WR2 - The Narrative Essay Lesson

The Narrative Essay

The Purpose of Narrative Writing

Writers can easily cast aside narrative writing as unimportant due to the format. However, speaking and writing in narrative is one of the most common forms of communication - it is essentially story-telling. Whenever a person writes about or explains an event or incident, that is narrative writing.

Organizing a Narrative writing

Although writers have more freedom in terms of structure when using the narrative form, all writing needs some type of organization. Narrative essays still require an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Let's look at an example a paragraph in narrative writing for the topic: Write a story about Emily Dickinson.

Sample essay highlighting the clear topic sentence

Narrative Essay Timed Writing

View the video below to see how you will craft your timed writing:

Narrative Writing Elements

Examine the writing elements associated with a Narrative Essay and a printout of these elements. Links to an external site.

  1. The introduction paragraph sets the scene of the narrative and may include background information to introduce the setting/CharactersThe thesis statement suggests the the me of the narrative and may or may
    not be explicitly stated.
  2. The body paragraphs develop the story in an organized fashion, may be
    linear and introduce the pIot, characters, etc.
  3. Narrative writing does not require evidence.
  4. The conclusion paragraph needs to be more than a summary and should
    leave the reader with something to reflect on, related to the theme.
  5. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person pronouns are acceptable to use.
  6. Any verb tense can be used.

Crafting Thesis Statements for Varying Types of Essays

Review the video below to understand how to craft thesis statements for various essay types:

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