Republic of Iraq

Ministry of Higher Education and

Scientific Research

University of Thi-Qar

College of Education for

Humanities

Department of English language

Second stage / morning studies
Section : A
Written by

‫حسين عبد علي وطن‬

Asst. Prof. Kamal Al-Tamimy

date: 2020-7-2

Subject: Narrative Paragraph

L
 Introduction

The definition of narrative is a piece of writing that tells a story,

and it is one of four classical rhetorical modes or ways that writers
use to present information. The others include
an exposition, which explains and analyzes an idea or set of ideas;
an argument, which attempts to persuade the reader to a
particular point of view; and a description, a written form of a
visual experience

Key Takeaways: Narrative Definition

 A narrative is a form of writing that tells a story. 
 Narratives can be essays, fairy tales, movies, and jokes. 
 Narratives have five elements: plot, setting, character,
conflict, and theme. 
 Writers use narrator style, chronological order, a point of
 view, and other strategies to tell a story.

Narrative Elements
Every narrative has five elements that define and shape the
narrative: plot, setting, character, conflict, and theme. These
elements are rarely stated in a story; they are revealed to the
readers in the story in subtle or not-so-subtle ways, but the writer
needs to understand the elements to assemble her story. Here's an
example from "The Martian," a novel by Andy Weir that was made
into a film:

 The plot is the thread of events that occur in a story. Weir's

plot is about a man who gets accidentally abandoned on the
surface of Mars.
 The setting is the location of the events in time and place.
"The Martian" is set on Mars in the not-too-distant future.
 The characters are the people in the story who drive the plot,
are impacted by the plot, or may even be bystanders to the
plot. The characters in "The Martian" include Mark Watney,
his shipmates, the people at NASA resolving the issue, and
even his parents who are only mentioned in the story but still
are impacted by the situation and in turn impact Mark's
decisions.
 The conflict is the problem that is being resolved. Plots need
a moment of tension, which involves some difficulty that
requires resolution. The conflict in "The Martian" is that
Watney needs to figure out how to survive and eventually
leave the planet's surface.
 Most important and least explicit is the theme. What is the
moral of the story? What does the writer intend the reader to
understand? There are arguably several themes in "The
Martian": the ability of humans to overcome problems, the
stodginess of bureaucrats, the willingness of scientists to
overcome political differences, the dangers of space travel,
and the power of flexibility as a scientific method.

Setting Tone and Mood

In addition to structural elements, narratives have several styles
that help move the plot along or serve to involve the reader.
Writers define space and time in a descriptive narrative, and how
they choose to define those characteristics can convey a specific
mood or tone.

For example, chronological choices can affect the reader's

impressions. Past events always occur in strict chronological
order, but writers can choose to mix that up, show events out of
sequence, or the same event several times experienced by
different characters or described by different narrators. In Gabriel
García Márquez's novel "Chronicle of a Death Foretold," the same
few hours are experienced in sequence from the viewpoint of
several different characters. García Márquez uses that to illustrate
the peculiar almost magical inability of the townspeople to stop a
murder they know is going to happen.

The choice of a narrator is another way that writers set the tone of
a piece. Is the narrator someone who experienced the events as a
participant, or one who witnessed the events but wasn't an active
participant? Is that narrator an omniscient undefined person who
knows everything about the plot including its ending, or is he
confused and uncertain about the events underway? Is the
narrator a reliable witness or lying to themselves or the reader? In
the novel "Gone Girl," by Gillian Flynn, the reader is forced to
constantly revise her opinion as to the honesty and guilt of the
husband Nick and his missing wife. In "Lolita" by Vladimir
Nabokov, the narrator is Humbert Humbert, a pedophile who
constantly justifies his actions despite the damage that Nabokov
illustrates he's doing.

Point of View
Establishing a point of view for a narrator allows the writer to
filter the events through a particular character. The most common
point of view in fiction is the omniscient (all-knowing) narrator
who has access to all the thoughts and experiences of each of her
characters. Omniscient narrators are almost always written in the
third person and do not usually have a role in the storyline. The
Harry Potter novels, for example, are all written in third person;
that narrator knows everything about everybody but is unknown
to us.

The other extreme is a story with a first-person point of view in

which the narrator is a character within that story, relating events
as they see them and with no visibility into other character
motivations. Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" is an example of this:
Jane relates her experiences of the mysterious Mr. Rochester to us
directly, not revealing the full explanation until "Reader, I
married him."

Points of view can also be effectively shifted throughout a piece—

in her novel "Keys to the Street," Ruth Rendell used limited third-
person narratives from the point of view of five different
characters, enabling the reader to assemble a coherent whole out
of what first appears to be unrelated stories. 

