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A narrative essay is one of the most intimidating assignments you can be handed at any level of your education. Where you've previously written argumentative essays that make a point or analytic essays that dissect meaning, a narrative essay asks you to write what is effectively a story .
But unlike a simple work of creative fiction, your narrative essay must have a clear and concrete motif —a recurring theme or idea that you’ll explore throughout. Narrative essays are less rigid, more creative in expression, and therefore pretty different from most other essays you’ll be writing.
But not to fear—in this article, we’ll be covering what a narrative essay is, how to write a good one, and also analyzing some personal narrative essay examples to show you what a great one looks like.
What Is a Narrative Essay?
At first glance, a narrative essay might sound like you’re just writing a story. Like the stories you're used to reading, a narrative essay is generally (but not always) chronological, following a clear throughline from beginning to end. Even if the story jumps around in time, all the details will come back to one specific theme, demonstrated through your choice in motifs.
Unlike many creative stories, however, your narrative essay should be based in fact. That doesn’t mean that every detail needs to be pure and untainted by imagination, but rather that you shouldn’t wholly invent the events of your narrative essay. There’s nothing wrong with inventing a person’s words if you can’t remember them exactly, but you shouldn’t say they said something they weren’t even close to saying.
Another big difference between narrative essays and creative fiction—as well as other kinds of essays—is that narrative essays are based on motifs. A motif is a dominant idea or theme, one that you establish before writing the essay. As you’re crafting the narrative, it’ll feed back into your motif to create a comprehensive picture of whatever that motif is.
For example, say you want to write a narrative essay about how your first day in high school helped you establish your identity. You might discuss events like trying to figure out where to sit in the cafeteria, having to describe yourself in five words as an icebreaker in your math class, or being unsure what to do during your lunch break because it’s no longer acceptable to go outside and play during lunch. All of those ideas feed back into the central motif of establishing your identity.
The important thing to remember is that while a narrative essay is typically told chronologically and intended to read like a story, it is not purely for entertainment value. A narrative essay delivers its theme by deliberately weaving the motifs through the events, scenes, and details. While a narrative essay may be entertaining, its primary purpose is to tell a complete story based on a central meaning.
Unlike other essay forms, it is totally okay—even expected—to use first-person narration in narrative essays. If you’re writing a story about yourself, it’s natural to refer to yourself within the essay. It’s also okay to use other perspectives, such as third- or even second-person, but that should only be done if it better serves your motif. Generally speaking, your narrative essay should be in first-person perspective.
Though your motif choices may feel at times like you’re making a point the way you would in an argumentative essay, a narrative essay’s goal is to tell a story, not convince the reader of anything. Your reader should be able to tell what your motif is from reading, but you don’t have to change their mind about anything. If they don’t understand the point you are making, you should consider strengthening the delivery of the events and descriptions that support your motif.
Narrative essays also share some features with analytical essays, in which you derive meaning from a book, film, or other media. But narrative essays work differently—you’re not trying to draw meaning from an existing text, but rather using an event you’ve experienced to convey meaning. In an analytical essay, you examine narrative, whereas in a narrative essay you create narrative.
The structure of a narrative essay is also a bit different than other essays. You’ll generally be getting your point across chronologically as opposed to grouping together specific arguments in paragraphs or sections. To return to the example of an essay discussing your first day of high school and how it impacted the shaping of your identity, it would be weird to put the events out of order, even if not knowing what to do after lunch feels like a stronger idea than choosing where to sit. Instead of organizing to deliver your information based on maximum impact, you’ll be telling your story as it happened, using concrete details to reinforce your theme.
3 Great Narrative Essay Examples
One of the best ways to learn how to write a narrative essay is to look at a great narrative essay sample. Let’s take a look at some truly stellar narrative essay examples and dive into what exactly makes them work so well.
A Ticket to the Fair by David Foster Wallace
Today is Press Day at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, and I’m supposed to be at the fairgrounds by 9:00 A.M. to get my credentials. I imagine credentials to be a small white card in the band of a fedora. I’ve never been considered press before. My real interest in credentials is getting into rides and shows for free. I’m fresh in from the East Coast, for an East Coast magazine. Why exactly they’re interested in the Illinois State Fair remains unclear to me. I suspect that every so often editors at East Coast magazines slap their foreheads and remember that about 90 percent of the United States lies between the coasts, and figure they’ll engage somebody to do pith-helmeted anthropological reporting on something rural and heartlandish. I think they asked me to do this because I grew up here, just a couple hours’ drive from downstate Springfield. I never did go to the state fair, though—I pretty much topped out at the county fair level. Actually, I haven’t been back to Illinois for a long time, and I can’t say I’ve missed it.
Throughout this essay, David Foster Wallace recounts his experience as press at the Illinois State Fair. But it’s clear from this opening that he’s not just reporting on the events exactly as they happened—though that’s also true— but rather making a point about how the East Coast, where he lives and works, thinks about the Midwest.
