The Narrative Essay The narrative essay is simply a complete account of an incident or incidents contained in one cohesive essay. The narrative essay is useful when writing an incident report, such as an automobile accident or a criminal action. By far, one of the best uses of the narrative is when introducing the thesis for a longer work, i.e. a research paper. Your audience for this essay is your fellow classmates and the teacher.
Assignment
Write a narrative essay, the purpose of which is the serve as evidence for the position you have taken on an issue. The issue in the sample essay is how the writer lost his teeth. The essay must be a minimum of 380 words and no more than 400 words. You will superscript the number of the comma rule that justifies it over each comma. When you turn in your final draft, you must turn in a minimum 100-word, process paragraph expressing what you learned as a result of this assignment.
Learning Objectives
• To format documents correctly in accordance with MLA;
• To understand the structure of a narrative paragraph;
• To understand your own unique voice (syntax and tone);
• To eliminate sentence fragments, run-ons, and comma splices;
• To eliminate point of view errors;
• To eliminate verb tense errors;
• To eliminate punctuation errors – commas;
• To have fun.
The Narrative Structure A narrative is a story, and like a story has a definite underlying structure. The parts of a narrative are the situation, conflict, struggle, outcome, and meaning. The situation informs the audience of when the story takes place and what is happening and who is involved at the beginning of the story. The conflict informs the audience of the tension that makes the story worth telling. All stories involve some sort of conflict. Following the explication of the conflict is the struggle which informs the audience of the steps taken to resolve the conflict. The outcome tells what happened after the struggle. Finally, the meaning suggests the what is learned as a consequence of critically looking at the outcome. The parts within a narrative paragraph and a narrative essay are connected with transitional words and phrases. Since stories take place during a segment of time, transitional words, such as after, as, before, next, during, later, meanwhile, then, and when are used to connect the parts of the narrative paragraph and essay. [See the attached list of transition.] Another important aspect of the narrative is consistent verb tense. The tense of the major verbs must remain constant. This means that if the story occurred in the past, the verbs must be in their past tense form. If you switch between past tense and present tense while telling a story, it can be confusing for the audience. Also, of equal importance for the effectiveness of a story is the point of view from which the story is told. This assignment requires the use of first person point of view. In a first person point of view narrative, the storyteller is involved in the action; for example, I hit the man in the mouth when he insulted my mother. Pronouns such as I, me, my, we, and us informs the reader that the person telling the story is directly involved. One of the pitfalls in maintaining consistent point of view is the use of the word you which is second person point of view, interjected in a first person narrative. To avoid this pitfall, pay careful attention to you when proofreading your draft. Finally, the narrative paragraph can be expanded into a narrative essay simply by expanding the different parts into separate paragraphs. This is done by stretching, so to speak, the description in the parts. For example the situation in the sample paragraph is stated in the first three sentences – When I was five years old, I had an accident that would frame my whole life. My family lived in a neighborhood called the Fair View Homes, a government housing project where the accident happened. The floors of the apartments were polished concrete as slippery as a sheet of ice when wet. The expansion would supply more details about the narrator when he was five years old, about the Fair View Homes, and about the floors.
Required Vocabulary for Narrative Paragraph
1. MLA – The Modern Language Association establishes the rules that govern all college writing.
2. Syntax – It is the arrangement of words in a sentence.
3. Diction – It is the writer’s choice of words.
4. Sentence fragment – It is an incomplete thought expressed like a sentence.
5. Paradigm – It is a pattern of thinking.
6. Comma splice – It is the use of a comma by itself to join two complete sentences.
7. Situation – It informs the reader of the who, what, where, and when of a situation.
8. Conflict – It expresses the tension in the narrative, story.
9. Struggle – It expresses how the conflict is or is not resolved.
10. Outcome – It is the result of the struggle.
11. Meaning – It is what is learned as a consequence of the four previous parts of the paragraph.
Common Transitions Transitions are vitally important to make an essay flow smoothly from one subject to another within and between paragraphs. The lack of effective transitions will result in a choppy, bullet-like essay. To ensure the effectiveness of your essay, use the following transitions.

