After years of schooling, you must have reached a point where your professor keeps assigning narrative essays. Well, we understand this may be quite a frustrating part since more research is needed and it will count in the overall grade. Therefore, it is important to make sure that you follow all the steps involved in narrative essay writing.
Narrative essays are assigned at different levels in term paper writing procedures. They involve telling a story on real life experiences that connects with the theme of the study. If approached properly, it can be fun and we want to see the fun part in this study. That said, here are some of the basic guidelines that you can follow to achieve a good narrative essay.
Choose a good topic
When choosing a topic for your essay, go for a story that illustrates a certain theme. Narrative essays are made up of two plots: a story and the analysis of that story. These components must be present in your essay. Also, ensure that your story fits the prompt you receive from your professor. Read the prompt to ensure your story meets all the required guidelines.
Lastly, ensure that your plot is manageable. A good narrative will tell a specific story in details. Remember, you are not writing a novel, therefore the story needs to be short and clear. It is good to have a limit your story in terms of character, plot, and setting.
Write a good draft
With a good topic in mind, it is now time to write a draft. Write an outline of the plot before you begin. Think about how your story starts and how it ends. To make the task easier, write a quick list of the major points you want to include in the story and ensure you discuss them thoroughly.
Similarly, identify a consistent point of view. In most cases, a narrative uses the first person compared to other assignments. This means you will be using the “I” statements more often when writing. Don’t switch the perspectives throughout the story whether your are writing a dialog or discussing something that occurred in past-tense.
It is also important to describe each character involved in your story and their role. Who else was present in the plot? What can you recall about the individuals in the story? Answering these questions will help you build these characters into real people.
Organise your ideas in a chronological order
Your ideas should be organised in a chronological order. Every essay must have an introduction, the body and a conclusion. Similarly, a narrative must follow the same format. The body contains the main ideas you want to discuss. In this section, it is important to refer to your outline to guide you on which ideas should come first and which ones should come last.
Limit the list of references used
Referencing styles such as MLA recommends the need to use citations in the text. Narrative essays does not allow this. If you find any work that was helpful in your study, cite it in a list after the essay. As you go along with your story, explain yourself instead of referring to your previous statement. This
Revise, edit and submit your essay
In the revision part, you are supposed to review, modify and organise your work to make it the best. Here, you need to reread the whole story and ensure that the essay is easy to understand, talks about reader’s experience, informative, and delivers the right message to the target audience. Giving the reader a clue helps them to understand the point you want to communicate.
Editing involves proofreading and correcting grammatical errors in your story. This helps to improve the style and clarity of the story. After reading your story, you can have a friend go through it to see your work from a different perspective and pinpoint areas that need corrections
The final step is submitting your narrative to your professor. Some may prefer publishing it and sharing your personal view with the rest of the class. This can be both exciting and scary. But, remember a good narrative is open to criticism, so don’t be afraid to listen to other’s opinion about your work. The important thing is to get a good grade and learn from the feedback given by your professor and other people.
Well, probably you already have a specific format and tone you use in writing essays. But, the interesting part is that your story should be engaging. If you read through your narrative essay and you find out that your story is not appealing enough, it could be because you have use the right tips in narrative essay writing.
With the above tips, your narrative essay should allow the readers to relate with the story and draw their own conclusions. Use them and your narrative essays will always be perfect.