Narrative Essays

What is Narrative Essay?

Narrative essay is narrates or retells an event or story.

Development Techniques

A narrative is a story. It has an introduction that engages the reader’s interest, a body that gives details about the main event or action in the story, and a conclusion that describes the experience on the story.

Introductory Paragraph

• LEAD – Gets the reader’s attention with a relevant quotation, question, fact, or definition.
• LINK – Introduces an event (the action of the story) by providing background information about the people, the place, and the time. It sets the scene by telling what the story is about, when and where the story takes place, who are the main characters, or the writer.
• LIST (Thesis statement) – Tells why the story or event was so important or so memorable. Normally, you can construct the thesis statement for narrative essay in this way:
       → LINK (Thesis statement): Story or event + Impression on/ Experience about the story

Look at the example. Supposed that you are going to write about a story "Ramayana". Here are the information you can add:

• LEAD = Ramayana, a myth in Hinduism, is a story studied by many people across south and southeast Asia.
• LINK = What? – War between goodness and devil When? – Long time ago Where? – India, Sri Lanka Who? – Rama and Ravana
• LIST = The story provides educational values to most of the readers.

Below is the sample introductory paragraph.

Ramayana

^(Lead) Ramayana, a myth in Hinduism, is a story studied by many people across south and southeast Asia. ^(Link) The story talks about war between goodness, represented by Rama, and the devil, represented by Ravana. The war was said to happen at an ancient time in India and Sri Lanka. ^(List) The story provides educational values to most of the readers.

Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs describe what happened in the story. They include details that bring the story to life. They often use time order to explain the event. The story is normally divided into 3 stages:

• THE BEGINNING -- The beginning of the story tells what problem or conflict cause the story or event to happen. 
• THE MIDDLE -- The middle describes the problems or conflicts leading to the climax, which is the highest point of the story or event.
• THE ENDING -- The ending reveals what happens after the climax. It finishes the story with the story resolution or how all the conflicts or problem are solved.

Concluding Paragraph

A conclusion restate your experience on the story. It often ends with a comment by the writer about what the event showed or taught.

Organizing Ideas

If you describe the event, it is good idea to organize your essays into 4 or five paragraphs as below.

Outline 1

Title

Introductory Paragraph

• LEAD: A relevant quotation, question, fact, or definition (drawing attention).
• LINK: What? Who? When? Where? (background information)
• LIST: Story or event + Impression on/ Experience about the story

Body Paragraph 1

• BEGINNING OF THE STORY

Body Paragraph 2

• MIDDLE OF THE STORY

Body Paragraph 3

• END OF THE STORY

Concluding Paragraph

• Restatement + Final thoughts

Outline 2

Alternatively, if you know the plots of the story, you may organize the ideas in this way.

Title

Introductory Paragraph

• Lead: A relevant quotation, question, fact, or definition (drawing attention).
• Link: What? Who? When? Where? (background information)
• List: Story + Impression on/Experience about the story 

Body Paragraph 1 – BEGINNING

• Rising Actions – what make the story happens

Body Paragraph 2 – MIDDLE

• Complications – problems leading to climax
• Climax – highest / most serious point of the problem

Body Paragraph 3 – ENDING

• Falling actions – what happen after the climax
• Resolutions – how problem/conflict is solved

Concluding Paragraph

• Restatement/Summary + Final thoughts

Narrative Essay Samples

Below is a sample essay about a Khmer love story 'Tum and Teav'.

Outline

Tum and Teav
Introductory Paragraph

• Lead: drawing attention
• Link:
  
  • What?: love tragedy
  • Who?: Tum and Teav
  • When?: 16th century
  • Where?: Tbaung Khmum province
• List: The story + is very interesting.

Body Paragraph 1 – BEGINNING

• Rising Actions –
  • Love at the first sight Tum and Teav
  • Tum leaves monkshood
  • Tum and Teav engage in a pre-marriage love affair

Body Paragraph 2 – MIDDLE

• Complications –
  • Teav's mother disagree their marriage.
  • Teav’s mother arranges a marriage for Teav with a rich and powerful local guy, but fails.
  • Teav is selected a concubine, and is sent to the capital.
  • Tum follows;
  • King offers a wedding.
  • Teav’s mother doesn’t like, and she re-arranges the marriage.
  • She cheats Teav to come back.
  • Teav comes back, and Tum follows.

• Climax –
  • Tum is arrested and executed.
  • Teav commits suicide.

Body Paragraph 3 – ENDING

• Falling actions –
  • what happen after the climax The news enrages the king.

• Resolutions –
  • how problem/conflict is solved He orders execution to those involved.

