Tell Me a Story! The Narrative ParagraphEnglish 050

What is Narration?

Narration is a fancy way of saying storytelling.

You tell stories all of the time, whether or not you realize it.

Discussing your bad date with your friend.

Telling how the game went to your coworker.

Mentioning the traffic jam you experienced on your way to school.

It’s a powerful way of getting whatever message you have across to your listener.

Narration

Narration is often based on personal experience. Great examples of narration include:

The Diary of Anne Frank (the book, not the movie), and in fact any autobiography

Scrubs (the TV series, which has the main character narrating the action to give it context)

Let’s read the selection on Page 107 of Mosaics, which is taken from the autobiography Growing Up by Russell Baker (a now-retired newspaper columnist for The New York Times). In this he describes how he first learned to read.

Preparing to Write a Narrative Paragraph

Remember how way back in early September we talked about how reading critically can help with writing? You’ll want to read a few examples of narration in our book and in our handouts.

Then read them again and write down a few questions to yourself. Who was the story about? What was it about? When and where did it take place? What’s the overall message of the paragraph? What’s the dominant impression? What were some of the descriptive details? How was it organized?

Preparing to Write a Narrative Paragraph

Now that we’ve read a few examples, let’s think about doing some prewriting.

Let’s use the following prompt as an example: Describe one key event in your life that taught you a major lesson or affected your life in some way.

It doesn’t have to be anything especially dramatic. It could be the first time you felt betrayed by a friend and how that changed you. It could be the time you met your best friend or significant other.

Guidelines for Writing a Narration Paragraph

The whole idea for this paragraph is to tell a story with a point.

Think of it this way: Your friend is telling you a long, drawn-out story, and ultimately you start to get bored. You may interject at this moment “Cut to the chase,” “OMG what are you talking about,” “Why are you telling me this again?” or even “So what?”

Essentially, your story needs to have a “so what.”

Use the Reporter’s Formula to Develop Your Ideas

Remember the “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “where” and “how” formula we discussed a few weeks back? It will come in handy for this.

Say your topic is when I learned to read. We’ll borrow my memory for this exercise.

Who: Me, my mother, my brother, and his friend John

What: The moment I remember learning to read

When: Sometime in the Middle Ages (aka, the early 1970s)

Use the Reporter’s Formula to Develop Your Ideas

When I learned to read. Who: Me; my mother; my brother and his friend John (both around age 10 or so, and very bright)

What: The moment I remember learning to read

When: Sometime in the Middle Ages (aka, the early 1970s)

Where: The family room of my childhood home, where I was using a chalkboard with magnetic alphabet set.

Why: I was struggling to understand how to make out words using letters.

How: My brother and his friend John went over it with me several times until I put it all together.

Vivid and Descriptive Details

Child’s chalkboard and brightly colored magnetic alphabet set

Sun streaming brightly through the patio door

Rooms with orange shag carpeting and dark wood paneled family room; avocado green kitchen and avocado green appliances with loud patterned tile floors (what can I say, it was the 1970s)

Small girl (probably wearing plaid pants and a light sweater), with big curious brown eyes and dark bangs

Organize Your Events

Little girl struggling to understand how to put together words and understand what they mean

Brother and friend entering the house after school

Mother asking brother and friend to help explain it because I’m struggling (and she was probably cooking or something)

Brother and friend go over a few examples and help me to understand

I understand it and learning to read opens a whole new world

Ready, Set, Write!

Remember to have a solid topic sentence that introduces the story and gives the reader an idea of what the paragraph is going to be about.

Remember to write at least three or more sentences that tie back to the topic sentence.

Remember to conclude the paragraph and tie the last sentence back to the first.

Topic Sentence

Here’s a few sample topic sentences. “The day I learned to read was the day I acquired that strange power that grownups had: namely, the ability to look at strange symbols and understand their meaning.”

“I’ll never forget the day I learned to read, because it changed my life in more ways than one.”

“It would be a long time before I realized that the day I learned to read was one of the most important days of my life.”

These sentences are written differently, but all tell the reader what my paragraph is going to be about.

Sentences in Paragraphs

So we have a few options for a topic sentence. Let’s write a few sentences that describe the action for the body of the paragraph. Remember, you don’t have to write them in order. But they have to be in order in your finished product.

Sentence 2: I was very little, so the memory is foggy, but I have a picture in my mind of my small self, with long dark hair, big curious brown eyes and bangs that always seemed to be in my face, sitting on the family room rug in front of my blackboard, and struggling to figure out how letters became words.

Note: This is a really long sentence. It might require some editing. But note that it has enough punctuation that it is fairly easy to read. One way to fix the length is to break it up into separate paragraphs.

Sentences in Paragraphs

Sentence 3: It was still warm out but I was in school in the mornings, so it must have been in the early fall.

Sentence 4: I was moving letters around on the blackboard and probably asking my mother lots of questions.

Sentence 5: My brother Paul and his friend John came home from school sometime during these moments.

