Essay

The Narrative Essay

What’s My Story? What’s the Moral of My Story?

Writing a Narrative Essay

There's nothing like reading a great narrative. Whether in novel or essay form, a

narrative piece of writing transports readers into the time and space of the world

portrayed by the writing.

There's also nothing like writing a great narrative. Through reflecting upon an event,

and through recreating the experience for other readers, writing a narrative essay can

enable you to develop new, subtle, and rewarding perspectives.

Basic qualities of a narrative essay:

A narrative essay is a piece of writing that recreates an experience through time.

A narrative essay can be based on one of your own experiences, either past or

present, or it can be based on the experiences of someone else. It should, though, be

about something you know very well.

In addition to telling a story, a narrative essay also communicates a main idea

or a lesson learned. This should be demonstrated in the main point of your

thesis.

First steps for writing a narrative essay thesis:

1. Identify the experience that you want to write about.

The death of my father

2. Think about why the experience is significant – what is the moral of your story?

It taught me to live each day as though it were my last.

3. Put both together to draft your thesis.

The death of my father taught me to live each day as though it were my last.

Spend a good deal of time drafting your recollections about the details of the

experience. Pre-write if you have to.

4. Create an outline of the basic parts of your narrative. Divide your experience into

three segments, and each support paragraph’s topic sentence should address its own

section of the story. You could think of the sections as “chapters.” (Beginning, middle,

end; before, during, after)

His surgery

The coma

Letting him off life support

The funeral

The new normal

5. Write your POD and your topic sentences:

POD: Going through his surgery and his coma, letting him off life support,

experiencing his funeral, and settling in to a new normal taught me that I was

stronger than I ever thought I could be.

Topic Sentences:

To begin with, his surgery did not go as planned.

Because the surgery did not go as planned, he ended up in a coma.

Deciding to let my dad off life support was the most grim decision my mother

ever had to make.

The funeral took place on a very cold November morning.

After the funeral, we all had to get used to the new normal.

TIP: Write out your topic sentences first even before you draft your paragraphs. If you do not, you risk

writing a topic sentence that is too narrow, something like, “Next, I sat down.” Remember that you need to

generate 7 to 10 sentences to support that first sentence. You couldn’t do that about sitting down. Also, if

you look at the topic sentences as the “headers” to three chapters of the story, it doesn’t make sense that

sitting down could encompass an entire section of the story.

Writing and drafting the experience:

Using your outline, describe each part of your narrative.

Rather than telling your readers what happened, use vivid details and descriptions to

actually recreate the experience for your readers. Make sure your topic sentences

relate to the thesis; make sure your details support the topic sentences.

Think like your readers. Try to remember that the information you present is the only

information your readers have about the experiences.

Always keep in mind that all of the small and seemingly unimportant details known to

you are not necessarily known to your readers.

Communicating the significance of the experience:

You should begin your narrative with a paragraph that introduces the experience and

communicates the significance. This technique guarantees that your readers will

understand the significance of the experience as they progress through the narrative.

Here is a list of some events. Add the significance to complete the thesis and then

break each event down into three possible sections.

Going to college

showed me

Coming to the

United States

made me realize

Changing jobs

Revising your narrative essay:

After spending time away from the draft of your narrative essay, read through the

essay and think about whether the writing effectively recreates the experience for your

readers.

Ask other people to read through the essay and offer their impressions.

Identify where more details and descriptions are needed.

Identify and consider removing any information that seems to distract from the focus

and main narrative of the essay.

Potential prompts for your narrative essay:

If you're having trouble choosing an experience to write about, take a quick glance

through these prompts. They might help you remember or identify a particularly

interesting or significant experience to focus on.

A childhood event. Think of an experience when you learned something for the first

time, or when you realized how important someone was for you.

Achieving a goal. Think about a particularly meaningful achievement in your life. This

could be something as seemingly minor as achieving a good grade on a difficult

assignment, or this could be something with more long-lasting effects, like getting the

job you desired or getting into the best school to which you applied.

A failure. Think about a time when you did not perform as well as you had wanted.

Focusing on an experience like this can result in rewarding reflections about the

positive emerging from the negative.

A good or bad deed. Think about a time when you did or did not stand up for yourself

or someone else in the face of adversity or challenge.

A change in your life. Think about a time when something significant changed in

your life. This could be anything from a move across town to a major change in a

relationship to the birth or death of a loved one.

A realization. Think about a time when you experienced a realization. This could be

anything from understanding a complicated math equation to gaining a deeper

understanding of a philosophical issue or life situation.

Personal Narrative

Build your personal narrative by using the prompts to generate ideas.

Which specific event or time in your life would you like to share and reflect upon?

How will you draw the reader into the essay? Try one of the following techniques:

ask a question, state an opinion, quote someone, share a personal anecdote, provide

a description, or begin at the end.

How will you recreate the event for your audience? Which specific details and

dialogue will you include? How will you make your readers want to know what

happened next?

When reflecting upon the event, why is it currently meaningful and of consequence

to you? Why was it meaningful and of consequence when it occurred?

What distinguishing attributes of the event will pull the reader into the essay?

Do other people have connections or similar reactions as you do to the event? Do

other people view the event differently?

What additional experiences in your life does the event remind you of? Do they

add additional background information for the reader and strengthen your essay?

How will you develop a strong ending to your essay? How will you recap how the

event ended? How do you feel about the event and why it was important to you?