Narrative Essay: Writing an anecdote or memorable moment

The narrative approach offers writers a chance to think and write about themselves.
We all have experiences lodged in our memories, which are worthy of sharing with
readers. Yet sometimes they are so fused with other memories that a lot of the time
spent in writing narrative is in the prewriting stage.

When you write a narrative essay, you are telling a story. Narrative essays are told
from a defined point of view, often the author’s, so there is feeling as well as specific
and often sensory details provided to get the reader involved in the elements and
sequence of the story.

The narrative essay makes a point and that point is often defined in the opening
sentence, but can also be found as the last sentence in the opening paragraph.

Since a narrative relies on personal experiences, it often is in the form of a story. When
the writer uses this technique, he or she must be sure to include all the conventions of
storytelling: plot, character, setting, climax, and ending.

Remember that a narrative:

 is told from a particular point of view

 makes and supports a point
 is filled with precise detail
 uses vivid verbs and modifiers
 uses conflicto and sequence as does any story
 may use dialogue

Pre-writing process

Where did the incident happen?

When did it happen?

Who were the people involved?

What happened?

How did you feel about the incident?

Why was this incident memorable or important?

Structure

The most common structure is:

 an opening that establishes setting and introduces characters;

 a complication and resulting events;
 a resolution / ending.

Paragraphing

Topic sentence
Background information (time, place, people involved)
Story (events organised in chronological order)
Explanation or comment

Useful Language

a) Words to indicate time relationships

After (a moment) While (While we were staying there)

By (by ten, by that time, by then)
During (period of time)
From… to…
From then on
In (In May, in 1997, in the summer of)
On (On Monday / one Monday in June
/ One Saturday morning)
(Three days) later / (Two days) before
Before that / After that
Until (May / 8:30) / Until then
When (When we arrived in London)
As (As she was getting out of the building)
Whenever (Whenever we visited our uncle in Berlin)
Before (Before we could think of what to do next)
After (After we had settled there)
Until (We had been very friendly until I told him what I
thought about his manners)
As soon as (As soon as I found out that the bath didn’t
have a hair-dryer, I decided not to wash my hair)
The moment that
(The moment that I saw her I thought she was…)
Once (Once we had finished unpacking…)

b) Words to indicate sequence

First, second, next = later = afterwards = after this.

All of a sudden = Suddenly, then, last, finally, now.

c) Words to emphasise the story

Surprisingly, luckily, fortunately, unexpectedly.