Narrative Style

Writing to Narrate for a Purpose

NARRATIVE WRITING

Narrative writing conveys experience, either real or imaginary, and uses time as its deep structure. It can be used for many purposes, such as to inform, instruct, persuade, or entertain.

Let’s Pick Your Brain

Narratives can be written about nearly anything. What type of informative piece is similar in the belief that the smallest detail can make a great story?

WHY DO I NEED TO KNOW HOW TO WRITE A NARRATIVE?!

In English language arts, students produce narratives that take the form of creative fictional stories, memoirs, anecdotes, and autobiographies. Over time, they learn to provide visual details of scenes, objects, or people; to depict specific actions (for example, movements, gestures, postures, and expressions); to use dialogue and interior monologue that provide insight into the narrator’s and characters’ personalities and motives; and to manipulate pace to highlight the significance of events and create tension and suspense.

WHY DO I NEED TO KNOW HOW TO WRITE A NARRATIVE?!

In history/social studies, students write narrative accounts about individuals. They also construct event models of what happened, selecting from their sources only the most relevant information.

In science, students write narrative descriptions of the step-by-step procedures they follow in their investigations so that others can replicate their procedures and (perhaps) reach the same results.

With practice, students expand their repertoire and control of different narrative strategies. This can help you in most of your classes!

Narrative Style(Real vs. Imaginary)

What is Narrative Style!?

Narrative: tells a story that has a beginning, middle, and end. Answers the question, “What happened and

when?” Contains:

Characters Setting Plot Conflict Climax Resolution

What is Narrative Style!?

A narrative is a piece of writing that can be about a real or imagined experience.

Discussion: What are examples of real, non-fiction

narrative writing? What are examples of imaginary

narrative writing?

Real vs. Imaginary

Three narrative types: One is completely real: creative non-

fiction One is completely imaginary: creative

fiction One is blurring the lines with real by

filling in certain aspects with imaginary All three are examples of narrative

style

Real vs. Imaginary

Please choose one of the topics… A near death experience, joy, heartbreak,

religion/faith, friendship, betrayal

You must write two paragraphs based on that topic: 1 paragraph must be a true story. You must tell of a

real-life experience that you can connect to that topic.

1 paragraph will be an imaginary story that you make up about that topic. Create a situation that you are or were involved in concerning that topic.

Share

Effective Narrative Writing

Discussion: What is the purpose of telling stories? Why should you share your

experiences? What can we learn from the lives of

others?

Think about it – Tell a neighbor – Share with class

NARRATE FOR A PURPOSE

Focusing on the narrative essay!

So What Is A Narrative Essay?

An essay based on personal experience

Tells a story

Reveals an insight about the action or people involved (we will refer to this as the epiphany!)

Narrative Essay

Epiphany (noun)- a moment of sudden revelation or insight. It’s basically your “light bulb” moment.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=osHwNAfc3vM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DosHwNAfc3vM

A narrative essay needs to show an insight the writer gained from his/her experience. This is the epiphany!

Narrative Essay—Common Topics

Being exposed to a culture different from your own

A turning point in your life– perhaps a time when you were forced suddenly to grow up or had to reassess your values.

How a challenging/rewarding experience affected you.

Narrative Essay Format

The narrative essay moves the reader towards some insight into the experience the writer had.

These essays typically follow a basic, organizational framework:

Brief Beginning Magic Middles Epiphany Ending

Narrative Essay in 5-paragraph format

Pre-Writing Strategies for Narratives

Listing/Brainstorming: To list words, phrases, or ideas quickly

Free Writing: To write without stopping to worry about spelling, grammar or structure. Trying to write consistently without stopping to “organize” or “structure” the piece

Narrative Leads: These are our journal entries! Many of the things we write about in our journals are excellent pre-writes for a more-detailed narrative.

Narrative Technique

Narrative Techniques

Dialogue Pacing Description Reflection

Narrative Techniques develop experiences, events, and characters.

Dialogue

Dialogue

The conversation between characters in a novel, drama, etc…

Why is dialogue important?

Dialogue

Example of extremely fast dialogue…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiyiZXCtHGc&feature=related

Dialogue Rules Example

  When I was eight, my father dragged me into my bedroom after I lit a folded pile of his shirts on fire. I sat on the edge of the bed, not looking up, my hands folded mannerly in my lap. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I said.“You lit my shirts on fire, boy? Where’d you learn that?”“Daycare.”“What? Daycare? You learned how to light shirts on fire at

daycare?”I froze and looked up to the ceiling, trying to backtrack. I

actually learned how to light matches by watching him light his pipe, but I couldn’t tell him that.

“A kid brought matches one day. I told him matches were bad.”

“I’m calling your daycare.”“No,” I said. Okay, I screamed it, and he scowled at me.“Tell me the truth, lad.”I took a deep breath and let it slide out: “I hate your shirts,

Dad.”

Basic Rules for Dialogue

When characters speak, their exact language should be in quotes, and the reader should know who’s speaking.

Rules: Each speaker gets his or her own paragraph; a return

and indent. This mimics real conversation, indicating pauses.

Attributions (“He said", “She said,” etc..) should be used, but not too much, and varied so they’re not repetitious; they can be used at the start of quotes, in the middle, or at the end. Examples?

Always use a comma after attribution (She said,) when introducing a quote.

