Matakuliah
Tahun
Versi
: Writing III
: 2006-2007
:3
Pertemuan 5
Unity
1
Learning Outcomes
• By the end of this session the students are
expected to be able to
– understand the concept of unity in a
paragraph
– write a conclusion in a paragraph
– use time signals and clauses
– recognize time frames in a story and use
correct verb tenses
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Outline Materi
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Unity
Developing a paragraph
Paragraph Conclusions
Time signals and clauses
Time frames
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Unity
• When all the details in a paragraph
support the main idea, it is said that the
paragraph has unity.
• The paragraph that has unity is also said
to be coherent.
• If any of the sentences do not support the
main idea, omit it.
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Example
When I was a little girl, I was a tomboy.
I played with boys more than with girls. In
fact, I did not like playing dolls or
pretending to have a tea party like many
girls of my age did. Instead, I climbed
trees, played cowboy and Indians, or
jumped over fences. At school, I was quite
a bright student. My childhood was fun,
and I did not regret anything.
(which sentence does not support the main idea?)
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Developing a paragraph
• Besides unity or coherence, your paragraph
needs to be cohesive. That is, there are clear
connections between the sentences expressed
through lexical repetition and substitution,
transitional signals, and grammatical
relationships.
• In Narrative, dialogues can be put in to make the
story more interesting
• Specific vocabulary helps the writer to be more
exact in communicating the text
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Paragraph Conclusion
• The conclusion of a paragraph signals the
end of the discussion of a main idea.
• It should not introduce a new idea
• It should not raise questions in the
reader’s mind.
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Time Signals and Clauses
• In narrative, we need time signals to keep
the readers on track of what happened
first, second, next, etc.
• The following are words, phrases, and
clauses that can be used:
– Adverbs: then, finally, often, etc.
– Phrases: first, for quite a while, every morning
at 8.00 am, etc.
– Clauses: as we walked across the street,
when I finished my homework, etc.
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Time Frames
• English has twelve verb tenses that are
divided into three time frames—past,
present and future.
• Usually in narration you used past tenses
(simple past, past progressive, past
perfect and past perfect progressive)
• You can also use simple present tense to
make a general statement of your topic, or
future tense to make prediction.
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Conclusions
• Unity in a paragraph or an essay is shown
by the way the details of the
paragraph/essay support the topic
sentence or thesis
• In Narrative dialogues can be used to
make the story more interesting
• Clear time frames and signals help
readers to understand a story
• Past tenses are generally used for
narratives
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