To show addition -- and, also, besides, further, furthermore, in addition, moreover, next, too, first, second
To give examples -- for example, for instance, to illustrate, in fact, specifically
To compare -- also, in the same manner, similarly, likewise
To contrast -- but, however on the other hand, in contrast, nevertheless, still, even though, on the contrary, yet, although
To summarize or conclude -- in other words, in short, in summary, in conclusion, to sum up, that is, therefore
To show time -- after, as, before, next, during, later, finally, meanwhile, then, when, while, immediately
To show place or direction -- above, below, beyond, farther on, nearby, opposite, close, to the left
To indicate a logical relationship -- if, so, therefore, consequently, thus, as a result, for this reason, since
Outline

Joseph Sample

Mr. Byars
English 1300-000

8 April 2013

I. Situation

A. The past B. Joe C. Xavier, his brother D. Fairview Homes
II. Conflict: Teeth knocked out
III. Struggle A. First time teeth knocked out and replaced B. Second time teeth knocked out and replaced C. Third time teeth knocked out and replaced
I. Outcome: Became protective of teeth
II. Meaning A. Take care of dental work B. Teeth are expensive
First Person Point of View When I was five years old,3 I had an accident that would frame my whole life. It all began when my family lived in a neighborhood called the Fair View Homes,7 a government housing project where the first accident happened. Unlike the carpeted home I live in today,3 the floors of the apartments were polished concrete as slippery as a sheet of ice when wet. If I was wearing socks,3 I could get a running start and slide ten feet. One day while my older brother,6 Xavier,6and I were playing football in the house,3 I slipped and fell head first on the concrete floor. More precisely,6 I fell teeth first. My two front teeth absorbed the force of the fall and were knocked out. Blood was all over the place,1 and I screamed with pain. Eventually,6 my permanent teeth filled the gap. My permanent teeth turned out to be temporary. Years later when I was in the seventh grade,3 my front teeth were victimized again. This time,3 I was on my way home from school. While playing catch with me,3 a friend accidentally hit me in the mouth with a Roma Rocket Wine bottle. As the blood from my gums and split lip soaked through my handkerchief,3 Will,6 my friend,6 asked,4 “Does it hurt?” Certainly it did,1 but my teeth were forcefully removed again some years later when I was in the Army. I lost the bridge to a knee in the mouth during a basketball game. The military dentist filled the gap in my mouth with another permanent bridge. Following anther basketball game accident, the permanent bridge was replaced with a removable one,1 but it too has been broken numerous times. After many years of teeth calamities,3 I am more protective of my dental work. Each night before I go to bed,3 I take out my front teeth and put them in a glass of water. With my dental luck,3 I’m afraid I could lose my teeth in a fight in a horrible nightmare. When I recalled all the incidents with my teeth,3 I was reminded of an old saying. “You don’t know what you have until you lose it.” My teeth can tell you it’s true. Also,3 I found out that the price of teeth got more expensive with each accident.
Third Person Point of View When Joe was five years old,3 he had an accident that would frame his whole life. It all began when his family lived in a neighborhood called the Fair View Homes,7 a government housing project where the first accident happened. Unlike the carpeted home Joe lives in today,3 the floors of the apartments were polished concrete as slippery as a sheet of ice when wet. If Joe was wearing socks,3 he could get a running start and slide ten feet. One day while Joe’s older brother,6 Xavier,6and he were playing football in the house,3 Joe slipped and fell head first on the concrete floor. More precisely,3 Joe fell teeth first. His two front teeth absorbed the force of the fall and were knocked out. Blood was all over the place,1 and Joe screamed with pain. Eventually,6 Joe’s permanent teeth filled the gap. His permanent teeth turned out to be temporary. Years later when Joe was in the seventh grade,3 his front teeth were victimized again. This time,3 Joe was on his way home from school. While playing catch with Joe,3 a friend accidentally hit him in the mouth with a Roma Rocket Wine bottle. As the blood from his gums and split lip soaked through Joe’s handkerchief,3 Will,6 his friend,6 asked,4 “Does it hurt?” Certainly it did,1 but his teeth were forcefully removed again some years later when Joe was in the Army. He lost the bridge to a knee in the mouth during a basketball game. The military dentist filled the gap in Joe’s mouth with another permanent bridge. Following anther basketball game accident,3 the permanent bridge was replaced with a removable one,1 but it too was broken numerous times. After many years of teeth calamities,3Joe is more protective of his dental work. Each night before he goes to bed,3 Joe takes out his front teeth and puts them in a glass of water. With his dental luck,3 Joe is afraid he could lose his teeth in a fight in a horrible nightmare. When Joe recalled all the incidents with his teeth,3 he was reminded of an old saying – “You don’t know what you have until you lose it.” Joe’s teeth can tell you it’s true. Also,3 Joe found out that the price of teeth got more expensive with each accident.

Narrative Essay Graphic Organizer

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Situation
Who is/was involved?
Where does/did it happen?
When does/did it happen?

Transition

Transition

Transition

Transition

Outcome
How does/did the step(s) turn out?

Meaning
What meaning(s) can be drawn from the outcome?
What lesson can be learned?

Struggle
1st step to resolve conflict
2nd step to resolve the conflict
3rd step to resolve the conflict

Conflict
What is/was the tension?
How does/did it begin?
How long does/did it last?