Course: English Composition (ENGL 1A) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Lindgren
Module: Week 5 of 16 · Fall 2026 · in-person, two 75-minute sessions
Objective covered: Objective 4 — Compose in multiple rhetorical modes (this week: narration and exposition). · SLO A

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Module 5 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Welcome Announcement that drips out when the module opens. Dates below assume a Tuesday/Thursday session pattern with Week 5 meeting Tue Sep 29 and Thu Oct 1, and end-of-week work due Sunday Oct 4, 11:59 p.m. Adjust the day-of-week and times to match your section.

(A) Module 5 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Week 5: Narrative & Expository Writing

This is your home base for the week. Read it first, then work the checklist below from top to bottom. Everything you need is linked inside the module.

This is a big week — your first major essay lands here. For four weeks we built the foundation: the rhetorical situation, critical reading, the paragraph, and the thesis. Now you put it all to work in a piece of your own. This week we learn to compose in two of the most useful modes a writer has — narration (telling a true story to make a point) and exposition (explaining or informing) — and the single craft move that separates flat writing from vivid writing: showing instead of telling. Then you'll write the Narrative/Expository Essay, the first of the term's four major essays.

The week's big question

"A story isn't just what happened — so how do I tell a true story (or explain something) in a way that shows a reader and makes a point?"

By Friday you'll be able to tell narration from exposition, turn a flat "telling" sentence into a vivid "showing" one with concrete sensory detail, organize a piece by chronology or by process, and — the idea that earns the most points all week — make sure your narrative has a point (a "so what?"), not just a sequence of events.

By the end of this week, you can…

Use this as a checklist. If you can do all four out loud, you're ready for the quiz.

• [ ] Tell narration from exposition — narration tells a true story to make a point; exposition explains or informs — and name what each mode is for.
• [ ] Show, don't tell — replace a flat statement ("I was nervous") with specific, concrete sensory detail that lets the reader feel it.
• [ ] Organize a piece by chronology (the order events happened) or by process (the order steps occur), using transitions that signal time and sequence.
• [ ] Land the significance — make sure your narrative has a clear point / "so what?"; a narrative essay still needs a thesis, even if it's implied.

What's due this week, and when

Work these in order — each one gets you ready for the next. Note: the assignment this week is the major Narrative/Expository Essay — it's a real time investment, so start early and bring a draft to the Studio.

Heads-up on the AI work: this week the chatbot's most useful trick — and its most dangerous one — is the same: "make it more descriptive." It will happily add detail, and just as happily over-write your prose into purple, overwrought mush that no longer sounds like you. You'll use it to spot where you're telling instead of showing — and then catch it when it floods the page with adjectives. The tool drafts; the writer decides.

Late policy reminder: 10% off per day late. The major essay is worth real points and real time — start early, and reach out before the deadline if life happens.

How to succeed this week

• A narrative needs a point. "What I did last summer" is not an essay; "the summer I learned my dad was scared too" is. Before you draft, finish this sentence: "This story matters because ___." That's your significance.
• "Show" means evidence, not adjectives. Showing isn't piling on describing words — it's giving the reader specific sensory detail (what you saw, heard, felt) so they reach the conclusion themselves. "I was nervous" tells; "my hands left damp prints on the steering wheel" shows.
• Exposition explains; it isn't opinion. When you're informing or explaining a process, your job is clarity and accuracy, organized so a reader can follow — not arguing a side. (That's argument, in Week 7.)
• Pick your order on purpose. A story usually runs by chronology (what happened, in order); an explanation often runs by process (the steps, in sequence). Either way, transitions that signal time — first, then, by the time, afterward — carry the reader.
• Treat the chatbot as an over-eager describer. Ask it to "make it more descriptive" and read the result like an editor: which images are sharp and true, and which are clichés ("a whirlwind of emotions") that you'd never write? Keep your voice; cut the purple.

You already have everything you need for this week — four weeks of process, paragraphs, and thesis. Now we make writing vivid. Come to class with one true two-minute story you could tell about a moment that changed something for you, however small. See you Tuesday.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Module 5

Release setting: post on the module's start day (offset = 0 days), i.e., Tue Sep 29, 2026 — not before. If your platform won't preserve the scheduled date on import, post this as a draft labeled "Release: Tue Sep 29."

Subject: Week 5 — your first major essay, and the secret to vivid writing ✍️

Hi everyone,

Quick test. Which sentence puts you in the room: "I was really nervous before the interview," or "I read the same line of my résumé four times and couldn't tell you what it said"? The second one, every time — and notice it never uses the word nervous. That's showing instead of telling, the craft move at the heart of this week, and the difference between writing a reader skims and writing a reader feels.

This week — Narrative & Expository Writing — we tackle the big question: How do I tell a true story (or explain something) in a way that shows a reader and makes a point? By Friday you'll tell narration (telling a story to make a point) from exposition (explaining/informing), turn flat sentences into vivid ones with concrete detail, and make sure your story has a "so what?" — because a narrative essay still needs a point.

Four things not to miss:
1. Assignment 5 is your FIRST MAJOR ESSAY — the Narrative/Expository Essay (100 pts). It's a real piece of writing, so start early. Bring a draft to the Studio and to office hours.
2. Lecture Tutorial 5 — work through narration, exposition, and showing-not-telling with one approved chatbot and submit the share link. Due Sun Oct 4.
3. Quiz 5 and Discussion 5 also close Sun Oct 4 — the discussion is a genuinely arguable one: is personal narrative "real" academic writing? Start the AI dialogue early so you have time to reply to classmates.
4. Writing Studio 5 — "Show, Don't Tell" — our weekly workshop, and this week it's the perfect warm-up for the essay: you'll draft a vivid paragraph and revise a flat one into showing.

One promise: by the end of this week you'll never again hand in "I was nervous" and leave it there. You'll know how to make a reader see it. The story you tell doesn't have to be dramatic — the smallest true moment, told well, beats the biggest one told flat.

Bring one small true story to class on Tuesday — a moment, not a whole saga.

See you soon,
Prof. Lindgren