This document provides guidance on writing a personal narrative essay. It begins by defining a narrative essay as a text that tells a story and allows the author to share a personal experience. It then lists the main sections that should be included in the essay such as an introduction, body, and conclusion. The document offers tips for each section, such as including descriptive details and supporting arguments in the body. It also recommends choosing a topic that is meaningful to the author, creating an outline, and reviewing narrative essay examples. Proper formatting is emphasized, including checking requirements and choosing the appropriate structure. In summary, the document outlines the key components and structure of a successful narrative essay.
1. Write a Personal Narrative
By Mr. Osama Abdullah
To do list:
What Is A Narrative Essay?
Guidelines For Writing A Narrative Essay
How Long Should it Be?
Main Structure of the Narrative Essay
Thesis Statement for Narrative Essay
How To Format a Narrative Essay Properly
MR. Osama Abdullah _ English Instructor _ 0533264815
2. Introduction
If you are assigned to work on writing a narrative paper in college
or high school, it is a good opportunity to train your skills in
storytelling and show your knowledge and understanding of the
subject. For many students, this kind of essays is much more
exciting than other written work. You demonstrate a specific
event or episode and its results from your point of view, as a story,
which helps you and your readers be involved in the process more
than usual.
Before writing a narrative essay, you should look for a topic that
can help you do your best, which is only possible if it is familiar to
you and you can talk about it for hours with interest and passion.
Why is it important? If you pick a narrative essay topic that is not
very exciting for you, it would be difficult to build a good
narrative essay on it simply because you will have to force
yourself to do it.
MR. Osama Abdullah _ English Instructor _ 0533264815
3. What Is A Narrative Essay?
A narrative essay definition may vary in different universities
and schools. As a rule, it describes a text that is used to tell
a story and that allows you to share your personal
experience in a more inspirational way than usual.
Such papers get more attention from readers because
everyone likes stories. This is the way for science to be
heard and understood by everyone.
MR. Osama Abdullah _ English Instructor _ 0533264815
4. Guidelines For Writing A Narrative Essay
Consider the topic. You should be able to convert your experience into a
story that matters to you. It would not be a good narrative essay if you
are not involved in your writing and don’t want to share your experience
with others.
Start with the draft. It is not easy to write a good story from the
beginning to the end without some planning and. That is why you should
create an narrative essay outline and draft and then polish it until you
are sure that the result meets all the requirements. This method is used
by many people, including famous writers.
Storyline elements. Most stories contain elements as the description,
plot, characters, setting, and other components that help each text
attract the attention of readers and make them think about it. Make sure
your narrative story contains all these elements and is written in
accordance with all the universal rules of literature.
MR. Osama Abdullah _ English Instructor _ 0533264815
5. The point of view. Readers and listeners should clearly
understand your role in the story, which is why it is so
important to let them know all the details of the described
event, as well as the explanation of your behavior in a
particular situation.
Proving and supporting. You should not only show your opinion
but also give arguments that support it – you can provide
readers with any facts and references that show the fidelity of
your thoughts and the results of your conclusions.
Do not give details that don’t mean anything to your story.
They make your essay too wordy and can confuse readers – to
figure out whether specific details are needed, find out if they
have a significant roles in the plot.
MR. Osama Abdullah _ English Instructor _ 0533264815
6. Clear writing. Use simple words and appropriate language in
the text. The clearer your readers understand what you are
telling them, the better their feedback will be, and keep in
mind that some things that are clear to you can be ambiguous
to your readers so you should check your text before you hand
it in.
Describe events chronologically. As a rule, such papers are
created in proper chronological order in order to avoid
confusion and allow everyone who reads it to follow the
author’s thoughts easily and with interest.
Read some narrative essay examples. The more you read
them, the clearer your understanding how to create a well-
developed plot; you can also watch video presentations in
which other persons describe their experience as it helps to
learn how to present your thoughts appropriately.
MR. Osama Abdullah _ English Instructor _ 0533264815
7. Double-check the provided requirements. When you get such
an assignment, you should be provided with some guidelines
and requirements or, if not, you can always request more
details from your instructors.
Revise your essay. Check it for grammar and plagiarism,
rewrite sentences that don’t sound well, and don’t hesitate
to ask for advice from your friends, there are also many
services that can help you with revising and editing your
narrative essay.
Highlight the most crucial moments. Keep in mind that you
will have to highlight the most significant arguments or facts
to help your readers identify them and easily understand
their role in the story, as well as their influence on the
outcome.
MR. Osama Abdullah _ English Instructor _ 0533264815
8. How Long Should it Be?
Before jumping into writing narrative essays and thinking
about how many paragraphs in a narrative essay, there are 2
rules to follow.
1: as long as your professor asked you.
2: as short and informative as you can make it.
Semi-jokes aside, you need to write enough to fully discover
the topic and create an engaging story with a relevant
structure that the audience will love.
MR. Osama Abdullah _ English Instructor _ 0533264815
9. Structure of the Narrative Essay
Introduction. Take it as a warm-up for the audience
and give them the main idea of what is that story about.
3-5 sentences is the standard.
Main Body. Collect every supportive argument for your
story and logically place them. Remember: every new
idea is a new paragraph. 3-5 blocks will do no wrong.
Conclusion. Even the open ending is a conclusion of a
sort. This is the part where you sum up and prove what
you claimed in the introduction. 3-5 well-arranged
sentences is all you need to succeed.
MR. Osama Abdullah _ English Instructor _ 0533264815
10. Thesis Statement for Narrative Essay
So, the thesis statement is your main argument for the speech, story,
confession - anything that counts as a narrative report. It’s supposed to
evoke the reader’s interest and introduce him/her to the problem you
will discuss. However, it shouldn’t be a question, suggestion, or
recommendation. Nor should it be a fact or general truth. But let’s take
an example to illustrate it all.
You have to write an essay from the perspective of the person who cares
about the harm of climate change that the planet faces these days.
Sentences like “The warm causes ice melting and humanity does nothing
to stop it” is not a good option to opt for. The thesis statement for that
might be like that “Even though there are a lot of people who are
skeptical about the issue, it is already a documented fact that global
warming is real, and it compromises the worry-free existence of animal
and human world in many ways”. Here it is: you’ve explained the
problem and gave a hint about the outcomes.
MR. Osama Abdullah _ English Instructor _ 0533264815
11. How To Format a Narrative Essay
Properly
You already know how to create a narrative thesis statement and
structure the text. We don’t want to upset you, but this is not the end of
A story as choosing the proper essay format is what’s left. This short
guide can save you tons of time and spare you from writing it all over
again.
• Choose the format wisely. APA, MLA, Harvard - depends on the
requirements and the subject but please-please-please, double-check
the guidelines from your professor to do it right from the first try.
• Title page. This is the first that the teacher will see so be a good
student and spend enough time to make it great and mistake/typos-free.
• Text block. This is where Intro-body-conclusion will go. Not
necessarily in that order, but again it depends on the writing style and
purpose.
• References. Every format has its peculiarities when it comes to a
reference list. Don’t mix them up!
MR. Osama Abdullah _ English Instructor _ 0533264815
12. Narrative writing is similar to novels but they sometimes
have specific rules for writing. These rules can vary
depending on numerous aspects. However, in order to
create an A-worthy paper, you have to follow the universal
standards, use the right structure, watch out for plagiarism,
and try to disclose the selected topic fully.
Also, do not neglect to check your text for grammar
mistakes! Even the best plot will not attract and engage the
reader if the text is full of typos and other sorts of errors!
MR. Osama Abdullah _ English Instructor _ 0533264815