Sentence 6: My mother, who probably had to start making dinner, asked them to help me.

Sentences in Paragraphs

Sentence 7: My brother Paul, who was the oldest, was always impatient about explaining things, and at first he was annoyed that I wasn’t understanding it.

Sentence 8: But he and John, in a manner I don’t remember now, tried explaining the concept of reading and putting together letters into words several different ways.

Sentence 9: Suddenly it clicked. I don’t remember how exactly, but I remember being relieved that I understood it, and also remember Paul and John being pleased with me.

Sentence 10: I also remember telling my mother about it, who was also happy.

Concluding Sentence

I’ve got a few topic sentence options, and I’ve put together a few sample sentences. Now it is time to conclude the paragraph.

I have to think about the note on which I want to end the paragraph. I also need to consider what my message is. It’s all very nice that I learned how to read. The question here is: So what?

Concluding Sentence

“It might seem like a small accomplishment now, but learning to read turned into a lifelong love of the written word, and led to my current love of teaching it.”

“How funny when I think back now that this seemingly insignificant event altered the course of my life and led me into the classroom.”

“While reading for me is now an everyday occurrence, no words will ever be as sweet as those first words that I read and understood.”

The Whole ProductNow it’s time to put it all together. I’ve made a few choices about my topic sentence and concluding sentence, but there’s still time to revise it.

I’ll never forget the day I learned to read, because it changed my life in more ways than one. I was very little, so the memory is foggy, but I have a picture in my mind of my small self, with long dark hair, big curious brown eyes and bangs that always seemed to be in my face, sitting on the family room rug in front of my blackboard, and struggling to figure out how letters became words. It was still warm out but I was in school in the mornings, so it must have been in the early fall. I was moving letters around on the blackboard and probably asking my mother lots of questions. My brother Paul and his friend John came home from school sometime during these moments. My mother, who probably had to start making dinner, asked them to help me. My brother Paul, who was the oldest, was always impatient about explaining things, and at first he was annoyed that I wasn’t understanding it. But he and John, in a manner I don’t remember now, tried explaining the concept of reading and putting together letters into words several different ways. Suddenly it clicked. I don’t remember how exactly, but I remember being relieved that I understood it, and also remember Paul and John being pleased with me. I also remember telling my mother about it, who was also happy. It might seem like a small accomplishment now, but learning to read turned into a lifelong love of the written word, and led to my current love of teaching it.

Revising Your ParagraphJust because we have a paragraph in place doesn’t mean you are finished. There’s still more work to be done. Remember our checklist from the descriptive paragraph?

Topic sentence.Does it convey the paragraph’s controlling idea?

Does it appear as the first or last (remember we’re doing last for this class) sentence?

DevelopmentDoes the paragraph contain specific enough details that support the topic sentence?

Does it include enough details that it explains the topic sentence?

Does the paragraph answer all of the journalist’s questions of who, what, where, when, how and why

Revising Your Paragraph

UnityDo all of the sentences in the paragraph support the topic sentence?

OrganizationIs the paragraph organized logically?

What method of organization was used?

CoherenceDo the sentences move smoothly and logically from one to the next?

Editing Checklist

SentencesDoes each sentence have a main subject and a verb?

Are there any sentence fragments?

Subject and Verb Agreement, Pronoun Agreement, and Modifier Errors

We haven’t gone over these yet, but keep these terms in mind because we’ll be going over them shortly

PunctuationWe still have more to learn on this, but are there any comma splices?

Editing Checklist

MechanicsAre words capitalized properly?

Word Choice and SpellingAre you using words properly? And are they spelled correct? Remember, when in doubt-look it up!

With All of That in Mind…The Paragraph

Let’s read this again and think if there are any mistakes and anything we want to change. It’s okay if there aren’t. But all pieces of writing can use a critical eye. Also, any details we want to add?

I’ll never forget the day I learned to read, because it changed my life in more ways than one. I was very little, so the memory is foggy, but I have a picture in my mind of my small self, with long dark hair, big curious brown eyes and bangs that always seemed to be in my face, sitting on the family room rug in front of my blackboard, and struggling to figure out how letters became words. It was still warm out but I was in school in the mornings, so it must have been in the early fall. I was moving letters around on the blackboard and probably asking my mother lots of questions. My brother Paul and his friend John came home from school sometime during these moments. My mother, who probably had to start making dinner, asked them to help me. My brother Paul, who was the oldest, was always impatient about explaining things, and at first he was annoyed that I wasn’t understanding it. But he and John, in a manner I don’t remember now, tried explaining the concept of reading and putting together letters into words several different ways. Suddenly it clicked. I don’t remember how exactly, but I remember being relieved that I understood it, and also remember Paul and John being pleased with me. I also remember telling my mother about it, who was also happy. It might seem like a small accomplishment now, but learning to read turned into a lifelong love of the written word, and led to my current love of teaching it.

The End

Well, the end for this PowerPoint!

Now let’s do some work together.