17 Narrative Essay Pt. II
Kristin D Shelby
What is a Narrative Essay
A narrative essay is a story written about a personal experience. Writing a narrative essay provides an opportunity to get to know and understand yourself better. One of the best ways to reveal who you are is to write about how you became aware of something, gained a new way of seeing the world, a new insight.
Conventional Rules and Rules of Thumb
In the narrative essay, you are the storyteller, so use conventional rules, such as plot, setting, character development, and conflict. The introduction paragraph should grab the reader’s attention, and most of the time it should contain the thesis statement. Your body paragraphs should always support the thesis with examples in the form of anecdotes. One way to achieve this is to bring the characters to life with dialogue. An effective way of writing dialogue is to start a new line with each new person speaking. To ensure that your narrative is rich and engaging use detail when describing situations, settings, people and personal feelings.
Based on the assignments, you may write your narrative essay as an observation or something that changed you. Either way, make sure that it is personal enough for you to be descriptive and general enough to apply to your audience.
Unlike a conventional academic essay, a personal narrative is about your own experiences or feelings. Still, a personal narrative contains a “thesis,” which really just means the main point you are trying to communicate. Because a personal narrative is more artistic than a regular essay, you don’t need a one-sentence thesis that neatly summarizes your argument. Instead, you can get creative and write a thesis that is more suggestive or ambiguous.
Main Point
You can begin a personal narrative by simply stating the main point of your piece. If, for instance, your narrative is about a difficult experience during your childhood, start with something like, “Childhood experiences stay with us all our lives, even the bad ones.” Beginning your thesis with the main point clues your reader immediately into what you will be talking about. Be clear, and expand on your main point in the sentences that follow.
Mid-Thought
Sometimes the best personal narrative thesis begins in the middle of a thought. This places the reader right in the middle of the action and can be a more gripping way to begin a thesis. For example, in a personal narrative about your first day of kindergarten, begin with something like, “Why do I still remember that day after all these years?” Instead of telling your reader the lesson you will try to impart, you are setting up an anecdote by showing its effect in the present.
Chronologically
Personal narratives are stories, so it’s entirely acceptable to begin your thesis by launching right into the story from the beginning. One way to do this is to adopt the present tense while narrating the past and setting the scene. By illustrating the past as if it is happening now, you make your reader feel the immediacy of the event. For instance, your thesis might begin, “It is raining out. I see flashing lights and loud noises. All of a sudden, I realize it’s an ambulance.”
Mini-Anecdote
Although your personal narrative is a story about yourself, your thesis can begin with a short anecdote that pertains to your own story. This way, you clue your reader into the theme before you even get to your own narrative. For a personal narrative about drug abuse, for instance, your thesis could be about someone you knew who struggled with a similar problem for years. In showing how he dealt the the issue, you can compare or contrast it to your own narrative.