logic and other supposed flaws that
pollute the stream of reason are instead social adaptations that enable one group to
persuade (and defeat) another. Certitude works, however sharply it may depart
from the truth.

"The idea, labeled the argumentative theory of reasoning, is the brainchild of French
cognitive social scientists, and it has stirred excited discussion (and appalled
dissent) among philosophers, political scientists, educators and psychologists . . .."
(Patricia Cohen, "Reason Seen More as Weapon Than Path to Truth." The New York
Times, June 14, 2011)

3.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Argumentation

"The argument runs something like this. 'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for
proof denies faith and without faith I am nothing.'

"'But,' says Man, 'the Babel Fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It proves you exist, and
so therefore you don't. QED.'

"'Oh dear,' says God. 'I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanishes in a puff of
logic.

"'Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore he goes on to prove that black is
white and gets killed on the next zebra crossing.

"Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo's kidneys. But
this didn't stop Oolon Colluphid making a small fortune when he used it as the
central theme for his best-selling book Well, That About Wraps It Up For God.

"Meanwhile the poor Babel Fish, by effectively removing all barriers to

communications between different cultures and races, has caused more and
bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation."
(Peter Jones as the Book in episode one of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
1979)