NARRATIVE ESSAY

NARRATIVE ESSAY

By Bálmer García

Description

•      Narrative essays are not a common style in essays as academic writing. “Whether it tells a true story or fiction, a narrative essay gives an account of one or more experiences” (A Newsweek education program, P. 139.) These experiences are written in the form of story (Brenda Rollins 2009, P. 23.) Many of the best written books were narrative essays (ibid.) The Newsweek education program, recommends to display emotion as a way of connect readers to the feeling of the subject (A Newsweek education program, P. 146.) Narrative essays are chronologically ordered and does not require standard thesis sentence nor traditional introduction, body, or conclusion (A Newsweek education program, P. 139.)

Narrative Essay components

•      Title of the narrative essay

•      Introduction: audience’s attention (First sentence)

•      Thesis statement (second or third sentence)

•      Introduce supporting ideas (fourth or fifth sentences)

•      Body of essay (paragraphs 2, 3 and 4)

•      First supporting idea (Second paragraph)

•      Topic sentence (First sentence)

•      Discussion and ideas (next two or three sentences)

•      Transition to next paragraph (last sentence)

•      Second supporting idea (third paragraph)

•      Topic sentence (first sentence)

•      Discussion and ideas (next two or three sentences)

•      Transition to next paragraph (last sentence)

•      Third supporting idea (Fourth paragraph)

•      Topic sentence (first sentence)

•      Discussion and ideas (next two or three sentences)

•      Transition to next paragraph (last sentence)

•      Conclusion (Fifth paragraph)

•      Transition statement reflecting back on thesis (First sentence)

•      Restate key points (second, third, and fourth sentences)

•      Ending statement that summarizes or provokes thought (fifth sentence) 

Example:

Zen Vacations

The first day of your termless vacation feels almost like the first day on a new unexplored planet; suddenly, you realize you have left a significant piece of your former life behind. When you are a colonist arriving to a new world, you leave behind your failed marriage, debts, and dark past; when you are an office worker, you leave behind a Xerox machine and a bunch of passwords. But it all does not matter anymore, because you are already not there, you are here, like a child in the first week of a wonderfully long summer holiday.
So, the first thing you do is throw off the shackles. People do it in many ways, but your method is to breath deeper than usual, and recall the sensation of sunshine—sunshine in the crowns of old sycamores. Also, you may remember the smells of childhood: peeled blue paint on the porch door, big fat woman with curlers, whom all the kids in town were afraid of, and who always threw dirty, wet rags at them.
Throwing off the shackles…. Dear God, you could not even imagine how much rubbish you’ve been carrying inside of you until this first day of your new life. From time to time, you look at all this trash, all these far-fetched mental constructions that have been running your existence all this time. Now you can easily throw them away as well.
And so, lying on a beach, staring in the turquoise and hot summer sky with just one perfectly-shaped cloud in it, and listening to the sweet rhythmic humming created by the wind and the sea, you understand that there are no thoughts in your head at all, and no inner voices demand your attention. Complete silence and calmness. Zen. Samadhi.
Samadhi of an office worker and Samadhi of some orange-garbed Nepalese Buddhist monk in a mountain temple. No difference. No sense. Nothing.
Nothing is everything. Everything any of us needs.
A little bit of Nothing for everybody.

OUTLINE

•      The first time of your termless vacation, you feel like a child in the first week of a wonderfully long summer holyday.

•      The first thing is to feel free, and recall things from childhood.

•      Releasing yourself of the things that construct your daily routine.

•      Enjoying the beach, the sun, and the sky, makes you feel in an ignored heaven.

•      It´s the union with the divine of an office worker, lost is a Buddhist temple.

•      Nothing is all, everything any of us needs.

•      A little bit of nothing is what everybody needs.


Works Cited

Connelley, J., & Forsythe, P. (2011). Essay Writing Skills. New York, New York, USA: Routledge.

Help, A. (29 de 10 de 2013). Office Zen. Obtenido de My vacations: https://academichelp.net/samples/academics/essays/narrative/office-zen.html

Program, N. E. (2003). Essay Writing: Step by step. New York: Kaplan Publishing.