Other Strategies
Writers also use the grammatical strategies of tense (past,
present, future), person (first person, second person, third
person), number (singular, plural) and voice (active, passive).
Writing in the present tense is unsettling—the narrators have no
idea what will happen next—while past tense can build in some
foreshadowing. Many recent novels use the present tense,
including "The Martian." A writer sometimes personalizes the
narrator of a story as a specific person for a specific purpose: The
narrator can only see and report on what happens to him or her.
In "Moby Dick," the entire story is told by the narrator Ishmael,
who relates the tragedy of the mad Captain Ahab, and is situated
as the moral center.
How to Write a Narrative Paragraph

Part 1

Introducing Your Story

1- Plan to tell your narrative from the first or third person

perspective. Use "I," "he," "she," "it," or "they" as the subject to
tell your story. While narrative paragraphs are most often told
from the first person perspective—relating a story that happened
to you—they can also be told from a third person perspective.
 You could relate something that happened to someone else, even
a fictional person.

2- Use a consistent tense. Refer to the prompt or guidelines for the

assignment, if applicable, to determine which tense you should
use. If there are none, you can choose either past or present
tense. Just be sure to use 1 tense consistently throughout the
entire paragraph, and avoid switching between tenses.
 The exception would be if you were switching between the
current discussion of the story’s meaning (in present tense) and
the narrative of the story’s events (past tense).

3- Create an engaging topic sentence. Draw the reader into

your narrative paragraph by creating excitement or suspense with
your opening sentence. This sentence should introduce the
purpose of the paragraph—the story—and make the reader want
to read further.
  A good first-person topic sentence might be, “I’ll never forget the
time I picked out my new puppy.” If you were using third person,
the same topic sentence would be written, “He would never
forget the time he picked out his new puppy.”

4- Present any major characters involved in the

story. Introduce any people who will play an important role in the
story so the reader understands who is a part of the narrative.
You don’t need to introduce every character you will talk about,
but it’s helpful to introduce people who advance the action.[2]
 For the first-person example about picking out a new puppy, you
might continue, “My mom drove me to the breeder, which was
45 minutes away.”

5- Set the scene of the story. Provide a setting for your story

and orient your reader to the time your story happens. This helps
them place themselves in the narrator’s shoes and understand
their state of mind for the events.
 You might say: “I was 11, so the car ride seemed like an eternity.
We lived in Wisconsin at the time, and the breeder was in
Chicago.”
 All background information after the topic sentence, such as
other characters and where the story takes place, should be
approximately 1-4 sentences long.

6- Plan to write a narrative paragraph of at least 9

sentences. Write 1 topic sentence, 1-4 sentences of background
information, 2-4 sentences to start the story, 3-5 sentences to
present the conflict, 1-3 sentences to resolve the conflict, and 1-2
sentences to provide a conclusion.
  While the length of your paragraph will vary based on the
content, a standard 5-sentence paragraph likely will not provide
enough detail to tell a complete
narrative.

Part 2

Providing Narrative Details

1- Present the story chronologically from its beginning. Start the

story by describing the problem or idea that kicks off the action. It
could be anything from a telephone call to a desire for some milk.
This start to the story should be 1-4 sentences.[3]
 You could say, ”When we arrived at the breeder, I felt
dismayed. I didn’t see any puppies at all.”
2- Relate the central conflict of the story. Add narrative detail
to explain what happens next in the story. Over 3-5 sentences,
this should rise to a central point of drama or conflict.[4]
 You might continue, ”The breeder whistled. I was relieved when
the puppies bounded around a corner and into the entryway. I
saw a puppy in my favorite color—white—with two black spots.
‘Mom, can we keep him?’ I asked hopefully. She paused for a
minute, seeming to reconsider getting a puppy at all.”
3- Provide resolution to the story. Detail for the reader how the
story ends. In a good story, often this ending will be a surprise
twist or simply a happy moment. If there were any special
consequences for the narrator, relate those as well.[5]
  You could end, “Then, mom smiled. ‘Only if we can name him
Oreo.’ I hugged her, and Oreo gave me a lick of approval.”
 Resolution could be as brief as 1 sentence or as many as 3.

Part 3

Concluding Your Story and Proofing Your Paragraph

1- End the story with a conclusion that reflects on the

event. Use your conclusion to give an opinion regarding the story.
It might give insight into how the event affects the narrator
(perhaps you) in the present day or how it affected choices the
narrator made since that event. Typically this is 1-2 sentences
long.[6]
 Regarding the puppy story, you might say, ”It was the happiest
day of my life.”
 The nature of your conclusion will depend greatly on the tone
and content of your story as well as the perspective the story is
told from

2- Proofread your paragraph for spelling and grammar

issues. Look over your paragraph to make sure it is readable and
doesn’t have typos or grammar mistakes. Print out a hard copy of
your paragraph rather than trying to edit it on the computer.[7]
  Reading your story out loud is a great way to listen for grammar
problems and other spots that don’t quite flow.
 Don’t rely on spell-check, as it won’t catch everything!

3- Reread your paragraph to make sure the story stands on

its own. Give your paragraph a final read to make sure the story
makes sense. If someone walked up to you and told you this
story, would you need additional information? If so, provide any
additional details necessary to comprehend the story easily.[8].

Sources

1- Thought co.
https://www.thoughtco.com/narrative-composition-term-169141

2- Wikihow
https://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Narrative-Paragrap