Reading and writing skills
Scope: patterns of paragraph development, Claims and context of a written text
HUMSS - 201 | 2nd term quiz reviewer
Patterns of paragraph development
Narration:
- Also known in other references as
sequence, is a paragraph pattern
where the writer discusses real-time
sequencing of a particular event,
past or event.
- Forms of narrative texts : news
reports, book reports, recipes.
- Intro, sequencing, conclusion
Description:
- Focuses on the superficial attribution,
the division and breaking down
parts, and the analysis of a
particular topic.
- Superficial attribution - physical
attributes, innate values, and
additional descriptions given by
other people.
- Division - you opt to divide it into
smaller parts then describe them
separately.
- Analysis - gives an in-dept
commentary about a particular
something.
- Short intro, detailed list, closing
statement.
Definition:
- Thorough explanation of a term.
- A. term - the word you're about to
define.
- B. genus - the group that the term
belongs to.
- C. Differentia - separates the term
from other members of the genus.
- A. listing and description of parts -
define a term by listing down various
components.
- B. etymology - the origin of the
word.
- C. exemplification - define terms by
giving specific examples.
- D. negation - define terms by telling
readers what it’s not, what it cant do,
and what it’s not to be.
- E. functions - simply describing how
it works.
- F. outcome / effect - can be define
by how they directly affect people.
- G. historical references - definitions
of a term to show how it has
progressed through history.
Exemplification/classification:
- Exemplification: we give specific
examples of a particular topic,
regardless if one example us higher
than the other.
- Classification: subordinated
examples/instances that belong to a
hierarchy.
Venn diagram:
- Used to compare and contrast ideas.
Most commonly-used GOs used to
display comparison and contrasts.
- It organizes ideas based on how
events, places, people, things, and
concepts are similar.
- A. separately - involves describing
one item first followed by the second
item.
- B. side-by-side - involve discussing
both items based on each point of
comparison.

