1 Lecture 2
1. Teaching task: exemplification expository essay writing
2. Teaching target and object:
A: Enable the students to understand what an expository essay is and what functions this
kind of writing has.
B. Enable the students to be able to write an expository essay by means of exemplification.
3. Teaching focus: expository essay writing by means of exemplification
Writing topic: One can tell a great deal about you from how you dress.
4. Teaching method: free writing--–commentary --–discussion---guided writing---commentary
–-comparison with the sample---summery
5. Teaching procedures:
1. Discussing the purposes for writing the four different genres.
In narrative essays, the writing purpose is to give an account of an event or a series
of events. Therefore, the writers should take the six journalistic questions into
consideration: who? What? When? Where? How? Why? As far as the paragraph
developing pattern is concerned, we can often use the time order by means of some
transitional words indicating time.
In descriptive essays, the writing purpose is to tell what something or someone looks
like. Therefore descriptive can be also defined as the expression of the six senses
(sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch and feeling) experience in vivid language. When
we describe a place, we frequently use the spatial order to develop the details of a
descriptive essay. We use some transitional phrases indicating space order, use the
concrete and specific sensory adjectives, and use some figurative language such as
simile, metaphor and personification.
In expository essays, the writing purpose is to explain. Exposition is a kind of
writing that offers explanations. Patterns of exposition are as follows:
Exemplification; process analysis; cause-effect analysis; comparison and contrast;
classification and division; definition.
In argumentative essays, the writing purpose is to persuade or convince the reader
to accept your opinions.
3. Ask the students to write a short essay of about 200 words according to the given
topic “ One can tell a great deal about you from how you dress” in any way they
think appropriate. (20 minutes)
4. Commenting on the student’s essay mainly in the following aspects: (20 minutes)
the writing purpose:
the relationship between the writer and reader:
the necessary contents:
the organization:
the paragraph developing pattern:
the language use :
5. Discuss with the class the writing principles for writing such an expository essay:
1) Determining the purpose: Are you writing to give an account of event; to
describe what someone or something looks like ; or to explain your point ?
Exposition is a kind of writing that explains. No matter what the contexts
2 are, an account of personal feelings, or experience, or an airing of one’s view,
so long as the main purpose is to explain, the writing is an exposition.
a)What is exemplification?
Exemplification is a method of supporting a thesis statement with a series
of specific examples, or sometimes, with a single extended example. It is
one of the most common and most useful means of developing a paragraph
or an essay.
b))what kind of examples to choose? Choose relevant, striking, useful,
representative and accurate examples.
c)Where to find appropriate examples?
From your personal experience.
From your personal observations
From short stories, novels, television or movies.
From authoritative sources: facts, statistics or reports.
2) Considering your audience:
3) Use the brainstorming technique: Brainstorming is an effort to make a list
of everything you can think of about your topic. Include facts, ideas,
examples, questions, or feelings.
4) Establishing the controlling idea and the necessary elements: your thesis
statement( informing the reader what is your point or the thesis statement )
^elaboration with specific examples( explaining and clarifying your point )
^ coda or conclusion( reinforcement of the thesis)
5) Determining the proper pattern to organize the details:
Things can be explained in many ways such as process analysis; comparison
and contrast; cause and effect. Using illustration or exemplification is a
common way to explain. Illustration or exemplification is the use of
examples to explain a point. Your personal experiences and observation can
be USED to clarify your point. Look at the following paragraph which is
developed by exemplification:
A Sample Paragraph Developed by Exemplification
Perhaps the most important effect of personal computer has been to
expand our ability to communicate in a global community. A lonely invalid
in Minnesota can talk with a similarly house-bound person in Mississippi.
Schoolchildren in Manhattan can talk via computer to schoolchildren in
Moscow. High school students can obtain statistics for a history paper from
a library in London. A single computer user can send an e-mail message to
millions of people all over the world with one keystroke. Computer users
can get together in an on-line “chat room” to discuss their interests and
problems with others who have similar interest and problems…