In his opening paragraph, Wallace states that outright: “Why exactly they’re interested in the Illinois State Fair remains unclear to me. I suspect that every so often editors at East Coast magazines slap their foreheads and remember that about 90 percent of the United States lies between the coasts, and figure they’ll engage somebody to do pith-helmeted anthropological reporting on something rural and heartlandish.”
Not every motif needs to be stated this clearly , but in an essay as long as Wallace’s, particularly since the audience for such a piece may feel similarly and forget that such a large portion of the country exists, it’s important to make that point clear.
But Wallace doesn’t just rest on introducing his motif and telling the events exactly as they occurred from there. It’s clear that he selects events that remind us of that idea of East Coast cynicism , such as when he realizes that the Help Me Grow tent is standing on top of fake grass that is killing the real grass beneath, when he realizes the hypocrisy of craving a corn dog when faced with a real, suffering pig, when he’s upset for his friend even though he’s not the one being sexually harassed, and when he witnesses another East Coast person doing something he wouldn’t dare to do.
Wallace is literally telling the audience exactly what happened, complete with dates and timestamps for when each event occurred. But he’s also choosing those events with a purpose—he doesn’t focus on details that don’t serve his motif. That’s why he discusses the experiences of people, how the smells are unappealing to him, and how all the people he meets, in cowboy hats, overalls, or “black spandex that looks like cheesecake leotards,” feel almost alien to him.
All of these details feed back into the throughline of East Coast thinking that Wallace introduces in the first paragraph. He also refers back to it in the essay’s final paragraph, stating:
At last, an overarching theory blooms inside my head: megalopolitan East Coasters’ summer treats and breaks and literally ‘getaways,’ flights-from—from crowds, noise, heat, dirt, the stress of too many sensory choices….The East Coast existential treat is escape from confines and stimuli—quiet, rustic vistas that hold still, turn inward, turn away. Not so in the rural Midwest. Here you’re pretty much away all the time….Something in a Midwesterner sort of actuates , deep down, at a public event….The real spectacle that draws us here is us.
Throughout this journey, Wallace has tried to demonstrate how the East Coast thinks about the Midwest, ultimately concluding that they are captivated by the Midwest’s less stimuli-filled life, but that the real reason they are interested in events like the Illinois State Fair is that they are, in some ways, a means of looking at the East Coast in a new, estranging way.
The reason this works so well is that Wallace has carefully chosen his examples, outlined his motif and themes in the first paragraph, and eventually circled back to the original motif with a clearer understanding of his original point.
When outlining your own narrative essay, try to do the same. Start with a theme, build upon it with examples, and return to it in the end with an even deeper understanding of the original issue. You don’t need this much space to explore a theme, either—as we’ll see in the next example, a strong narrative essay can also be very short.
Death of a Moth by Virginia Woolf
After a time, tired by his dancing apparently, he settled on the window ledge in the sun, and, the queer spectacle being at an end, I forgot about him. Then, looking up, my eye was caught by him. He was trying to resume his dancing, but seemed either so stiff or so awkward that he could only flutter to the bottom of the window-pane; and when he tried to fly across it he failed. Being intent on other matters I watched these futile attempts for a time without thinking, unconsciously waiting for him to resume his flight, as one waits for a machine, that has stopped momentarily, to start again without considering the reason of its failure. After perhaps a seventh attempt he slipped from the wooden ledge and fell, fluttering his wings, on to his back on the window sill. The helplessness of his attitude roused me. It flashed upon me that he was in difficulties; he could no longer raise himself; his legs struggled vainly. But, as I stretched out a pencil, meaning to help him to right himself, it came over me that the failure and awkwardness were the approach of death. I laid the pencil down again.
In this essay, Virginia Woolf explains her encounter with a dying moth. On surface level, this essay is just a recounting of an afternoon in which she watched a moth die—it’s even established in the title. But there’s more to it than that. Though Woolf does not begin her essay with as clear a motif as Wallace, it’s not hard to pick out the evidence she uses to support her point, which is that the experience of this moth is also the human experience.
In the title, Woolf tells us this essay is about death. But in the first paragraph, she seems to mostly be discussing life—the moth is “content with life,” people are working in the fields, and birds are flying. However, she mentions that it is mid-September and that the fields were being plowed. It’s autumn and it’s time for the harvest; the time of year in which many things die.
In this short essay, she chronicles the experience of watching a moth seemingly embody life, then die. Though this essay is literally about a moth, it’s also about a whole lot more than that. After all, moths aren’t the only things that die—Woolf is also reflecting on her own mortality, as well as the mortality of everything around her.
At its core, the essay discusses the push and pull of life and death, not in a way that’s necessarily sad, but in a way that is accepting of both. Woolf begins by setting up the transitional fall season, often associated with things coming to an end, and raises the ideas of pleasure, vitality, and pity.
