True Narrative Essay

True Narrative Essay
• A true narrative essay is a story based

on actual events. It might be an
incident that you have experienced or
observed. The purpose is to express a
point or observation.
When you are writing a narrative essay,
“you are telling a story”.
Narrative essays are told from a defined
author’s point of view, so there is a feeling as
well as specific and often sensory details
provided to get the reader involved in the
elements and sequence of the story.
Three Required Elements of NE
• Characters – they are an important part of a
narrative essay. Even if the essay is
autobiographical in nature, the person writing the
essay is a character involving other characters
who act, behave and do like all the other
characters presented in stories and novels.
• Theme or Motif – they are presented in its thesis
statement, ( “the heart of the essay” – a statement
that occurs at the end of the introduction, after the
background information on the topic).
Characteristics f a Thesis Statement
• It must have evidences

• It should be interesting
• It should be limited
• It should be manageable
• It should be reachable
Example:
• Bad Thesis Statement – “Social Media is proving a good
marketing tool.”
• Good Thesis Statement – Social Media is proving to be,
not only a better marketing tool, but also a source of
advertisement for short and medium enterprises
intending to expand their consumer base.
• Dialogue – is used to capture the conversation
between characters. In a narrative essay, it is the
third important element, without which the
characters lose their worth and liveliness.
How to Write Narrative Essays
• Beginning – the beginning of your narrative should either tell the reader
or allude to the experience you will be describing and how you feel
about it.
• Middle – the middle of your narrative should tell the event/s in detail.
Tell the story as it happened, in chronological order, and use as much
detail and emotion as you can. It should also include the most significant
event or the climax of your narrative.
• End – the end of your narrative should include more details about how
your experience affected you. It also should provide a resolution and
sum up the point of your story.
How to Write True Narrative Essay
• Generally written in the 1st POV, however, 3rd POV
can also be used.
• It relies on concrete, sensory details to convey
points.
• Includes story conventions (plot, setting,
characters, climax and ending.
Example of Narrative Essay
“Annie, over 6 feet tall, big-boned, decided that she would not go to
work as a domestic and leave her “precious child” to anyone else’s
care. There was no possibility that she would be hired at the town’s
cotton gin or lumber mill, but maybe there was a way to make the
two factories work for her. In her words, “I looked up the road I was
going and back the way I come, and since I wasn’t satisfied, I
decided to step off the road and cut me a new path.” she told herself
that she wasn’t a fancy cook but that she could “mix groceries well
enough to scare hungry away and keep from starving man”.
‘New Directions’ by Maya Angelou

Personal/Reflection
Essay
• It can be based on person’s
experience that results in a lesson
that you learn or can be a personal
opinion about a topic or issue that is
important to you.
How to Write Personal/Reflection Essays
Brookfield, 1987
Reflective Thinking Process
a) Before you can assess the words and ideas of
others, you need to pause and identify and examine
your own thoughts.
b) Check your schema about the topic you are
exploring. It involves considering how and why you
think the way you do.
c)The examination of your beliefs, values,
attitudes and assumptions forms the foundation of
your understanding.
d) You should recognize that you bring valuable

knowledge to every experience and recognize and clarify
the important connections between what you already
know and what you are learning.

Narrative Essay Personal Essay
1. Reflections It moves outward, examining how It focuses on inward reflection about
and specific people, places and ideas oneself, which includes significant
Lessons have influenced the way you view personal growth you made and what
the world. you still need to work on.
2. Emphasis It is built around the story of a It incorporates only the most significant
on Story particular experience, making use of details, placing a stronger emphasis on
the elements of setting, reflective elements.
characterization, plot and
description to recreate one’s
experience for readers
3. Actions It includes detailed descriptions of It focuses on personal reflections

other people’s behaviors. wherein the decisions you made and
how you responded to a situation can be
an evidence as you evaluate that
situation effects on your life.
4. Purpose Written for self – expression and Used as mechanism to evaluate one’s
entertainment. character and opinion about things.
Activity:
MIDTERM: Book Report
• Diorama (“through that which is seen”) – in modern usage is a 3D full-size or
miniature model.

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True Narrative Essay

• A true narrative essay is a story based

• It must have evidences

‘New Directions’ by Maya Angelou

d) You should recognize that you bring valuable

3. Actions It includes detailed descriptions of It focuses on personal reflections

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