Paragraph A: Our History Teacher Mr. Brown is our teacher. He is in charge of our history lessons. His lessons are so interesting that the students are all ears when he begins to talk. Now and then, he tells us a story and asks us to think about it. He often makes things easy for us to understand. He also likes to ask questions and he gives every student a chance to answer his questions. If he is pleased with an answer, he will nod his head and smile. If we get the answer, he encourages us to think further until we get it right. Anyway, he never embarrasses any one in front of the class. Mr. Brown is also a kind man. He often takes the trouble to help the slower students. Although he is strict in class he is just like a friend among us after class. This is why we say he is both our teacher and friend. Source from Fuxiang, W., Weijie, Z. & Xiaohua, W. (2001). Building up English reading a. (pp. 125-134). Taiwan: Lighthouse Publishing Company. Discourse Analysis of Paragraph A A. Content Analysis of the Paragraph 1. Topic sentence: “Mr. Brown is our teacher.” the initial of the paragraph. The topic sentence is placed in It gives us a general introduction of the paragraph. The theme passed through the topic sentence aims to tell us the people their history teacher, Mr. Brown. 2. Supporting sentences: (a) From the supporting point of being a teacher: “Mr. Brown is our teacher.” The sentence has one sub-supporting sentences. (1)“He is in charge our history lessons.” And the sub-supporting sentence also has six sub-sub-supporting sentences. 1 (i) “His lessons are so interesting that the students are all ears when he begins to talk.” (ii) “Now and then, he tells us a story and asks us to think about it.” (iii) “He often makes things easy for us to understand.” (iv) “He likes to ask us questions and he gives every student a chance to answer his questions.” (v) “If he is pleased with an answer, he will nod his head and smile.” (vi) “If we get the wrong answer, he encourage us to think further until we get it right.” The six sub-supporting sentences were written in detail to let readers clearly know how the teacher is. He makes his lessons interesting and let students easily learn from his lessons. (b) From the supporting point of being a friend: “Although he is strict in class, he is just like a friend among us after class.” (1). “Anyway, he never embarrasses any one in front of the class.” (2). “Mr. Brown is also a kind man.” (3). “He often takes the trouble to help the slower students.” The sub-supporting sentences (1), (2), (3) develop the supporting sentence (b) by methods of examples and illustration. They describe the text in details. For example, “He often takes the trouble to help the slower students” (b)-(3) is more detailed and explanatory than ” he is just like a friend among us after class”(b). 3. The organization of the paragraph: The ideas are developed by examples. From those details of his treating his students, readers can know he is not only a strict teacher but a warm friend. . 4. From the points of coherence, cohesion and unity. 2 It meets the requirement of a good composition. It has a consistency and rationality in the way the information is organized. transition is logical. It is organized by examples. It has continuity, and the The transitional words used are provided as the following: now and then, anyway, and if. It also has unity, for it ensures that every information in the text is related to one another. 5. The text has a head, body, and conclusion. The author concludes “Although he is strict in class, he is just like a friend among us after class.” B. Analysis of the sentence structure of the paragraph 1. The Percentage of the Sentence Patterns of the Paragraph Table 1: The Percentage of Sentence Patterns Times for appearance Percentage Simple sentences 6 46% Compound sentences 2 15% Complex sentences 5 39% Compound-complex sentences 0 0% 2. Analysis of the Sentence Structures (a) Structures of the simple sentences: There are six simple sentences in the text. (1) Mr. Brown is our teacher. S (2) He is S V V SC in charge of our history lessons. prep Ph O 3 (3) He often makes things easy S adv V1 for us O1 adj prep to understand. O2 infinitive V2 (4) Anyway, he never embarrasses anyone in front of the class. Adv S adv (5) Mr. Brown is S V also O1 a kind V adv adv V1 O2 man. SC (6) He often takes the trouble to S prep Ph O1 help the slower students. infinitive V O2 (b) Structures of the compound sentences: There five compound sentences in the text. (1) 獨立子句 1 對等連接詞 獨立子句 2 Now and then, he tells us asks us to think about it and Adv S V1 O1 conj a story V2 O3 inf. V Ph O4 O2 (2) 獨立子句 1 He also likes to ask questions S adv V1 inf V 對等連接詞 and 獨立子句 2 he gives every student a chance conj S V2 O2-1 O2-2 to answer his questions. Inf V3 O3 O (c). The structures of the complex sentences: There are five complex sentences in the text. (1) 副詞子句 If he is pleased with Conj S V adj prep an answer, O 主要子句 he will nod his head and S V O conj 4 smile. V (2) 副詞子句 If we get the answer, conj S V O 主要子句 he encourages us to think further until S V O inf V adv conj we get it right. S V O adv (3) 副詞子句 I Although he is strict Conj S V adj 主要子句 in class he is just like a friend among us prep Ph S V adv adj O prep O after class. Prep ph (4) 主要子句 名詞子句 why we say he is both our teacher NCl1 NCl2 and friend. 