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"Creating a relatable narrative means digging deep, asking hard questions and potentially airing some uncomfortable truths."1 Though it follows the same structure as other essay types, the purpose of a narrative essay is to entertain the audience while making them think. Emotive and sensory language is featured in narrative essays to connect with the reader and discuss an idea in a style that is somewhat more informal in comparison with other types of essays.
Another word for narrative is "story." At its foundation, a narrative tells its audience about something, whether through a book report, personal experience, or news story. A narrative essay uses a personal account to examine a theme, such as a moral question or universal truth. Writing a narrative essay involves some creative adventure, as its descriptive nature allows you to write an essay that stretches your creative writing muscles.
A narrative essay follows the standard essay structure with an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.
The introduction is where you begin to relate the personal story that illustrates the theme of the narrative essay. Immerse the reader in your experience using crisp details. Be sure to balance your introduction evenly by connecting your personal account to your thesis statement.
The body paragraphs are the part of the structure where you weave between expressing your story and discussing how it fits into the significant theme. Be mindful of the transitions in your narrative essay to avoid jarring the audience's attention.
The conclusion brings everything full circle for the reader. Remind the reader of your narrative essay's thesis and main points by summarizing them.
Leave a lasting impression in your conclusion by:
Pencil growing branches as it writes, Pixabay.
Like the pencil above, your mind creates new branches dedicated to critical thinking, self-awareness, and empathy as you structure a life experience into a narrative essay. Making growth and development visible in your essay will also add complexity to your writing.
There are three significant features of narrative essays you'll want to include in your paper: characters, dialogue, theme, setting, plot, and conflict.
The characters are the people in your narrative essay (yourself and anyone else involved). Write your characters in a way that makes them seem real and authentic. Focus on behavior more than physical description. Another way to flesh out your characters is through the second feature, dialogue.
Dialogue is a valuable tool to describe people in a way that "shows" rather than "tells." You can learn a lot about a person's character by the things they say and how they say them. The dialogue in your narrative essay can be direct (exact words) or indirect (a paraphrase of the conversation).
The theme is one of the most important features of your narrative essay, as the purpose of the essay is to explore it. Your theme should illustrate some part of the human experience.
The setting of the narrative essay will be where your personal experience took place. When writing about a location, include details about its timeframe, social environment, and physical characteristics. Depending on the length of your essay, it may be best to only feature setting details that support the theme.
The plot is the way things happened. The narrative essay is a dance between your personal story and theme. Allow them to work together as you share and expand on the main points.
The conflict is the struggle that characters come up against. The conflict in your narrative essay gives it a purpose. Use the theme to discuss the conflict and show personal development.
Show don't tell: This piece of advice will pop up in every writing class you take and means that you should describe something using sensory and action words instead of vague descriptive labels. We all agree sunsets are beautiful, but what is beautiful to you?
A feature unique to narrative essays is that they are not "just the facts" and invite personal reflections. However, lest we invite anarchy, let's discuss the rules:
Egotistical: an adjective that describes someone who is excessively self-absorbed.
While you are learning to write a compelling narrative essay, you:
A more practical reason to master the narrative essay is its use as a standard tool (often taking the form of a personal statement or cover letter) for judging how well a person fits into an organization.
Personal statements are required by many college and scholarship applications. As the admission board reads over your account, they consider what you write and how you talk about yourself in your writing. Personal statements are expected to be about a page long.
Personal statements include two categories:
A cover letter is a document that features your skills in a way that supplements your job application or resume and helps you to build a positive relationship with the employer before you meet them. It is similar to the narrative essay because you write about how you gained your knowledge and experience. However, the tone should be friendly yet professional, and the letter should not exceed one page.
Structure the cover letter to feature:
Once your awesome cover letter lands you an interview, prepare yourself for the verbal equivalent of a narrative essay by brainstorming answers to questions like, "What was a difficult situation you found yourself in and your reaction to it?"
Read the following example of a narrative essay and consider these questions:
Time behaves oddly. Some periods in my life have felt like they were never going to end, and others like they barely had the chance to happen at all. It's distressing to learn that Time doesn't take our needs into account when we lose someone we love. Scratch distressing – it feels like we are waiting inside the penthouse elevator, and the cables just got cut. Getting caught up in the day-to-day, infinite nature of time often leaves us wishing we had been more conscious of the finite way it operates in our personal lives.
1 Badillo, Ann, Tim Donovan, and Tobin Trevarthen. Narrative Generation: Why Narrative Will Become Your Most Valuable Asset in the Next Five Years. 2016
A narrative essay uses personal experience to discuss a theme.
To write a narrative essay, pick a moral or universal truth to explore. Think about your life experiences and choose one that connects with your theme. Use concrete details to share your story and examine the theme.
A narrative essay begins with an introduction, explores its theme in the body paragraphs, and ties everything together in its conclusion. A thesis statement is included in the Introduction to convey the subject and ideas of the essay.
Some examples of narrative essays are:
Narrative essays contain five basic components:
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