Peer Discussion Questions

1. The death penalty is sometimes justified.

2. Parents are the best teachers.

3. It is better to grow up in the countryside rather than a big city.

4. Learning about the past has no value for us living in the present.

5. Hunting animals is inhumane.

6. Summer is the best season.

Dialogue Activity

Turn to your neighbor and have a debate about one of these questions. What did you talk about? Did you agree or disagree with what was said?

Together re-tell the conversation using correct dialogue technique (using at least 3 statements).

Example:

When Mr. Timmer asked us whether or not it was better to grow up in the country or in the city I had an interesting discussion with Blake.

“I think the country is the way to go,” said Blake.

“What!? You’re crazy, I’mma city boy at heart,” I replied.

“I’d really miss seeing' the stars bright at night,” he said.

“The skyline’s brighter than any night sky Blake, you should see for yourself.”

And so on…

Pacing

Pacing

Pacing refers to how quickly you move through your story.

Pacing means that the writer adjusts the speed of the pace to match the detail they want to add or keep out. Sometimes slowing the pace by putting more

detail in, but sometimes hurrying over details.

MAGNIFYING THE MOMENT- this is the term we will use when we want to slow the pace

Why would you want to add in detail or hurry over it?

Fast pace!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxNHZ_7LcYU

This I Believe

Article: The Art of Being a Neighbor

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102961694

Audio

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=102961694&m=103008506

Annotate for Pacing

Identify places in the article you think were SLOWLY paced and which you think have a FAST pace

Write down any new vocabulary words.

Pacing

A good way to know where to put in details and where to leave them out is to think of a narrative as consisting of episodes (smaller scenes that are strung together to make up a longer story).

If you divide your story into a few short episodes, then you want suggestive detail within the episodes, but you want to hurry over the transitions between them.

Transitions

words used to show movement from one idea to the next.

Pacing

Think of episodes as pearls on a string. Make the pearls full orbed and keep the string solid and steady.

The reader dwells in each episodes, but how long do you want them to stay there?

The string between the pearls represents really good transitions.

Pacing Activity

With a partner, create a sequence of 4 events you want to write about. Can be real or imaginary but the sequence has to make sense and be connected. Ex. Title: Basketball Tryouts

1. Prepare and train 2. Talk with friends about who you

think will make the team 3. Actual tryout 4. Either made it or not

Pacing Activity

On a sheet of paper, represent the 4 events with a string of pearls (or basketballs if you prefer).

The size of the pearl will represent how much time you want to spend on that part of your narrative. Larger pearls will be events that need the most

focus, smaller will be events that you won’t spend much time on.

Add some detail to your description in each pearl (an amount that suits its size/importance)

On the string between your pearls write transition statements. How will your reader get from one pearl to the next and understand what’s going on.

Pacing Activity

Event 1 E2Event 3

E4

Transitions

Description

Description

The extent to which you describe the characters and events in your narrative.

We’ve discussed before how important being descriptive is.

Refresher: What does description add to a narrative?

Description

Some description can be inferred. You could give your audience some

information and let them assume the rest. Examples?

Other situations call for description that is very specific. Examples?

DESCRIPTION CREATES MENTAL PICTURES!

Why are mental pictures important?

Description Activity

Pick a family member that you can write about with A LOT OF DESCRIPTION. I wrote about my grandparents and their

downfalls. Yours can be positive or negative but make it honest.

Tell me about how they look, what they’re like, and how you feel towards them.

Be creative with it and more poetic than straightforward!

Reflection

Reflection

Reflection is a combination of 2 things:

1. A summary of the experience

2. The significance of the experience, also known as the ________.

Take the two statements above and mold them into one, that is your reflection.

Which paragraph is your reflection?

Reflecting paragraph

By early evening the firefighters had gone, but the people were still standing around on the sidewalk talking about the fire. I heard one man say something about squirrels chewing on telephone wires or something. Maybe tomorrow things would get back to normal, but I would never be the same. I now had a dream. I wanted to be a firefighter. I knew that, someday, I wanted to be the person opening a hydrant to help put out a fire.

Charlie Brown Christmas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DKh0bQsE60&feature=fvst

Take a minutes to read over the Top 10 Lessons Learned from Charlie Brown worksheet.

On the following slide, there are some guiding questions to help you respond to the lessons Charlie Brown learned.

You must write at least 1- well developed paragraph when responding to 2 of the 10 prompts. That’s a total of at least 2 paragraphs (more for EC).

Remember to use DESCRIPTION!

10 Lessons Learned from Charlie Brown

1. It’s okay to be afraid. What are some of your fears? Which one, if any, is holding you back?2. Persistence wins out. Tell about a time that you refused to give up.3. It’s what you think of yourself that matter most. What do you think about yourself at this very moment?4. Sometimes you need to talk. Who do you turn to when you need to talk? Do you have a special place that you like to go?5. Sometimes everyone needs to listen. What makes you a good listener?6. Do what you love to do. What do you love to do?7. It’s important to have friends that care. Who are the friends that you know care about you?8. Big dreams lead to big things. What are your two biggest dreams?9. Action creates reality. Tell about a time that you took action and it paid off.10. Laugh every day. What three things make you laugh?

Personal Study Guide for Quiz!

Know the following terms:

1. Paragraph

2. Main idea

3. Topic sentence

4. Supporting Sentence

5. Narrative

6. Dialogue

7. Pacing

8. Description

9. Reflection

10.Transition

Know the four narrative techniques discussed (dialogue, pacing, description, and reflection)