This document provides examples of different types of paragraphs, including fictional and non-fictional descriptive, narrative, and expository paragraphs. A descriptive paragraph from Harry Potter describes the Leaky Cauldron pub. A non-fictional narrative paragraph details the later years and death of author Franz Kafka. The document also includes activities for writing fictional and non-fictional examples of each paragraph type.

1. PARAGRAPH
WRITING
(SECOND OF FIVE PARTS)
Ma. Jezia P. Talavera
BA Linguistics
University of the Philippines Diliman

3. 1. PARAGRAPH
WRITING
Fictional and Non-fictional

4. 1. PARAGRAPH WRITING
I was walking alone in the woods. Someone
seemed to follow me because I hear footsteps
from behind. It was dark, and the dry leaves
make the sound of the night more eerie and
spine-chilling. Someone was definitely following
me because I hear another set of footsteps. Not
human footsteps though. They were small, light
animal footsteps that seemed to mirror my
walking. When I looked back, I suddenly woke up
from my dream.
FICTIONAL PARAGRAPH

5. 1. PARAGRAPH WRITING
I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer in the
summer of 1987. I didn’t know how to feel; the
doctor said it was only a matter of five months
until I draw my last breath. I went out of the
hospital and looked around. Nobody seemed to
care that someone as famous and noble as me
was going to die in five months. People were
walking listlessly, busy with their own
whereabouts. I wanted to disappear right in that
moment. At the same time I wanted to shout to
the world, “Why me?”
NON-FICTIONAL PARAGRAPH

6. 2. TYPES OF
PARAGRAPH

7. 2.1. NON-FICTIONAL DESCRIPTIVE
“Let’s walk,” she says serenely, slipping her arm
in mine and heading into Central Park. As she strolls
along, folks check her out and occasionally point. She
is tall, strong, and straight-backed, glowing with
vegan health and moving confidently through the
crowds in her all-black ensemble. In videos and
photos, she looks like she has a prominent jaw, but in
person it is much softer, as are her other features
(Windex-blue eyes, glossy black hair). Her voice is
gentle and melodious, and she looks you square in the
eye when she speaks.
—from Jancee Dunn’s “The Cole Truth,”
Rolling Stone 786, May, 1998.

8. 2.1. NON-FICTIONAL DESCRIPTIVE
“Let’s walk,” she says serenely, slipping her arm
in mine and heading into Central Park. As she strolls
along, folks check her out and occasionally point. She
is tall, strong, and straight-backed, glowing with
vegan health and moving confidently through
the crowds in her all-black ensemble. In videos
and photos, she looks like she has a prominent jaw,
but in person it is much softer, as are her other
features (Windex-blue eyes, glossy black hair).
Her voice is gentle and melodious, and she looks
you square in the eye when she speaks.
—from Jancee Dunn’s “The Cole Truth,”
Rolling Stone 786, May, 1998.

9. 2.2. FICTIONAL DESCRIPTIVE
It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn’t
pointed it out, Harry wouldn’t have noticed it was there.
The people hurrying by didn’t glance at it. Their eyes slid
from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on
the other as if they couldn’t see the Leaky Cauldron at all.
In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he
and Hagrid could see it. Before he could mention this,
Hagrid had steered him inside. For a famous place, it was
dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner,
drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a
long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old
bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless
walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked
in.
—from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling
(Scholastic, 1999)

10. 2.2. FICTIONAL DESCRIPTIVE
It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn’t
pointed it out, Harry wouldn’t have noticed it was there.
The people hurrying by didn’t glance at it. Their eyes slid
from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on
the other as if they couldn’t see the Leaky Cauldron at all.
In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he
and Hagrid could see it. Before he could mention this,
Hagrid had steered him inside. For a famous place, it
was dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a
corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was
smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking
to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like
a toothless walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped
when they walked in.
—from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling
(Scholastic, 1999)

11. ACTIVITY
Write a five-sentence
fictional and non-fictional
descriptive
paragraph in 10
minutes.

12. 2.3. NON-FICTIONAL NARRATIVE
During the final years of his life, [Franz] Kafka’s
health deteriorated rapidly. In 1923 he fell in love with
Dora Dymant and settled in with her in Berlin; he asked
Dora’s father for permission to marry her but was refused.
In the winter of 1923-24 he moved into a series of clinics
and sanitariums. He died, Dora at his side, on June 3,
1924, at a sanitarium in Kierling, near Vienna. His
surviving family, including his sisters, all perished several
years later in Nazi concentration camps.
—from “The Modern Period” of Literature of the Western
World, Vol. II, 3rd edition. Eds. Brian Wilkie and James
Hunt
(Macmillan, 1992)