主要子句 名詞子句 that the students are all ears that conj S V adj when he begins to talk. Conj S V inf V This is S V (5) His lessons are so interesting S V ad adj 5 Implication in Teaching Descriptive Writing There are six writing stages: Correct interpretation of topic, brainstorming, organization, first draft and revision and editing. They are sometimes lumped into three stages, namely, pre-writing, drafting, and post-writing. (Oladejo, 2002). Take the paragraph for an example to teach writing. A. Pre-writing: For it is a descriptive text, it aims to communicate with readers. 1. Enforce students’ schema for writing descriptive text by using “theoretical background for composition analysis” (appendix A). And then students may have better knowledge ready for writing descriptive paragraphs. 2. Take the paragraph adapted for example to explain the definition, requirements and language features of a descriptive paragraph about people, (as analyzed in the Appendix A) and then they have general knowledge to write the type of text that describes people. Teach students words, phrase, and sentence structures, conforming to language features available in writing descriptive text for people. For example, the words and phrases to describe people: interesting, in charge of, talk, tell a story, ask, make, understand, answer, is, nod, smile, get, encourage, think, get, embarrasses, kind, take, help, say. The total number of the words is twenty, but there are almost verb words. 3. Let students have brainstorming about the topic, and jot down all the ideas that come to students’ mind. 4. Evaluate the significance and relevance of ideas generated during brainstorming and then rearrange the ideas. 6 B. Drafting: 1 Teach students the methods and approaches of organization, such as examples discussed in the preceding part of organization analysis. 2 Develop each main idea into a paragraph. 3. Ensure that each paragraph has a topic sentence and supporting sentences. They can place the topic sentence in the initial, middle or the end of the paragraph. And the supporting sentences can support the topic sentences in many ways, such as, by illustration, definition, figures, facts, and examples. 4. Teach students write introduction, body, and conclusion in their writing. Ensure cohesion, coherence, and unity of ideas as written in the preceding. Be sure to teach them transitions like anyway, now and then in the text to make their writing more fluent. 5. Teach students to express themselves in appropriate style and tone. C. Post-writing: Teach students to read their writing again and again, and then to revise their writings. D. Order of Adjectives: Predeter- Article miner General Size Shape Age Color Origin Material Non- Noun Adjective mate Number rial Pronoun Most of The Pretty Some A Beautiful little big fine Antique white Chinese Rubber Flow Toys old er Mexican stone vase plant hous ation es 7 E. Useful Vocabulary for Writing Descriptive Paragraphs About People Table1: Adjectives for Describing People People Adjectives 1. appearance attractive, elegant, handsome, skinny, elegant, good-looking, stylish 2. personality active, typical, charming, creative, honest, humorous, lazy, modest, optimistic, patient, quiet, sensitive 3. emotions and feelings anxious, concerned, depressed, embarrassed, happy, moody, pleased, sad, satisfied, worried 4. abilities and attitudes admirable, brilliant, capable, careless, committed, competent, cruel, dedicated, devoted, good-natured, kind-hearted, uncaring, wise F. Useful Adverbials for Descriptive Paragraphs Table2: Adverbials 1. Time afterward, ago, before, directly, eventually, finally, initially, lately, since, soon, subsequently, then, today 2. Frequency almost, always, frequently, generally, hardly, irregularly, normally, once, ordinarily, regularly, scarcely 3. Degree absolutely, almost, anyway, completely, enough, entirely, gradually, hardly, likely, particularly, possibly, surely, 4. Emotion state Actively, astonishingly, badly, bitterly, calmly, carefully, clearly, effectively 8 Implications of Teaching Descriptive paragraph A. Cloze Writing According to the phrase bank, fill in each question an appropriate answer. Word Bank: Until, strict, kind, embarrass, anyway, encourage, smile, pleased, interesting, slow, although. 