The Definitions of the Descriptive Paragraph, Narative Paragraph and Expository Paragraph

Descriptive Paragraph, Narrative Paragraph and Expository Paragraph

There are some types of paragraph that have form or model of each. This post is going to give a brief explanation about several types of paragraph in English. Types of paragraph that we are going to discuss here are narrative, descriptive and exposition paragraph. Every type of paragraph has its own characteristics and function that different one each other. To be able to write a paragraph, we have to know the characteristic of the paragraph that we want to write. And here is a brief explanation about several types of paragraph.

1.    Narrative

Based on oxford dictionary, narrative is a spoken or written account of connected events; a story. Narrative has social function that is to tell stories (Smalley, and Ruetten, 1984). Narrative is a text focusing some specific participants that have several structural features making different from other genres.. This type using process verbs such as: tell, says, narrate etc. Then using past tense and also temporal conjunction. Shortly, this type is such a story.

2.    Descriptive

Many definitions about descriptive can be found in separated books one of which is that of being defined by Smalley and Ruetten (1985): a paragraph that explains something from where the object being described is located which is called spatial organization. In short, in descriptive paragraph you must take the location of the objects being described very clear.  In accordance with this definition, a descriptive paragraph can be scaled based on the three senses: visual, auditory and smell or called mood.

3.    Expository

Expository is a text to explain or analyze topic includes: information, explanation, facts and illustrations. The expository paragraph can be divided into several model of writing: such as process paragraph, and procedure paragraph. The expository paragraph has similarities to that descriptive in that the tenses depend on the times of description. Expository is used to give information, explain a subject, give directions, or show how something happens.

Paragraph is written for make easier reader to understand text. Those are a brief explanation about several types of paragraph in writing specifically for narrative, descriptive, and expository paragraph. Before we write those types of paragraph, we should know the characteristics of each. We can look from the generic structure, Language forms to understand the different of them.