How to Write A Narrative Essay: Examples & Tips

 Introduction

The art of writing is of four major types; descriptive, expository as well as narrative and persuasive and each holds its unique style and purpose in the field of literature. In context to the present study, it can be said that the discussion would be critically evolve through the way to write a narrative essay. Fundamentally, it is seen that narration is also known as the story telling ability that has its core purpose to define as well as transmitting both factual as well as tales of fictions. Hence, it can be said that narrative essay helps individuals in expressing stories creatively in their own way. And, based on this significance, the present discussion throughout the study in below would emphasis on way of writing narrative essay.

Definition of Narrative Essay Writing

A narrative essay is referred to certain text that is used for developing and communicating stories that further involves conflicts, characteristics and settings as well. It can be said that narrative writing is fundamentally utilised in approximately all writing piece, whether it would be fiction or factual. Moreover, writing of narrative essay has a focal point based on which the overall narrative essay would revolve involving characters and incidents. Significantly, in this accordance, it can be implied that a narrative essay is equivalent to any simple five-paragraph essay, within which it would have the same format. The only distinguishable aspect is that narrative essay has characters, dialogues and certain incidents and that can be of any form like; anecdotes, novels and poetry. (Karim, 2021)

Objective of Writing Narrative Essay

In context to the definition of narrative essay, it can be said that whether it has the fictional or factual story, writing through narrative essay help tends to relay particular series of events in emotionally involving way. It can be said that writing and exploring narrative essays also have certain objectivities. These are such as;

·         Narrative essay writing provides the opportunity for understanding individuality and attitudes towards any situation with more efficacies. (Kurniaman et al. 2018)

·         Additionally, writing narrative essays also provides the learning of defining the personal experience with the aim to entertain readers while awakening their level of curiosity.

Difference between Narrative Essay and Persuasive Essays  

On the other hand, it can be seen that often individuals have confusion regarding persuasive essays and narrative essays as they often unable to distinguish between these two types of essays. Thus, it is to be stated that narrative essay and persuasive essays are both different. These are as follows;

·         Narrative essay writing helps individuals in telling certain story whether it can be fictional or factual and often about personal experience. On the other hand, writing of persuasive essay helps individual in attempting to get readers for agreeing with their viewpoint. (Ilahi et al. 2021)

·         Therefore, it can be said that purpose of narrative essay is to inform, whereas, persuasive essays have the purpose of persuading with arguments that are definite.

·         Writing of narrative essay depends on emotional and imaginative state of mind. On the other hand, persuasive essay depends on analytical and objective state of mind.  

Types of Narrative Essay

Significantly, in context to narrative essay writing, it can be viewed that writing narrative essay might become difficult if the individual is not having transparent view on what they are trying to communicate (Purnama, 2018). Therefore, there can be seen different types of narrative essays, these are discussed below:

·         Fiction: This is referred as imaginary narrative that is written or constructed on the basis of writer’s thoughts and perceptions as well as feelings that are presented as the series of several events. Fiction narrative essay can be presented in form of a novel, short-story or plays.

·         Non-Fiction: Another type of narrative essay is non-fiction that is counted as personal narrative essay, in which it is based on facts or real information. (Chen et al. 2017). Nowadays facts about laughter is trending more in this pandemic.

·         Poetry: Writing poetry could also be another major type of narrative essay that can be fictional or factual both. This is because; poetry is considered as the narrative writing where expression of feelings or ideas is considered as given intensity through rhythm and distinctive style.

In addition to this, there can also be seen four common types of narrative essay writing. These are as follows;

·         Linear narrative essay writing that presents the story in the same order like the events that has happened.

·         Non-linear narrative essay writing that presents the event of the story out of the order by basically using flashbacks and related literary resources. (Nova, 2018)

·         Quest narrative essay writing is also another type within which protagonist would work limitlessly for achieving a certain goal.

·         Other narrative essay writing is viewpoint narrative that is designed for individuals to express their viewpoints in the story.

Elements of a Narrative Essay Writing

Furthermore, it can be said that narrative essay writing relies upon three core elements. These are as follows;

·         Character: This is one of the key elements in narrative essay writing as based on the define characters and their uniqueness, the overall narrative essay writing is constructed. (Heryanti et al. 2018)

·         Theme: Theme is considered as the motif around which the character would revolve. Theme is the key aspect around which the overall narrative essay is presented by the story teller.

·         Dialogue: Furthermore, dialogue is also considered as another prime element that is used between characters for capturing certain conversation. Through this element, narrative essay writer determine to tell the story.

Example of Narrative Essay Writing

In context to discussion regarding narrative essay writing, it is very necessary to explore certain example of narrative essay for developing the proper guidelines to write good narrative essay. The example is as follows;

1^st Example

·         British essayist Zadie Smith is the world’s renowned novelist, who has won several awards and her narrative information essays are often referenced to this day. Therefore, the example of narrative essay writing is stated below from Joy by Zadie Smith.