1.She didn’t go to bed ________twelve o’clock. 2. That wasn’t my business,_________. 3. Many students are afraid of him. He is a ________ teacher. 4. Don’t ___________ her laziness by doing homework for her. 5. She welcomed him with a __________. 6. _______he was ill, he still worked hard. 7. I’m ______with myself. 8. My watch is two minutes ________. 9. He makes his class ______, so students learn more easily. 10. May seemed ________ by the question. Answer: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9 According to the phrase bank, fill in each question an appropriate answer. Word Bank: Until, strict, kind, embarrass, anyway, encourage, smile, pleased, interesting, slow, although. 1.She didn’t go to bed ________twelve o’clock. 2. That wasn’t my business,_________. 3. Many students are afraid of him. He is a ________ teacher. 4. Don’t ___________ her laziness by doing homework for her. 5. She welcomed him with a __________. 6. _______he was ill, he still worked hard. 7. I’m ______with myself. 8. My watch is two minutes ________. 9. He makes his class ______, so students learn more easily. 10. May seemed ________ by the question. Answer: 1. until 2. anyway 3. strict 4. encourage 5. smile 6. Although 7. pleased 8. slow 9. interesting 10. embarrassed E. Phrase Drills According to the phrase bank, fill in each question appropriate answers. Phrase Bank: Be in charge of, be all ears, now and then, make something easy, be pleased with something or somebody, take the trouble to do something, think about. 1. Tell her about it, and you will_____ _______ ________. 2. Are you ________ _________your new house? 3. Tell me your ideas. I’m _______ _________. 4. _______ ___________ __________, my family go to the movies. 5. He is ______ __________ ________the Clothes Department. 1. 2. 3. 4. 10 5. F. Sentence Drills 1. Guided Writing. .Directions: Read and answer the following questions, using the lead words provided. 1. What’s Mr. Brown in charge of? Answer: He is _______________________________________________. 2. What chance does he give every student? Answer: He gives every student _________________________________. 3. What will he do if the students get the answer wrong? Answer: He will encourage _____________________________________ until ______________________________________________________. 2. Structural Practice. Directions: Study the following basic structure and make new sentences after the given example. Structure 1: so….that Your sentence:________________________________________________ Structure 2: make things easy for somebody to V Your sentence: ________________________________________________ Structure 3: This is why +clause Your sentence: ______________________________________________ Structure 4: If clause, clause. Your sentence: ______________________________________________ 11 Paragraph B: My Mother My mother is a typical Chinese woman. To me, she means every Chinese virtue. She gets up early, and does all the housework by herself. However, she does not want me to help her. She only hopes that I pay attention to my school work. 12 Meanwhile, my mother is very frugal. I don’t mean that she is very stingy. She is just careful in spending money. Yet, she can sometimes be very generous, especially when helping the poor. I am very proud of my mother. Discourse Analysis of Paragraph B 一. Analysis of the Paragraph’s Content 1. Topic sentence: “My mother is a typical Chinese woman.” sentence is placed at the initial the paragraph. The topic It gives us a general introduction of the paragraph. The theme passed through the topic sentence aims to tell us the characters of the author’s mother who is a typical Chinese mother. 2. Supporting sentences: (a) She gets up early, sleeps late, and does all the housework by herself. (b) She is just careful in spending money. © Yet, she can sometimes be very generous, especially when helping the poor. From those supporting sentences, we have clear ideas about the characters of the author’s mother. She does all the housework, and 3. The organization of the paragraph: The author organize the paragraph by examples, such as her indillegent, frugile and taking care of her children. 4. From the points of coherence, cohesion and unity. It meets the requirement of a good composition. It has a consistency and rationality in the way the information is organized. It is organized by examples. Seen from cohesion, it has continuity, and the transition is logical. The transitional words used are provided as the following: however, meanwhile and yet. It also has unity, for it ensures that every information in the text is related to one another. 5. The text has a head, body, and conclusion. The paragraph has a topic sentence and it concludes “I am very proud of my mother.” 