Concluding Paragraph

• Restatement/Summary + Final thoughts

Sample Essay

Tum and Teav

^(Lead) Among many Khmer novels, Tum and Teav seems to be the most appealing one. Many people believe that the story was a real one. ^(Link) It is about a love tragedy of young couple Tum and Teav happened some time in the 16th century at presently Tbaung Khmum province. ^(List) The story is really interesting.
(Rising action) The story begins when a young monk Tum and young woman Teav fall in love at their first sight when Tum is invited to Teav's house for small ceremony. The love for Teav forces Tum to leave his monkshood even with the objection of his master. He then sets off for Teav. When they meet, they have engage in a love pre-marriage affair which is strongly prohibited in Khmer tradition.
^{(Complications)} Teav's mother, however, disagree with their marriage. She wants her daughter to have better husband, so she arranges a mrriage for Teav with a rich and powerful local guy, but fails. Because of her beauty, Teav is selected a concubine, and is sent to the capital. Tum follows her and disguise as a singer and musician. The king admires Teav, but later he learns that Teav and Tum, a singer who sings to entertain him, love each other, so he offers a wedding the couple. The wedding makes Teav's mother disappointed, and she re-arranges the the fail marriage. She cheats Teav to come back home and sits in a wedding. Worrying for his wife, Tum follows. ^(Climax) At first, he think that Teav agrees with her mother, so he disguises as a singer and sings to insult Teav.  Being identified as Tum, he is arrested and executed. With sorrow, Teav commits suicide on Tum's body.
^{(Falling actions)} Tum's friend, who has accompanied him, manage to escape and informs the king. The news enrages the king. He decides that he must intervene in the case. ^(Resolution) He orders harsh punishment to those involved. The family of the powerful guy, Teav's mother, and other villagers are arrested and executed.
^{(Restatement)} The story reflects that even with traditional and social class barrier, there are people who dare stand against them. It has become a debate for the later century as well. ^{(Final thought)} It is one of the widely known Khmer story among Cambodian and scholars.

Reference

• A. Savage & P. Mayer (2006). Effective Academic Writing 2. 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press. USA. P-?
• Susan Anker (2010). Real Writing. Paragraph and Essays for College Work and Everyday Life. P-121

How to Write Concluding Paragraph

What Is Concluding Paragraph?

Concluding paragraph or conclusion closes the essay and gives readers a sense of logical completeness and finality.

What to be put depends entirely on what have been written in the essay. However, it should have the following characteristics:

• It should be brief, consisting of a single sentence or a group of two-five sentences. 
• It should summarize the main points discussed in the composition. 
• It should give a final statement showing that no more details are going to be discussed. 

Keep in mind also that to end your essay reasonably, you should:

• not present a new main idea in your concluding paragraph. 
• not make apologies for any opinions you have expressed, or even talk with the reader. 

How to Develop It

A simple yet common technique to write a concluding paragraph is restating the thesis statement or summarizing the main points/ideas discussed in the body paragraphs and adding a final thought.

When you restate the thesis statement, you must not copy the thesis statement. You need to rewrite it in different words. In addition, the main points/ideas are usually stated in your topic sentence of each body paragraph.

A final thought can be a recommendation or your own belief about the topic. Hence, here is the summary:

Concluding Paragraph =

• Close: Restatement of thesis statement Summary of main points
• Final thought: Opinion/ Prediction/ Suggestion

Example 

Introduction:

List: Some studies reveal that the applicant should have knowledge, skills, and proper attitude.

Concluding Paragraph:

Restate: Each applicant is supposed to know what to do, know how to do it, and have right belief and personalities. Final thought: Therefore, he or she should finish a bachelor degree in any field, earn some professional experiences, and behave in a professional manner.

How to write body paragraphs

The body will typically consist of about three paragraphs, presenting points to support your thesis statement. Without sufficient support, your essay is not convincing. It is difficult to find ideas to support your thesis statement; hence, you need to work out the ideas in the planning stage (when organizing your brainstormed idea).

Technique

To make your paragraph convincing is the matter of presenting main ideas in each body paragraph. You have known that each body paragraph needs to have good internal organization – it must have topic sentence, supporting sentences, and optional concluding sentence.
RULES: You must make…

• Each topic sentence supports the thesis statement.
• Supporting sentences support each topic sentence.

Here is the outline.

Introductory paragraph	Lead:
	Link:
	List:	Specific topic +	Main point 1 Main point 2 Main point 3
Body paragraph 1	TS =	Main point 1 +	Controlling idea
	SS =	Supporting 1A +	Supporting details 1A
		Supporting 1B +	Supporting details 1B
		Supporting 1C +	Supporting details 1C
Body paragraph 2	TS =	Main point 2 +	Controlling idea
	SS =	Supporting 2A +	Supporting details 2A
		Supporting 2B +	Supporting details 2B
		Supporting 2C +	Supporting details 2C
Body paragraph 3	TS =	Main point 3 +	Controlling idea
	SS =	Supporting 3A +	Supporting details 3A
		Supporting 3B +	Supporting details 3B
		Supporting 3C +	Supporting details 3C

The topic sentence (of the body paragraphs)

Each topic sentence directly supports the thesis statement. You must use the main point/sub-topic as the topic and add your controlling idea, i.e.
Introductory Paragraph

• Thesis statement = specific topic + {main point 1 + main point 2, main point 3}

Body Paragraphs

• Topic Sentence 1 = Main point 1+ Controlling Idea
• Topic Sentence 2 = Main point 2+ Controlling Idea
• Topic Sentence 3 = Main point 3+ Controlling Idea

For examples:

• Thesis statement: Pollution, waste, and climate change are threatening freshwater supplies.
• Topic sentence 1: Freshwater is being polluted by dirty water from several sources.
• Topic sentence 2: People are wasting fresh water.
• Topic sentence 3: Changes in global weather patterns have affected supplies of fresh water.

