Narration Adapted from Patterns for College Writing

What is it, exactly? Narration is a MODE of writing by which the author tells a story by presenting events in an orderly, logical sequence. This sequence is often, but not always, chronological.

It’s a story, so I don’t have to have a thesis, right? WRONG! In college writing, the purpose of a narrative essay is generally to present a sequence of events as support for a thesis. Example: My experiences with dating have convinced me that this ritual should be abandoned completely. Last night, I met for the first time a man with whom I was introduced online. He asked me to pick him up, which I begrudgingly did. Then, instead of dinner, he wanted to go to a casino. Weird! When we got there, he left me in the car and ran inside, coming out a few minutes later with a knife in one hand and a bag of money in the other. He jumped in the car and demanded that I drive away as fast as I could. I spent a night in jail before the officials realized I knew nothing of this man’s plans!

Details, details, details! As with any type of writing, you must have rich, specific details in a narrative if you want it to be convincing (and you do.) In the winter she sewed night after night, endlessly, begging cast-off clothing from relatives, ripping apart coats, dresses, blouses, and trousers to remake them to fit her four daughters and son. Every morning and every evening she milked cows, fed pigs and calves, cared for chickens, picked eggs, cooked meals, washed dishes, scrubbed floors, and tended and loved her children. In the spring she planted a garden once more, dragging pails of water to nourish and sustain the vegetables for the family. In 1936 she lost a baby in her sixth month. -from “My Mother Never Worked” *You can stop and analyze details if necessary.

Sameness=Boredom Vary your sentence structure! JV: She sewed dresses. She milked cows. She fed pigs. Varsity: In the winter she sewed night after night, endlessly…Every morning and every evening she milked cows, fed pigs and claves, cared for chickens.

Maintaining Clear Narrative Order What does that even mean? It means that, however you organize the events of your narrative, it must make sense. If you are writing a straightforward account of something, like a historical event, or summarizing a record of something that happened, you’ll probably want to use chronological order (telling it in the order in which it happened). If you are writing about a personal experience or a fictional narrative, you may want to consider beginning with an event from the middle or end of the story and filling everything else in. This makes use of flashbacks. Remember to choose a narrative order that is most beneficial to your purpose.

Watch your verb tenses! Verb tenses indicate temporal (time) relationships. Narratives are usually written in past tense, but you still need to use varying tense shifts in order to reflect actual time shifts in your narrative. Example: Even though your narrative might be written in past tense, you still use the present tense to discuss literature; however, a flashback to an earlier point in a work of literature necessitates the past tense. – i.e. “When Hamlet’s mother marries his uncle… – “Before their marriage, Hamlet was…

Transitions Use them! They help link the time of events. Examples: First Second Next Then Later MeanwhileimmediatelySoon BeforeEarlier after