This is the 14th Session of the Home Learning Radio Programme from the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development.

Topic: Revision of Paragraph Writing in Expository Essays

Take Home Activity from Previous session:

Education is important for development. Discuss three ways that education can help the development of a person, community or nation.

Expected  learning outcomes:

• Construct three paragraphs for three key ideas with topic sentences, supporting details, and concluding sentences.

Sample response:

The essay in its introductory paragraph and three paragraphs is as follows;

‘Education is the key to developing people and the community.  In other words, Education refers to the process of learning which helps people to acquire important skills, knowledge, and attitudes to help improve individual’s lives and their community. This essay will elaborate three main reasons why education is important for the development of people’s lives, community, and the nation, as a whole.

Reason 1: Human resource development – personal empowerment

Reason 2: Improvement in standards of living

Reason 3: Nation Building- economic

Education is the key to developing people and the community. It refers to the process of l teaching and learning which helps people to acquire important knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to help improve individual’s lives and their community. This essay will elaborate on three main reasons why education is important for the development of peoples’ lives, improvement of standard of living and the development of a nation.

Firstly, education can help to improve a person’s way of thinking and behaving. What this means is through the process of teaching and learning, individuals acquire important knowledge and skills and attitudes, and they begin to do things differently. For example, when a person attends school or training, they begin to discover new ideas in the various subjects learned, and their knowledge of the world changes. Additionally, after a person has learned about how to run a business, that person would now be able to put into practice ideas in business planning, budgeting, and managing business finance.

Secondly, education gives information, and helps people to become better-informed of ways to improve living standards. For example, through education, those who have had very basic and simple beginning in their families, have now become employed  and now living in urban centres and enjoying modern facilities such as cars, well-furnished permanent homes, and accessing better educational and health facilities. In other words, when a person is educated, that person has become knowledgeable, and could do many more to help improve living standards for the family.

Finally, education prepares or builds manpower for nation building. As a nation, Solomon Islands depends on people with skills and knowledge and the right attitudes, to contribute positively towards community development. Community and national development can be seen in the development of educational and health services such as schools, clinics and industries for economic development. Through education we have qualified  nurses, teachers, and business managers who could deliver effectively in these important services.

All in all, it is true to say that Education is important for development of people and the community. Without necessary skills and knowledge, people would not be able to achieve anything good for themselves, their community and the nation as a whole.

So why is paragraphing an important skill in writing?

1. It is important to realize that paragraphs are important organisational or structural elements; a way to organise or convey/present ideas in writing, and  important in all writing styles- narrative, recounts, reports, discussion, letters etc. They keep the writing in focus with ideas intact. In other words, as you read a piece of writing, pay attention to each paragraphs starting with the introduction/beginning, the main content or body/details, and the conclusion. If the writer has done a good job, the reader should be able to follow the ideas well.
2. They help the reader to follow our ideas/ and pattern of thinking.
3. Guide writer with word selection and sentence construction to fulfill purpose of writing. Each style or genre of writing has its own way of paragraphing/ structure/ grammatical structures/ and even language choice.

In our last session: examples of genre

Narrative, letter writing, descriptive writing, personal reflection, points of view; Script for a formal speech; and expository/exposition writing.

Narrative: Story telling

• What, when, where, who, what, how……?
• Organised by event (sequence) – beginning, middle and ending.

We ended by focusing on expository writing:

What is an exposition essay?

Objective:

1. define/ understand expository writing

Step 1.  Understanding the topic

1. read, and underline key words in the question
2. define key words

Step 2. Identify and understand steps in planning the writing

1. form an opinion
2. identify key points/reasons

Step 3: Draft the introductory paragraph

1. restate the topic in a general statement
2. develop the thesis

This is a style of writing in which writers are asked or given a topic to think critically and reflect on their opinion on the matter and deliver/present a clear, concise argument on the matter.

One of the most systematic type of writing – because writers are required to explore an idea, evaluate the evidence, elaborate or discuss in detail on the main idea, and state the argument.