13 6. The adjectives used to describe characters as the following: Typical, frugal, stingy, careful, generous and proud. 二 The Percentage of Sentence Patterns Table 1: The Percentage of Sentence Patterns Times for appearance Simple sentences 6 Compound sentences 2 Complex sentences 3 Compound-complex 0 Percentage sentences 三 Analysis of the Sentence Structures 1. Structures of the simple sentences: There are five simple sentences in the paragraph. (a) My mother S (b) To me, is a typical Chinese woman. V SC she means ADV ph S (C) However, ADV ph every Chinese virtue. V SC she does not S me to help her. V (d) Meanwhile, my mother is ADV ph want S O very frugal. V SC 14 OC (e) She is S just careful V (f) I am S in spending money. SC very proud of my mother. V SC 2. Structures of the compound sentences: There five compound sentences in the text. (1) 獨立子句 1 She gets up early, S V ADV 對等連接詞 and conj 獨立子句 2 does all the housework by herself. V O ADV (2) 獨立子句 1 He also likes to ask questions S adv V1 inf V 對等連接詞 and 獨立子句 2 he gives every student a chance conj S V2 O2-1 O2-2 to answer his questions. Inf V3 O3 O C. The structures of the complex sentences: (1) 主要子句 副詞子句 Yet, she can sometimes be especially when helping the poor. ADV S V ADV conj V O very generous, ADJ (2) 主要子句 She S only ADV 名詞子句 that I pay attention to my school conj S V O work hopes V (3) 主要子句 I don’t mean that 15 名詞子句 she is very stingy S that conj S V V adj 四 Implication in English Language Writing A. Procedures of Teaching Writing Descriptive Paragraph There are six writing stages: Correct interpretation of topic, brainstorming, organization, first draft and revision and editing. They are sometimes lumped into three stages, namely, pre-writing, drafting, and post-writing. (Oladejo, 2002). Take the paragraph for an example to teach writing. 1. Pre-writing: For it is a descriptive text, it aims to communicate with readers. (a). Enforce students’ schema for writing descriptive text by using “theoretical background for composition analysis” (appendix A). And then students may have better knowledge ready for writing descriptive paragraphs. (b). Take the paragraph adapted for example to explain the definition, requirements and language features of a descriptive paragraph about people, (as analyzed in the preceding part of composition analysis) and then they have general knowledge to write the type of text that describes people. Teach students words, phrase, and sentence structures, conforming to language features available in writing descriptive text for people. For example, the words and phrases to describe people: interesting, in charge of, talk, tell a story, ask, make, understand, answer, is, nod, smile, get, encourage, think, get, embarrasses, kind, take, help, say. The total number of the words is twenty, but there are almost verb words. (c). Let students have brainstorming about the topic, and jot down all the ideas that come to students’ mind. 16 (d). Evaluate the significance and relevance of ideas generated during brainstorming and then rearrange the ideas. 2. Drafting: (a) Teach students the methods and approaches of organization, contrast, discussed in the preceding part of organization analysis. (b) Develop each main idea into a paragraph. © Ensure that each paragraph has a topic sentence and supporting sentences. They can place the topic sentence in the initial, middle or the end of the paragraph. And the supporting sentences can support the topic sentences in many ways, such as, by illustration, definition, figures, facts, and examples (discussed above). F. Teach students how to organize paragraphs into a text. They could imitate the text to organize the paragraphs by the method of contrast (as discussed above). G. Teach students write introduction, body, and conclusion in their writing. Ensure cohesion, coherence, and unity of ideas as written in the preceding. Be sure to teach them transitions as the following table. Teach students to express themselves in appropriate style and tone. 3. Post-writing: Teach students to read their writing again and again, and then to revise their writings. There is a useful editing checklist to revise their writing. (See Oladejo, 2002). B. Cohesive Devices: The following items should be learned in the course of writing program to make students’ writing more cohesive. Table3: The Logical Connectors Items Connectors 17 1. Addition Again, equally, in fact, further, moreover,, and then, in addition to, what is more, indeed 2. Comparison Compared with, in the same way, similarly, in comparison with, likewise 3. Contrast and concession Besides, naturally, still, nevertheless, whereas, however, while, in contrast, on the contrary, yet, instead, on the other hand 4. Enumeration First, last, on