STUDY OR LEARN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Topic 5: WRITING USING APPROPRIATE LANGUAGE, CONTENT AND STYLE.
Composition refers to a piece of writing on a particular topic, event or person. It can be expository, narrative, argumentative or descriptive compositions. Composition can be written at collage, school, and university as a part of studies or assignment given on a particular course. In writing composition a student is supposed to generate his/her own ideas and use them to narrate, describe, explain, argue, or persuade a certain thing or event.
Composition involves writing essays, letter, poems, stories, debates, speeches, dialogue, which involves a collection of ideas that are organised a good manner /pattern on a given topic or subject.
Things to consider when writing a composition
Title: Start with the title, the title should be written in capital letters. The title should be underlined if hand written and bold if type. The title should relate with the topic or subject given. Think of the number of words if it is given.
Put your ideas in small but detailed paragraphs.
Revise and edit your work carefully.
Divide your essay into three parts namely:
- Introduction which relates to the title i.e. defines, explains the key words from the title.
- Main body: This is the main part of the composition. Discuss your ideas in point in relation to the topic or subject given, planned. The main ideas should precede the minor ideas. Consider the logical arrangement of your ideas and points.
- Conclusion: Under this part, you may give suggestions, views, opinions on the topic discussed. It should reflect the whole content discussed in your essay.
Write your essay/composition in a good manner, tone and good grammar.
There are various types of composition, namely:
- Narrative composition/ essay.
- Expository composition/ essay.
- Descriptive composition/essay.
- Argumentative / persuasive composition/ essay.
Narrative Composition/Essay
These are essays that account or give stories of events. The stories may be personal, fiction or non-fictional, historical stories or events. Personal autobiographical stories focus on the author’s or writers own life and historical stories reliy on past events /happenings.
Non –fiction stories are based on truth or true events but fictional stories depend on imagination and use of figurative language to produce a story according to the writer or author.
Narrative essay involve telling a story about someone or something you probably do every day in a normal conversation. You may preset and narrate or tell your experience on a piece of paper.
Activity 1
Imagine you are exploring a deserted house at night when you are surprised and captured by a member of a gang of thieves who have made the place their headquarters. You succeed in escaping from the villain. Write a narrative story in no less than 300 words to explain what happened.
Writing Events in the Past
Example 1
HOW KIBONGE WAS HUNTED BY TWO WOLVES
The next morning, when I went down to the river to fill my can, I was horrified to see a dog’s tracks that were bigger than my fist. I turned back to my tent, made my breakfast, packed up and get started.
But just as I was leaving I saw two cars over a bush; it was a wolf all right. The brute shrank down out of sight as I looked, but when I moved on it followed me, keeping under cover, and presently I found that there were two of them walking and hunting together. Every now and then one of them showed itself in the open and I had a shot at it, but they were quick you’d think they saw the flash and dodged the bullet – and I never touched them once.
After I had several shots at them I happen to look at my belt, and I’d only one to more left. I would come but with a heavy pack, and had cut down my ammunition to six or eight rounds to same weight.’ No more shooting, Kibonge. ”I said you keep the rounds for yourself’’ if they got me, I tell you I wasn’t going to turn into pieces alive.
As I went on without firing, the wolves gradually realised that there was no danger and they got more and more cheeky, keeping closer and closer to me and calling to one another to check up on my movements. I had to use up one of my two last shots on them. They followed the raft down along the sands, but eventually it drifted to the other side of the river, and I got away. Of course the Indians said it was my own fault for going out alone.
Exercise 1
- Write an account of result of a recent family dispute that you know about.
- Express the meaning of these phrases in your own words (a) Out and out; (b) Cut down my ammunition to six or eight rounds; (c) Pushing off; (d) Form to pieces alive
- Write a story called ‘’ Lost in the desert’’ (about 250 words)
- Write a 300 words composition carefully paragraphed, on the subject ‘’ the best years of my life’’.
- How far is it true, do you think that schooldays are the happiest ones of our life? (write in 250 words)
Writing Factual Information on a Topic/Subject
Expository essays are essays that explain something with facts, as opposed to opinion. They may describe how to do something, analyse events, ideas, objects, or written works. They must contain an introductory paragraph, body paragraphs and a conclusion. The introductory paragraph may contain the thesis statement or topic sentence that introduces the theme of an essay.
Expository essays are most written by college, school or university students during their test and examinations. They need response to questions that asks the writer to explain or expose a specific issue basing on a given topic or subject or describe a process.
Characteristics of an expository essay
- It focuses on the main topic.
- It needs logical supporting facts details, explanations and examples.
- It needs strong organisation.
- Clarity.
- Unity and coherence of ideas.
Expository essay includes writing letters, definitions, reports and research, instructions, newspaper articles, magazine articles, etc.
Steps to writing an expository essay.
- Select a topic – it should not be wide so as to make you manage to describe it.( it should be a narrow enough topic).
- Provide an introduction paragraph. It should state the thesis of the essay.
- Think how to develop your essay. E.g. definition, listing, and explaining, classifying, process analysis, etc.
- Think of organisation of the essay. Provide topic sentence for each body paragraph that relates to the thesis sentence; make few suggestions related to the essay. e.g. in conclusion………, all in all……. It is now in position to say that………, etc.
