Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Kinds Of Writing

The various effects a writer may wish to have on his or her readers--to inform, to persuade, to entertain--result in different kinds of prose. The most common in prose that informs, which, depending on what it is about, is called exposition, description, or narration.

Exposition explains. How things work--an internal combustion engine. Ideas--a theory of economics. Facts of everyday life--how many people get divorced. History--why Custer attacked at the Little Big Horn. Controversial issues laden with feelings--abortion, politics, religion. But whatever its subject, exposition reveals what a particular mind thinks or knows or believes. Exposition is constructed logically.

Description deals with perceptions--most commonly visual perceptions. Its central problem is to arrange what we see into a significant pattern. Unlike the logic of exposition, the pattern is spatial : above/below, before/behind, right/left, and so on.

The subject of narration is a series of related events--a story. Its problem is twofold : to arrange the events in a sequence of time and to reveal their significance.

There are the sample article of a good novel in below and good for practice in writing skills. That is "The Torn Heart" its the good writing and easy to understand.

 The Torn Heart

One Tuesday morning, when the alarm clock rang, Pedro did not get out of the bed. Ten minutes later, his mother opened the door to his room. ''Come on," she said. "You'll be late for school again. You 're a lazy kid.

"But, Mama, I'm sick, " Pedro said.

"Why do you always act like a baby?'' Pedro's mother said. "You 're always sick o gym day. Just get up and get ready. Your brother's already dressed."

Pedro quickly put on his clothes and went to the kitchen to get something to eat. His older brother, Carlos, had just finished. ''I'm leaving, Mama," Carlos said.

"You wait for Pedro, "their mother said.

"That loser is always late, "Carlos said. "I don't want to miss the bus."

The boys made it to the bus just in time, with Pedro following behind his older brother. But as the doors of the bus closed and it started rolling, Pedro remembered he had left his homework in his bedroom.

Pedro asked the bus driver if we would wait while he went back to get his homework. "What are you, kid, a moron? This isn't a taxi. Anyway, that's what you get for being late."

When Pedro got to school, he told his teacher that he had left his homework at home. She said, "That's the fourth time this month, Pedro. Have you really been doing your work? I'm beginning to think you're lying. I'm afraid I'm going to have to talk to your parents about this."

Pedro liked to play sports, but he hated gym class, where he was the smallest of all the boys. That day at gym, they were supposed to play basketball, which was Pedro's very worst sport of all. the teacher asked the kids to divide themselves into two teams, the Lions and the Tigers. Within a few minutes, there where ten boys on each team, with only Pedro left.

The captain of the Lions team said: "We don't want him---he's no good."

"He's no Tiger. He's more like a scared cat," said captain of the Tigers. And the other boys laughed.

Finally the teacher assigned Pedro to a team, the lions. But he sat on the bench for the whole time because the captain never put him in the game.

That day after school, Pedro's brother, Carlos, was playing soccer with his friends in the field near their house. Pedro was much better at soccer than at basketball. Soccer was his favorite sport. So Pedro asked Carlos if he could play, too. "No way," Carlos said. "You'd ruin the game."

Their mother heard this and said : "You should let your brother play with you, Carlos."
"But, Mama, he's too slow," Carlos said. "And he always gets in the way."    





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