top of, finally, next, in the first place, more important, then 5. Exemplification As, such as, for example, thus, for instance, to show what, let us 6. Inference If not, otherwise, then in that case, that implies 7. Summary In all, in short, on the whole, in brief, in conclusion, to sum up 8. Time After, before, since, afterwards, finally, so far, at first, in the end, at last, meanwhile Items Connecters 9 Result Accordingly, for that reason, then as a result, hence, therefore, consequently, thus 10. Reformulation In other words, that is, rather, to put it more 11. Replacement Again, still, the alternative is, 18 alternatively, on the other hand 12. Transition As far as…is concerned, now, as for, to turn to, incidentally, with reference to B. Word Drill Word Bank According to the phrase bank, fill in each question an appropriate answer. (1). (2). (3). (4) C. Phrase Drills Phrase Bank According to the phrase bank, fill in each question appropriate answers. 1. Tell her about it, and you will_____ _______ ________. 2. Are you ________ _________your new house? 3. Tell me your ideas. I’m _______ _________. 4. _______ ___________ __________, my family go to the movies. 5. He is ______ __________ ________the Clothes Department. D. Sentence Drills 3. Guided Writing. Directions: Read and answer the following questions, using the lead words provided. (a) What’s Mr. Brown in charge of? 19 Answer: He is _______________________________________________. 2. What chance does he give every student? Answer: He gives every student _________________________________. 3. What will he do if the students get the answer wrong? Answer: He will encourage _____________________________________ until ______________________________________________________. 2. Structural Practice. Directions: Study the following basic structure and make new sentences after the given example. Structure 1: so….that Your sentence:________________________________________________ Structure 2: make things easy for somebody to V Your sentence: ________________________________________________ Structure 3: This is why +clause Your sentence: ______________________________________________ Structure 4: If clause, clause. Your sentence: ______________________________________________ 20 Comparison Chart of Paragraph A and Paragraph B Our History Teacher My Mother Point of view He He Methods of Organization Spatial order Chronological order of importance Form Examples Examples Style Sensational Sensational What A kind history teacher A typical mother When & where Now in a campus Now at home How How the teacher treats his How the mother be a typical students woman For low-intermediate For low-intermediate learners learners but easier Topic sentence At the end In the initial Sentence structure More simple sentences More simple sentences Words More verb forms More adjectives and Who transition words What About the teacher’s About the mother’s characters characters 21 Guided Writing My English Teacher Word and Phrase Bank: although, happy, useful, interesting, open, in this way, goes out her way, as well, a great deal of, I have known before, special, friendly, always, remember Complete the following paragraph by filling in the blanks with the appropriate word or phrase from the above bank. My English teacher is a very She (3) (1) person. to help each of us care and thought into making her lessons She is a very (8) (2) and (9) (6) (4) , and person, and is questions about herself and her family. , she has many students, .She puts (7) (10) (11) (5) , enjoyable. to answer our we not only improve our English, but we can learn about the differences and similarities of our cultures (12) (15) . She is unlike any teacher (13) and I will (14) her. Answer: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) My English Teacher Word and Phrase Bank: although, happy, useful, interesting, open, in this way, goes out her way, as well, a great deal of, I have known before, special, friendly, always, 22 remember. Complete the following paragraph by filling in the blanks with the appropriate word or phrase from the above bank. My English teacher is a very She (3) (1) person. to help each of us care and thought into making her lessons She is a very (8) (2) and (9) (6) (4) , and person, and is questions about herself and her family. , she has many students, .She puts (7) , enjoyable. (10) (11) (5) to answer our we not only improve our English, but we can learn about the differences and similarities of our cultures (12) (15) . She is unlike any teacher (13) and I will (14) her. Answer: (1) special (4) individually (7) useful (10) happy (2) Although (5) a great deal of (8) open (11) In this way (13) I have known before (14) always (3) goes out of her way (6) interesting (9) friendly (12) as well (15) remember