• Thesis statement: The main factors causing most road accidents are seen to be people, vehicle, and roads.
• Topic sentence 1: People abuse the traffic laws.
• Topic sentence 2: The vehicles are not properly checked or have technical defects.
• Topic sentence 3: The roads also cause the accidents.

The supporting sentences (of the body paragraphs) –

The supporting sentences, which include supporting ideas and details, support each topic sentence. Follow the rules for writing paragraph (See the illustration below).

Write a Topic Sentence	→	Create a Topic Question	→	Answer the Topic Question
Use the main point in the thesis statement		Convert the topic sentence to topic question.		1st level answers  are supporting ideas; 2nd level answers are supporting details.

Look at the examples.

How to Write Introductory Paragraphs

Essay is a group of paragraphs talking about one topic — which is stated in the thesis statement. In contains three different types of paragraph: introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs.

The introductory paragraph, which usually has five or six sentences, contains background information and a thesis statement. It is the first paragraph of an essay.

Introduction = Background information + Thesis statement

• Background information – You need to include two pieces of information: leading and liking information. Leading information is the general information about the topic which leads the audience to a topic; linking information gets more specific and links the general information to the topic or thesis statement.
• Thesis statement – It is a short debatable statement, usually one sentence, that summarizes the main point or claim of an essay. It lists the specific topic or sub-topics of the essay.

For example
Supposed that you are going to write about a topic "Internet". A simple introductory paragraph will be:

Background information:

Lead: Internet is a technology which marks the new age, the age of internet or information, of human kind. It has been introduced since the early 1990s mainly for technicians. It has been getting more developed and standardized. The standard internet protocol attract web developers and users all over the world.

Link: More people and organizations have been using this technology, and it revolutionizes the ways in which people works.

Thesis statement
List (Thesis statement): From my observation, I think it changes the way we communicate, work, and learn.


Here is a simple introductory paragraph:

Internet

Internet is a technology which marks the new age, the age of internet or information, of human kind. It has been introduced since the early 1990s mainly for technicians. It has been getting more developed and standardized. The standard internet protocol attract web developers and users all over the world. More people and organizations have been using this technology, and it revolutionizes the ways in which people works. From my observation, I think it changes the way we communicate, work, and learn.

Essays

Sam An Teng 

Essay is a group of paragraphs that develop one thesis statement (which is the main the idea).


Elements of an essay

An essay contains three parts: (1) Introduction (or introductory paragraph); (2) Body (or few supporting paragraphs); and (3) Conclusion (or concluding paragraph).


Organization of an essay
 

The Essay Layout

Introductory paragraph (Paragraph 1)	General statements: background, related information, or general concepts… about the topic.
	Thesis statement: List the specific topic, or sub-topics of the essay.
Body paragraphs	Paragraph 2 (Supporting idea 1) Transition, Topic sentence  Supporting sentences  Concluding sentence (optional)
	Paragraph 3 (Supporting idea 2) Transition, Topic sentence  Supporting sentences  Concluding sentence (optional)
	Paragraph 4 (Supporting idea 3) Transition, Topic sentence  Supporting sentence  Concluding sentence (optional)
Concluding paragraph (Paragraph 5)	Summaryof main points / restatement of thesis statement
	Final thoughts

Types of essays

DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY
It provides details about how something looks, feels, tastes, smells, makes one feel, or sounds.

DEFINITION ESSAY
It attempts to define a specific term. It could try to pin down the meaning of a specific word, or define an abstract concept.

COMPARE/CONTRAST ESSAY
It discusses the similarities and differences between two things, people, concepts, places, etc. The essay could be an unbiased discussion, or an attempt to convince the reader of the benefits of one thing, person, or concept.

CAUSE/EFFECT ESSAY
It explains why or how some event happened, and what resulted from the event. This essay is a study of the relationship between two or more events or experiences.

NARRATIVE ESSAY
It tells a story. It can also be called a "short story." Generally the narrative essay is conversational in style, and tells of a personal experience.

PROCESS ESSAY
It describes how something is done. It generally explains actions that should be performed in a series.

ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
It is one that attempts to persuade the reader to the writer's point of view. The writer can either be serious or funny, but always tries to convince the reader of the validity of his or her opinion.

CRITICAL ESSAY
It analyzes the strengths, weaknesses and methods of someone else's work. Generally these essays begin with a brief overview of the main points of the text, movie, or piece of art, followed by an analysis of the work's meaning.