·         “Maybe the first thing to tell is that I have experienced minimum of pleasure each day. I wonder whether that would be more than the usual amount of joy. It has been the same as it was in childhood when majority of people tended to be miserable”. 

·         This specific example in above is viewpoint narrative essay writing example that has emphasis on writer’s inner experience on joy. That would further make readers to be more curious regarding the theme of the story. (Shokouhi et al. 2020)

2^nd Example

·         James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son is another example of narrative essay.

·         “In my parents’ lifetime or in mine Harlem has changed quite little at least physically. Now just like then buildings are in must need for repairing, the streets are also crowded and dirty and there are too many people per square block”.

·         This above example is exemplifying narrative essay that is reflection of the narrator or James Baldwin himself as his life as black man in early-to-mid-twentieth century America. It would tell the story of writer’s own perception of life to the readers. (Okantah, 2021)

Guidelines and Tips to Write Narrative Essay

Henceforth, in accordance with the above two examples of narrative essay writing, it can be said that there are certainly some guidelines that are required for writing a good narrative essay. These tips or guidelines are as follows;

·         Firstly, selecting a topic is necessary for writing a narrative essay that would be reflected through the theme. And, the topics might include; personal experience, childhood of narrator, any fictional areas, travelling, relationships, area of interests and so on. (Luspa, 2021)

·         Secondly, outlining the details is necessary and in a narrative essay the outline would involve; one paragraph of introduction, minimum three paragraph of body with the points that led the narrator to the story, climax and resolution at the core. Followed to that, there would be one paragraph of conclusion.

·         Thirdly, in this stage, writing a draft is necessary for organising the content of the essay.

·         Fourthly, revising the draft is required just after developing the content and writing the narrative essay. (Rahmawati et al. 2019)

·         And, at the last stage, editing the narrative essay would be best tip as editing and proofreading would help in identifying lagging and gap areas and correcting them before finally presenting them to the readers.

Conclusion

Based on the above discussion it can be implied that narrative essay writing not only enhances the expression and creativity level of the individuals who are writing it. But it also helps in brainstorming process of readers by enhancing their curiosity level towards certain situation. Therefore, as a whole, it can be said that narrative essay test individual’s ability of expressing the experiences in compelling and creative manner. Narrative essay is all about telling and presenting stories to the readers in narrator’s own unique way and approaches of creativity. Therefore, it can be said that the most effective tip to write a good narrative essay is to be creative as well as having the ability to convey and present own experiences and perceptions on certain areas and situation uniquely.

Reference List

Chen, Y., Carger, C.L. and Smith, T.J., 2017. Mobile-assisted narrative writing practice for young English language learners from a funds of knowledge approach. Language Learning & Technology, 21(1), pp.28-41.

Heryanti, R., Sucipto, M. and Makmur, M., 2018. The analysis of common grammatical errors in writing narrative essay of English study program students at Jambi University. Edukasi: Jurnal Pendidikan Dan Pengajaran, 4(2), pp.83-92.

Ilahi, A.K., Elmaida, E. and Murnianti, M., 2021. Students’ Grammatical Errors In Writing Narrative Essay At The Fourth Semester Of English Department. Selecting, 3(3), pp.58-69.

Karim, F.B.A., 2021. A Review on Primary School Students’ Narrative Essay Writing Skills: A Focus on an Intervention Based on Thinking Maps. Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education (TURCOMAT), 12(3), pp.109-119.

Kurniaman, O., Yuliani, T. and Mansur, M., 2018. Investigating think talk write (TTW) learning model to enhance primary students’ writing skill. Journal of Teaching and Learning in elementary Education (JTLEE), 1(1), pp.52-59.

Luspa, D., 2021. GETTING STUDENTS ACTIVELY INVOLVED USING THE ‘MISTAKE BUSTER TECHNIQUE” TO IMPROVE THEIR NARRATIVE ESSAY. Esteem Journal of English Education Study Programme, 4(3), pp.2015-2019.

Nova, M., 2018. Utilizing Grammarly in evaluating academic writing: A narrative research on EFL students’ experience. Journal of English Education, 7(1), pp.80-97.

Okantah, M.S., 2021. Notes of Another Native Son. International Journal of Languages and Culture, 1(1), pp.9-17.

Purnama, I.G.A.V., 2018. STUDY ON THE ABILITY OF STUDENTS IN WRITING NARRATIVE ESSAY. SPHOTA: Jurnal Linguistik Dan Sastra, 10(1), pp.18-26.

Rahmawati, I.N., Syafryadin, S. and Widiastuti, R., 2019. Teaching narrative writing using freaky fables game: An experimentation. English Education: Jurnal Tadris Bahasa Inggris, 12(2), pp.147-155.

Shokouhi, M., Bahmani, K. and Jamili, L.B., 2020. (Re) reading Acculturation Process in Multicultural Space of Zadie Smith’s NW. International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation, 3(11), pp.11-17.