The Original Paragraph My English Teacher My English teacher is a very special person. Although she has many students, 23 she goes out of her way to help each of us individually. She puts a great deal of care and thought into making her lessons interesting, useful, and enjoyable. She is a very open and friendly person, and is happy to answer our questions about herself and her family. In this way, we not only improve our English, but we can learn about the differences and similarities of our cultures as well. She is unlike any teacher I have known before, and I will always remember her. Free Writing Describing People’s Character A. Choose one person you know well. The person can be a friend, relative, neighbor, classmate, teacher, or anyone else you know very well. Write his/her name on the line. B. Write one adjective from the word bank that describes the person you chose. Word Bank Ambitious dependable hardworking messy quiet shy Artistic energetic helpful neat responsible social Boring enthusiastic honest Brave friendly jealous organized sensitive talkative Competitive funny kind patient thrifty Creative generous lazy optimistic selfish 24 serious studious C.Write the topic sentence for a paragraph about the person. Include both the name of the person and the adjective you chose. Example: My sister Amy is the most energetic person in my family. D. Make a list of at least three examples that support your topic sentences Examples: 1. She sleeps late but gets up early. 2. She rides her bicycle the whole morning. 3. She is the one we love to play with most. Your supporting sentences 1. 2. 3. E. Use your list as a guide to write a paragraph. Appendix A Theoretical Background of Composition Analysis 25 A. Descriptive Composition Analysis 1. Definition of Descriptive Composition: A descriptive composition is one in which you are required to describe details of something, person, or place. Such a description may focus on the physical qualities, or characteristics, as well as internal features of what is being described. 2. Specific Requirements of a Descriptive Composition: Normally, a descriptive essay should start with a general introduction t in which you present an overview of what is to be described. Then it is narrowed down to one or two specific features that make readers have more clear ideas of the object described. It should be also used to express your own views and attitudes toward what you described. 3. Language Features: One of the most common features of a descriptive composition is the frequency of adjectives of description, such as large, small, bright, radiant, colorful, and so on. Another feature is locative words and phrases, such as, in the corner, next to close to near. Finally, certain verb forms, especially Be are also commonly used. C. Paragraph Analysis 1. Definition of a paragraph: A paragraph is a group of sentences which discuss only one main idea. And every paragraph in a composition must have a topic sentence. 2. The location of the topic sentence: It can be divided into three types: It is could be placed initially in the paragraph, at the end of the paragraph, or in the middle of the paragraph. 3. The requirements of a good topic sentence: A good topic sentence presents a general statement, and it limits the scope of the paragraph. 4. The topic sentence’s important tasks: A good topic sentence also performs the 26 important tasks: It establishes a contract between the reader and the writer, and it captures the reader’s attention. Once you have limited your topic sentence, your next step is to gather details to develop your main idea. Five most common approaches are used to develop the paragraph. 5. Five most common approaches used to develop the paragraph: (a) Developing the paragraph with examples: The noun and verb phrase signals are often used to indicate that they are providing examples. The common ones include: an example of; for example; such as; to exemplify this, etc. (b). Developing the paragraph by illustration: The common signals are used including: To illustrate, As an illustration, This can be illustrated with, and so on. (c). Developing the paragraph by facts, figures and statistical information. (d). Developing the paragraph by comparison and contrast: Comparative adjectives such as, more, less, faster, bigger than are commonly used. (e). Developing the paragraph by definition or detailed description. After developing main ideas into paragraphs, you must present the information in a logical way. 6. The methods of organization: Chronological order, order of importance, comparison, spatial order, order of familiarity and contrast are methods of organization: 7. Three main qualities of a good composition: It should include three main qualities, namely, coherence, cohesion, and unity. 27