Example 2
FACTS ABOUT THE LOCUST MENACE
In spite of what has recently done to combat the threat of the locust, they remain a menace to entire food supply of a quarter of the world. One trouble of them is they breed, the more they eat; and the more they eat the more they breed.
A breeding area may have up to five thousand eggs to the square yard. And a breeding area may cover up to two hundred thousand acres.
A large swarm, migrating from one of these breeding grounds, may number up to five hundred million and be capable of destroying an area of two hundred square miles. The locusts are a menace to plants therefore effective steps should be taken to destroy their breeding places.
Exercise 2
- Write an expository essay on the causes of HIV.
- Write down the duties and uses of the police force.(about 200 words).
- Write an essay on the causes of soil erosion (250 words).
- In many African countries there is the plight of children employed in mines. Write an expository essay about the problem in about 300 words.
- Write an essay on “ The power of water” (250 words).
Writing Descriptive Composition/Essays
Vivid Descriptions of People/Places/Events
Descriptive essays are concerned with describing objects, experience or ideas. The word descriptive comes from the verb ‘to describe'. In order to get started on your descriptive essay, it is important to identify exactly what you want to describe. This form relies on creative writing.
Descriptive composition requires the writer to express, to portray, show clearly and vividly something which one can touch, smell, hear, feel or think to the reader. It involves giving a detailed description about a topic, person, something, place or an incident.
Example 3
A GERMAN SAUSAGE
‘If you never try a new thing, how can you tell what it’s like? Think of a man who first tried German sausage!
It was a great success, that Irish stew I don’t think I never enjoyed a meal more, there was something so fresh and piquant about it. One’s palate gets so tired of the old things; here was a dish with a new flavour with a taste like nothing else on earth.
And it was nourishing too. As George said, there was good stuff in it, peas and potatoes might have been a bit softer, but we all had good teeth, so that did not matter much, and as for gravy, it was like a poem, a little too rich, perhaps, for a week stomach, but nutritious.
We finished up with tea and cherry tart. Montmorency had a fight with the kettle during tea time and come off a poor second.
Exercise 3
Write carefully paragraphed composition of about 300 words on “trees”
Write a 300 word essay on “People I Envy”
Write a 250 word essay composition titled “Things I like Doing”
Write a composition on “The kind of boy or girl that I liked at school” (250 words)
Writing Argumentative Composition/Essay
Presenting Contrasting Views of a Given Topic
Present contrasting views of a given topic
Argumentative essays are written to present on opinions which either favours or disagrees with a controversial topic. The writer must prove his/her view point by supporting it with convincing facts and evidences from reliable sources.
The function of argumentative essays is to show that your assertion (theory, opinion, and hypothesis) about some phenomena is correct or more truthful than other's.
Argumentative writing is an act of forming reason, making inductions, giving supporting examples, drawing conclusions and applying them to the case of discussions. It also involves a clear explanation of the process of reasoning from the known or assumed to the unknown and without doing this you do not have argument; you have only an opinion or theory. It is used to convince the readers to believe in the opinion of the writer /author of a particular material.
It aims at arguing ,convincing , motivating or persuading the reader to accept ,change and take the required action or step on something, a topic or subject that might affect the society in one way another . Example; political written speeches, on the uses of a certain traditional medicine to treat HIV or Malaria patients which needs convincing power with clear arguments/reasons
Argumentative composition involves the use of contrastive words such as whereas, although, on the other hand, yet, however, nevertheless, despite, but, meanwhile, etc.
Example 4
CORRUPTION IS RAMPANT
Corruption is a most problem in African countries. On the other hand, it is one of the causes of poverty to the majority citizen in most African countries. Although people are always struggling to combat poverty but their economy is hampered by corruption which denies them basic rights such as the right to employment.
On the contrary, the economy of the most African countries is in the hand of the few minorities whereas the majority is suffering from bad conditions.
Consequently, children retard due to malnutrition caused by lack of a balance diet. However, African countries have many minerals and forests, but these resources are not fully utilised as are result of poor investment caused by corruption.
Furthermore, corruption has caused lack of proper transport facilities such as roads, which is one of the factor for speeding up development and in fact, many roads are not all weather, meanwhile, they are used during dry seasons only. Therefore, these are the consequences of corruption in most African countries.
Activity 2
- Write on argumentative composition on forums of child labor. (about 250 words)
- Using the following contrasting conjunctions: while…, conversely, notwithstanding, despite, whereas, and although. Write a composition on the importance of a new constitution in Tanzania .(300 words)
- Argue for the subject “Animals, friends, and enemies of man”. (300 words)
Creative Writing
Writing a Work of Art Using Literary Devices and Skills
Creative writing refers to an art which involves writing fiction or non-fiction stories with the figurative use of language. It depends on a person’s masterly of a particular language and can be inform of a novel or short stories, poem, and memories in our life. It involves creating the environment or scene, plot, style, character, and proper, language, to use in your story.
How to write creatively
- Think on topic of your story.
- List down the general ideas to be included in your story.
- Think of the style and vocabulary which will complete your work.
- Plan the characters in your story.
- Consider the setting i.e. environment that will be reflected in your story.
Exercise 4
- Write a short story titled “ a misfortune woman”(500 words).
- Write a five stanza poem titled “ A village woman”
