Professional Documents
Culture Documents
What’s a narrative?
A narrative is a story which tells us about
something that happened (usually) in the past.
It is a real or an imaginary story that
describes events or incidents often
unexpected, funny, surprising or problematic.
Parts of a Narrative
• 1st Part: Usually 1 paragraph.
We introduce the story:
We can write a short summary of what we are going to narrate.
or
We can set the action and tell what was happenning before the main
event.
• 2nd Part: Usually 1 or 2 paragraphs.
We tell the story or main events. We give as many details as we can.
We usually use the different past tenses.
• 3rd Part: Usually 1 paragraph.
We write the ending of the story, what happened afterwards or what
we learnt or the consequences of the story.
We cdan also talk about how we feel about it or how what happened
affected our life.
Essential Elements of Narrative Essays
The focus of a narrative essay is the plot, which is told using
enough details to build to a climax. But… how???
*It is usually told chronologically.
*It usually has a purpose, which is usually stated in
the opening sentence or the first paragraph.
*It may use dialogue.
*It is written with sensory details and vivid
descriptions to involve the reader. All these details
relate in some way to the main point the writer is
making.
Beginnings and endings
A narrative needs an
interesting beginning to catch
the reader’s attention and
encourage him or her to read
on, and a clear ending to
round the story off
satisfactorily.
A weak beginning or ending
can spoil the effect of the
story, so it’s worth spending
time working out how to
start and finish.
It was a day at the end of June. My mom, dad, brother, and I were at
our camp on Rangeley Lake. We arrived the night before at 10:00, so it
was dark when we got there and unpacked. We went straight to bed.
The next morning, when I was eating breakfast, my dad started yelling
for me from down at the dock at the top of his lungs. He said there
was a car in the lake.
My eyes were red and burning as blood slowly ran down my forehead.
My cramped and trembling fingers hovered over the keyboard like it
was a Ouija board. I closed my eyes and, when I opened them again, the
blog post was finished. It was like nothing I had written before.
The story