13. 2.3. NON-FICTIONAL NARRATIVE
During the final years of his life, [Franz] Kafka’s
health deteriorated rapidly. In 1923 he fell in love with
Dora Dymant and settled in with her in Berlin; he
asked Dora’s father for permission to marry her but was
refused. In the winter of 1923-24 he moved into a
series of clinics and sanitariums. He died, Dora at his
side, on June 3, 1924, at a sanitarium in Kierling,
near Vienna. His surviving family, including his sisters,
all perished several years later in Nazi concentration
camps.
—from “The Modern Period” of Literature of the Western
World, Vol. II, 3rd edition. Eds. Brian Wilkie and James
Hunt
(Macmillan, 1992)

14. 2.4. FICTIONAL NARRATIVE
None of it came up until my early thirties, when I got
involved with a woman. Her name was Jeanne. We had
been classmates at Cornell, both pre-med, both of us seeing
someone else. Years afterward I was working for a drug
company in N— that was coming under fire for
manufacturing an anti-depressant that had bad side
effects. We were trying to gather some support for the drug
from the medical community, and I met Jeanne again at a
conference. She had become a shrink. Excuse me, a
psychiatrist. And yes, she had done a lot of research on
posttraumatic psychosis and even had a healthy share of
Holocaust survivors and incest victims and Vietnam
veterans among her clients.
—from Pink Slip, by Rita Ciresi (Delta Publishing, 1999)

15. 2.4. FICTIONAL NARRATIVE
None of it came up until my early thirties, when I got
involved with a woman. Her name was Jeanne. We had
been classmates at Cornell, both pre-med, both of us
seeing someone else. Years afterward I was working for
a drug company in N— that was coming under fire for
manufacturing an anti-depressant that had bad side
effects. We were trying to gather some support for the
drug from the medical community, and I met Jeanne
again at a conference. She had become a shrink. Excuse
me, a psychiatrist. And yes, she had done a lot of research
on posttraumatic psychosis and even had a healthy share
of Holocaust survivors and incest victims and Vietnam
veterans among her clients.
—from Pink Slip, by Rita Ciresi (Delta Publishing, 1999)

16. ACTIVITY
Write a five-sentence
fictional and non-fictional
narrative
paragraph in 10
minutes.

17. 2.5. NON-FICTION EXPOSITORY
The use of wedding rings has evolved as the latest of all
the bridal traditions. From the earliest times, kings used
initial rings to sign documents because they were unable to
write. Since the initial, or signet, ring had the potency of the
king’s signature, anyone possessing a facsimile was put to
death immediately. Later, during Greek times, when
Alexander the Great died, his vast kingdom was, according to
his instructions, divided among his generals. They also got
copies of his signet ring. They used these themselves and
even allowed trusted advisors to use them when they served
as the generals’ proxies. Eventually, rulers even allowed
their courtiers to wear copies of their royal signets. Finally,
the custom spread among the common people, and nearly
everybody who couldn’t write signed official documents with
a signet ring. Rings thus became a sign of contractual
agreement, which meaning was eventually applied to
wedding rings.

18. 2.5. NON-FICTION EXPOSITORY
The use of wedding rings has evolved as the
latest of all the bridal traditions. From the earliest times,
kings used initial rings to sign documents because they were
unable to write. Since the initial, or signet, ring had the
potency of the king’s signature, anyone possessing a
facsimile was put to death immediately. Later, during
Greek times, when Alexander the Great died, his vast
kingdom was, according to his instructions, divided
among his generals. They also got copies of his signet ring.
They used these themselves and even allowed trusted
advisors to use them when they served as the generals’
proxies. Eventually, rulers even allowed their courtiers to
wear copies of their royal signets. Finally, the custom
spread among the common people, and nearly
everybody who couldn’t write signed official
documents with a signet ring. Rings thus became a sign
of contractual agreement, which meaning was eventually
applied to wedding rings.

