Building Blocks of Writing Skills

By Robert Iki Leso

Building Blocks of Writing Skills has been purposely written to meet the writing skills need for the Schools in Papua New Guinea. It is designed to be user-friendly and simplified to meet the teaching and learning needs of the students and teachers in the classroom. This book is a rich material for students and teachers who wish to prepare for National Written Expression Examinations that is organized annually across the country.

In five well written chapters, the author swiftly takes the student how to write good narrative, descriptive, expository argumentative papers and letter writing. Each chapter is carefully blended with a step by step direction on how a student should prepare and present a well constructed paper. Indeed, the author has systematically arranged this book in order for the students to easily define, recall and display the different types of writings. It is equipped with useful, handy and practical activities to test the students knowledge and skills in writing. In all, it is a well written book for students who need it.

Without a doubt, this book is not only about helping the students to write clearly and logically to present their narrative, descriptive, expository, argumentative accounts and letter writing but also to develop the knowledge and skill levels of the students to become better person in the future. Those who begin to use this book will acclaim it as a gift from someone who has seen the need for good writing and has given some thoughts and time to come up with this resourceful book. This is a must book for both students and teachers who have the drive to master the skills of writing and become better at it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Sep 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479711772

Robert Iki Leso

Robert Iki Leso has been working with the Papua New Guinea University of Technology since 2009 and resigned in 2022. He graduated with Bachelor in Education with Honours from the University of Goroka. He completed Executive Masters in Business Administration with the Papua New Guinea University of Technology. Building Blocks of Writing Skills is his first book published in 2012. Success Secrets for Chief Jacob Sole Luke is his second book written in series.

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Copyright © 2012 by Robert Iki Leso.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 05/18/2015

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter One Narrative Writing

Chapter Two Descriptive Writing

Chapter Three Expository Writing

Chapter Four Argumentative Writing

Chapter Five Letter Writing

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There are special people who have made this book a reality. God deserves all the glory if there is any value found in this book. Following people and sources I acknowledge have become instruments God used to realise my dream in writing this book and eventually publishing it.

I thank my dad Iki and mum Yai for adding value and meaning to my life by teaching me timeless spiritual values and persistently encouraging me to embrace God and aggressively pursue Education. Without them you would not hold this book in your hands. I owe them so much tears and pain. I also thank my life-time partner and soul-mate Judy and my only daughter Sharma for being supportive and loving!

I cannot avoid mentioning someone who has made my dream in Education a reality. He is non-other than Action Governor Grand Chief Honourable Peter Ipatas (1997 – date), a single governor who has the shining vision in Education for the province I come from. The knowledge I penned in this book were mostly funded by him from my Secondary to Tertiary Education even postgraduate studies I undertook. As long as this book lasts, his legacy will be echoed down the generations. In fact, this book is the fruit of his tears and sweats he sowed in the next generation with the passion to see an educated population. Mr Jacob Luke, humbled and role-model successful entrepreneur and Managing Director, Mapai Transport, is greatly and sincerely thanked for funding the printing of this book!

Most insights and tips regarding writing skills mentioned in this book are taken from Mrs Hellen Vetunawa’s classes on Methodology in Language Teaching Methods (2001), Dr Maretta Semos’ Papua New Guinea Literature (2002) and Academic Writing (2001), and Mr David Hosea’s Language Acquisition (2000) classes at the University of Goroka, Papua New Guinea. These lecturers’ contributions have influenced major parts of all the five different types of genres mentioned here namely; Narrative, Descriptive, Expository, Argumentative and Letter writing. I am grateful for all my lecturers for equipping me to build the younger generation.

Substantial content of writing skills in this book was enhanced by rich sites such as www.essaywritinghelp.com, www.esl.about.com and www.letterwritingguide.com which I am really thankful. My six years of teaching English at Hutjena Secondary in North Solomons (2001), Bugandi Secondary in Morobe Province (2002), Goroka Seconday in Eastern Highlands (2003), Kopen Secondary (2006) and Kandep High School (2005) in Enga Province has also added enormous flavour in terms of PNG context on the content of the book. The teaching and learning ingredients blended in this book from the wonderful teachers and students of the mentioned schools will be valued as long as this book lasts.

Loujaya Toni and Joshua Kuri are acknowledged for editing the manuscript. Associate Professor Garry Sali is thanked for the advice on the layout and the foreword of the book. I cannot avoid mentioning the publications team at the Xlibris Publications, Sydney who have become sources of inspiration and motivation for making me a published author. They are namely Michael Mendes, Victoria Gray, Vanessa Diaz and Jacqueline Yu.

Time and space limits me to individually acknowledge all those smiles, advice, inspiration and patience that have added value and meaning in my life. Every effort has been applied in acknowledging all the sources and if some or any information not acknowledged is unintentional and that I could be contacted on mobile [phone] or (675) 70226949 or email [e-mail]. Thank you so much!