Cause and effect:
- Also called fishbone diagram, it is a
graphical tool for displaying a list of
causes associated with a specific
effect.
- It explains why something happens
or what results a particular event
produces.
- Paragraph emphasizing the causes
- Paragraph emphasizing the effects.
Problem-solution:
- It focuses on either a problem or
solution in a particular area or
situation.
- A. persuasion - leads readers to the
direction you want them to tread.
- B. Explanation of a process- share
your personal stand on taking on the
situation.
Persuasive Essay elements :
- Beginning, Middle, End
1. Clear, concise, and defined thesis
2. Well-developed argument with
strong evidential support
3. Clearly organized structure
4. Purposeful precise word choice
5. Purposeful and precise word choice
6. Varied sentence structure
Persuasion:
- “Thesis - evidence” paragraph
pattern. Used to persuade the
reader that your opinions on a
particular topic are plausible using
evidence, expositions, and
references.
- It is imperative that you support your
opinions with the evidence where you
may have based your opinions from.
You must start your paragraph with
the thesis statement, the central
sentence which serves as the pillar of
the whole text.
Comma:
- Used to separate items in a series or
to set off introductory phrases.
Ex: While you were watching your
favorite show, I managed to finish
the first assignment.
- Is used to separate introductory
words (besides, however,
furthermore, therefor)
Ex: I need to spend some time
preparing for this test. Besides, it’s
such an important test.
- Are used to set off appositives and
parenthetical expressions.
- An appositive is a word that follows a
noun and explains it.
Ex: Anderson Cooper, a reporter,
gained his first experience and
eventual popularity by covering war
stories.
- Parenthetical expressions also
explain or clarify the sentence.
Colon:
- Used to provide an example or more
detailed information in the sentence.
semicolon:
- Joins ideas that are related and
equal in grammatical structure.
 Claims and context of written texts
When learners like you begin to give
conscious and sound reactions over what
you have read, it manifests your intense
attachment to the material you are reading
and your engagement with it becomes more
productive. This is where critical reading
happens.
Claims - Are statements that are essentially
arguable but used as a primary point to
support or prove an argument.
- Used in rhetoric and argumentation,
a claim persuades, convinces and
proves.
- Which need verification and
affirmation although they may not
be asserted directly every time.
- A claim can also be explicit or
implicit.
Explicit claim: Is directly and clearly stated
in the text. It is when you can easily point out
the information in the passage.
Implicit claim: expressed in the text and
you need to look for clues
or make inferences to understand its
meaning.
Explicit and Implicit claims may further be
classified into three: claim of fact, claim of
policy, and claim of value.
Claim of Fact: states a quantifiable
assertion or measurable topic. Its
assertion of something can be
proved or disproved with factual
evidence. It reports, describes predicts,
make causal claims, or asserts whether
whether something is a settled fact. It is a
fact that should be taken as it is.
Claim of Value: Is an argument based on
morality, belief, ethics, or philosophy. It is
influentially stated by combining limited
facts and asserting them as either good or
bad by targeting the reader’s emotion.
- It is also called claim of judgment
because the reader must decide
whether the argument or proposition
is right or wrong must be accepted
or rejected.
- Usually, claims of value are either
about about aesthetics or morality.
Claim of Policy: Posits that specific actions
should be chosen as solutions to a problem.
They begin with should, ought to, or must.
They must defend questionable plans and
usually answer “how” questions.
- It argues that certain conditions
should exist, or that something
should or should not be done, to
solve a problem.
Claim of Policy: Posits that specific actions
should be chosen as solutions to a problem.
They begin with should, ought to, or must.
They must defend questionable plans and
usually answer “how” questions.
Logical Fallacies: In argumentation and
even in developing paragraph patterns
like problem solution and persuasion, we
make use of claims or assertions which we
then support by evidence to convince the
reader of our cause. However, there are
instances in which the claims we make are in
fact products of weak reasoning, and not
as strong as we would want them to be.
Fallacy: defects that weakens arguments
either by errors in reasoning or false
assumptions.
- Are very common in texts .
- Usually categorized into formal or
informal ones.
Informal fallacies: deals with the content,
rather than the form, of the argument.
Types of Informal Fallacies:
1. Ad hominem ( argumentum ad
hominem ): From Latin which means
“against the person”. The argument
concentrates on people rather than
evidence. Mudslinging is a typical
example.
- When an insult on the person is used
as a counter argument rather than
focusing on the core issue, the insult
becomes argumentum ad hominem.
2. Appeal to Authority ( Argumentum
Ad verecundiam ) : There are times
when such references are claimed to
be true just because the person we
consulted said so.
- Saying a claim is true simply because
an authority figure made it.
- False prophets: those whose
authority is irrelevant to the
argument, those whose authority is
not even that credible, and those
authority have already been
disproved by other evidence.
3. False Analogy: Occur when the
objects, ideas, or situations
compared are not really alike in the
relevant aspects, that is, in the
characteristic in which they are being
compared.
4. False dichotomy/dilemma (either-or
fallacy): when we assume that life is
just about yin & yang and other
binaries we have been accustomed
to when in some cases, it is actually a
full spectrum.
- Where only 2 options are presented
but when you think outside the box,
there are more options that exist or
there is a spectrum of possible
choices between 2 extremes.
5. Hasty Generalization: making
assumptions about a whole group or
range of cases based on a sample
that is “inadequate” or
unrepresentative of the population.
- Stereotypes are usually a common
example.
5. Post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy (false
cause): is from the Latin phrase which
translates as “after this, therefore because
of this.” Meaning, 2 events happening after
the other does not guarantee a cause and
effect relationship.
- expresses the logical fallacy of
assuming that one thing caused
another merely because the first
thing preceded the other.
Context of text development
Hyperlinking: “linking of related pieces of
information by electronic connections in
order to allow a user easy access between
them.”
Intertext: also uses branching, network
structure but in terms of text references and
influences.

- related to one or more other texts,

esp through the use of allusions to
these texts.
- Allusions: is only a casual reference.