19. 2.6. FICTIONAL EXPOSITORY
Many of the Jews of Iberian origin had long ago been
robbed of the knowledge of their rituals, forced, during the
time of the Inquisition, to convert to the Catholic faith.
These so-called New Christians were sometimes sincere in
their conversions, while others had continued to practice
their religion in secret, but after a generation or two they
often forgot why they secretly observed these now-obscure
rituals. When these secret Jews fled Iberia for the Dutch
states, as they began to do in the sixteenth century, many
sought to regain Jewish knowledge. My father’s
grandfather had been such a man, and he schooled himself
in the Jewish traditions—even studying with the great
Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel—and he raised his children to
honor the Jewish traditions.
—from A Conspiracy of Paper, by David Liss (Random House,
2000)

20. 2.6. FICTIONAL EXPOSITORY
Many of the Jews of Iberian origin had long
ago been robbed of the knowledge of their rituals,
forced, during the time of the Inquisition, to convert
to the Catholic faith. These so-called New Christians
were sometimes sincere in their conversions, while others
had continued to practice their religion in secret, but after
a generation or two they often forgot why they secretly
observed these now-obscure rituals. When these secret
Jews fled Iberia for the Dutch states, as they began to do in
the sixteenth century, many sought to regain Jewish
knowledge. My father’s grandfather had been such a
man, and he schooled himself in the Jewish
traditions—even studying with the great Rabbi Manasseh
ben Israel—and he raised his children to honor the Jewish
traditions.
—from A Conspiracy of Paper, by David Liss (Random House,
2000)

21. ACTIVITY
Write a five-sentence
fictional and non-fictional
expository
paragraph in 10
minutes.

22. 2.7. NON-FICTIONAL
ARGUMENTATIVE
Nothing gives the English more pleasure, in a quiet
but determined sort of way, than to do things oddly. They
put milk in their tea, drive on the wrong side of the road,
pronounce Cholmondeley as “Chumley” and Belvoir as
“Beaver,” celebrate the Queen’s birthday in June even
though she was born in April, and dress their palace
guards in bearskin helmets that make them look as if, for
some private and unfathomable reason, they are wearing
fur-lined wastebaskets on their heads.
—from Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson (Doubleday,
1995)

23. 2.7. NON-FICTIONAL
ARGUMENTATIVE
Nothing gives the English more pleasure, in a
quiet but determined sort of way, than to do things
oddly. They put milk in their tea, drive on the wrong side
of the road, pronounce Cholmondeley as “Chumley” and
Belvoir as “Beaver,” celebrate the Queen’s birthday in June
even though she was born in April, and dress their palace
guards in bearskin helmets that make them look as if, for
some private and unfathomable reason, they are
wearing fur-lined wastebaskets on their heads.
—from Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson (Doubleday,
1995)

24. 2.8. FICTIONAL ARGUMENTATIVE
Some people say that my wife’s sister is a witch. My
father, for one. My brother, for another. And while I will
not dispute their use of the term when they are merely
alluding to her somewhat contrary nature, I do take issue
with them when they use the word to malign what she
believes is her calling. After all, it is a calling that to a
lesser extent my wife hears as well. No, my sister-in-law is
no witch, at least not literally. She, along with my wife and
my mother-in-law, is simply a dowser. She is capable of
finding underground water with a stick. She is capable of
divining underground water with a stick. And unlike my
wife and my mother-in-law, she is an active dowser. She
does not merely have the power, she uses it.

25. 2.8. FICTIONAL ARGUMENTATIVE
Some people say that my wife’s sister is a witch.
My father, for one. My brother, for another. And while I
will not dispute their use of the term when they are merely
alluding to her somewhat contrary nature, I do take issue
with them when they use the word to malign what she
believes is her calling. After all, it is a calling that to a
lesser extent my wife hears as well. No, my sister-in-law
is no witch, at least not literally. She, along with my
wife and my mother-in-law, is simply a dowser. She is
capable of finding underground water with a stick. She is
capable of divining underground water with a stick. And
unlike my wife and my mother-in-law, she is an active
dowser. She does not merely have the power, she uses it.

26. ACTIVITY
Write a five-sentence
fictional and non-fictional
argumentative
paragraph in 10
minutes.

27. REFERENCES
 Types of Paragraphs. Writers’ Digest University.
Retrieved August 18, 2014 from
http://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/resource
s/types-of-paragraphs/