FOREWORD

I am pleased and privileged in this position to write and recommend this book to be used in the upper primary and secondary schools in Papua New Guinea.

It is often said that students’ academic writing skills have dropped at the tertiary education levels in PNG. The students at the tertiary education institutions are the end product of the PNG education system and therefore students must be taught and prepared well to write and speak good English particularly in their secondary levels of education across the country. This book is a practical guide for someone at the secondary education level who wants to write clear, logical and good English.

In five well written chapters, the author swiftly takes the student how to write good narrative, descriptive, expository, argumentative and letter writing. Each chapter is carefully blended with a step by step direction on how a student should prepare and present a well-constructed paper. Indeed, the author has systematically arranged this book in order for the students to easily define, identify, recall and display the different types of writings. It is equipped with useful, handy and practical activities to test the students’ knowledge and skills in writing. In all, it is a well written book for students who need it.

Without a doubt, this book is not only about helping the students to write clearly and logically to present their narrative, descriptive, expository, argumentative accounts and letter writing skills, but also to develop the knowledge and skill levels of the students to become better person in the future. I am sure those who begin to use this book will acclaim it as a gift from someone who has seen the need for good writing and has given some thoughts and time to come up with this resourceful book.

I sincerely praise the author and commend this book. It is a useful reference and resource tool for upper primary and secondary students and their teachers in Papua New Guinea.

It is a must book and I fully recommend it.

Image34796.PNG

Associate Professor Garry Sali (Ph.D)

A/Head of the Department of Communication & Development Studies

Papua New Guinea University of Technology

INTRODUCTION

To countries where English is not the mother tongue, it becomes great challenge to utilize the language in day to day communication. English is a language that was given birth by a foreign society that has complex cultures and tradition. The rule of the language, the sound systems and other aspects of language are so unique that it takes considerable years to grasp it as a second language. Therefore the major objectives of this book are to prepare students to develop the taste of writing so that they cultivate the joy in doing so.

It also aims to enhance students to flavour their style of writing so that their peers and teachers would like reading what they write. In this way the students would begin to develop the competence in writing by equipping themselves to fight all kinds of obstacles that hinder them from expressing their ideas to full capacity in writing. In order to be a successful writer, a student needs to be smart in the following areas in their student life:

1. Reading

2. Memorizing

3. Thinking

4. Writing

This book is very important for all students who have the interest to excel in writing from the earlier stage. It is a user friendly guide which is written by an author who has taught English in secondary school classrooms both in the highlands as well as the coast. This book gives the building blocks on early understanding of the different writing skills. It will help students to enhance the hands on practice to build advance techniques of writing. This book will help students in preparing well for written expression exams as well as future endeavours.

Regardless of what field a student chooses in his or her career, writing skills will tremendously help in achieving their dreams. If a student happens to be a professional writer, he or she can prosper in terms of putting on the market bestselling books. The venture of book writing is a successful and safe business after a number of struggles just as other ventures. Being a journalist can take a person all around the world. It can enable that person to study other cultures and refresh with updated knowledge through continuous researching and reporting. Written words can speak for generations and impact lives. That is the reason why this book has been written to empower the skill of expanding a single idea in multitude of words as shown in the following chapters.

CHAPTER ONE

Narrative Writing

OUTCOME:

By the end of this chapter, students can:

✓ Define what narrative writing is.

✓ Identify different types of narrative writing.

✓ Recall parts, skills and purposes of narrative writing.

✓ Display their competence in actually writing narrative compositions.

WHAT IS NARRATIVE WRITING

Narrative comes from the word narrate. It means to tell a story. Telling a story is actually revealing experiences. They can be factual or imaginative. Most commonly, narrative writing is the result of recalling, reviewing, and recounting past activities, events and experiences. Therefore, past tense is mostly used.

TYPES OF NARRATIVE WRITING

Common examples of narrative writing include:

TEST YOUR SKILLS 1

Narrative Composition: Types of Narrative Writing

Go to your school library, or collect newspapers, magazines, articles, etc. Then find copies of the above genres and compile them into a book with the following details:

* Cover page

* Table of Contents

* Acknowledgement

* Genres 1-12

* Conclusion

* Bibliography

PURPOSES OF NARRATIVE WRITING

Following are some reasons why narrative writing is important.

» recalls and refreshes events already experienced

» make-up stories that are creative and imaginative to entertain readers

» interesting stories that can be sold for money

» outstanding stories can gain good marks in class

» maintain rich accounts of interesting experiences for the next generation

» improves writing, reading and thinking skills

» expressing deep thoughts in the form of stories for other people to appreciate

» skillful use of English to make stories interesting and entertaining

PARTS OF NARRATIVE WRITING

Narrative writing has three important parts. They include:

» Introduction

» Body

» Conclusion

Introduction

Introduction in narrative composition creates interest and grab attention of readers. In most cases, narrative introductions usually answers the questions; who? where? when? what? and how? That is, who is involved – the