At one point, Woolf tries to help the dying moth, but reconsiders, as it would interfere with the natural order of the world. The moth’s death is part of the natural order of the world, just like fall, just like her own eventual death.
All these themes are set up in the beginning and explored throughout the essay’s narrative. Though Woolf doesn’t directly state her theme, she reinforces it by choosing a small, isolated event—watching a moth die—and illustrating her point through details.
With this essay, we can see that you don’t need a big, weird, exciting event to discuss an important meaning. Woolf is able to explore complicated ideas in a short essay by being deliberate about what details she includes, just as you can be in your own essays.
Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
On the twenty-ninth of July, in 1943, my father died. On the same day, a few hours later, his last child was born. Over a month before this, while all our energies were concentrated in waiting for these events, there had been, in Detroit, one of the bloodiest race riots of the century. A few hours after my father’s funeral, while he lay in state in the undertaker’s chapel, a race riot broke out in Harlem. On the morning of the third of August, we drove my father to the graveyard through a wilderness of smashed plate glass.
Like Woolf, Baldwin does not lay out his themes in concrete terms—unlike Wallace, there’s no clear sentence that explains what he’ll be talking about. However, you can see the motifs quite clearly: death, fatherhood, struggle, and race.
Throughout the narrative essay, Baldwin discusses the circumstances of his father’s death, including his complicated relationship with his father. By introducing those motifs in the first paragraph, the reader understands that everything discussed in the essay will come back to those core ideas. When Baldwin talks about his experience with a white teacher taking an interest in him and his father’s resistance to that, he is also talking about race and his father’s death. When he talks about his father’s death, he is also talking about his views on race. When he talks about his encounters with segregation and racism, he is talking, in part, about his father.
Because his father was a hard, uncompromising man, Baldwin struggles to reconcile the knowledge that his father was right about many things with his desire to not let that hardness consume him, as well.
Baldwin doesn’t explicitly state any of this, but his writing so often touches on the same motifs that it becomes clear he wants us to think about all these ideas in conversation with one another.
At the end of the essay, Baldwin makes it more clear:
This fight begins, however, in the heart and it had now been laid to my charge to keep my own heart free of hatred and despair. This intimation made my heart heavy and, now that my father was irrecoverable, I wished that he had been beside me so that I could have searched his face for the answers which only the future would give me now.
Here, Baldwin ties together the themes and motifs into one clear statement: that he must continue to fight and recognize injustice, especially racial injustice, just as his father did. But unlike his father, he must do it beginning with himself—he must not let himself be closed off to the world as his father was. And yet, he still wishes he had his father for guidance, even as he establishes that he hopes to be a different man than his father.
In this essay, Baldwin loads the front of the essay with his motifs, and, through his narrative, weaves them together into a theme. In the end, he comes to a conclusion that connects all of those things together and leaves the reader with a lasting impression of completion—though the elements may have been initially disparate, in the end everything makes sense.
You can replicate this tactic of introducing seemingly unattached ideas and weaving them together in your own essays. By introducing those motifs, developing them throughout, and bringing them together in the end, you can demonstrate to your reader how all of them are related. However, it’s especially important to be sure that your motifs and clear and consistent throughout your essay so that the conclusion feels earned and consistent—if not, readers may feel mislead.
5 Key Tips for Writing Narrative Essays
Narrative essays can be a lot of fun to write since they’re so heavily based on creativity. But that can also feel intimidating—sometimes it’s easier to have strict guidelines than to have to make it all up yourself. Here are a few tips to keep your narrative essay feeling strong and fresh.
Develop Strong Motifs
Motifs are the foundation of a narrative essay . What are you trying to say? How can you say that using specific symbols or events? Those are your motifs.
In the same way that an argumentative essay’s body should support its thesis, the body of your narrative essay should include motifs that support your theme.
Try to avoid cliches, as these will feel tired to your readers. Instead of roses to symbolize love, try succulents. Instead of the ocean representing some vast, unknowable truth, try the depths of your brother’s bedroom. Keep your language and motifs fresh and your essay will be even stronger!
Use First-Person Perspective
In many essays, you’re expected to remove yourself so that your points stand on their own. Not so in a narrative essay—in this case, you want to make use of your own perspective.
Sometimes a different perspective can make your point even stronger. If you want someone to identify with your point of view, it may be tempting to choose a second-person perspective. However, be sure you really understand the function of second-person; it’s very easy to put a reader off if the narration isn’t expertly deployed.
If you want a little bit of distance, third-person perspective may be okay. But be careful—too much distance and your reader may feel like the narrative lacks truth.
That’s why first-person perspective is the standard. It keeps you, the writer, close to the narrative, reminding the reader that it really happened. And because you really know what happened and how, you’re free to inject your own opinion into the story without it detracting from your point, as it would in a different type of essay.
Stick to the Truth
Your essay should be true. However, this is a creative essay, and it’s okay to embellish a little. Rarely in life do we experience anything with a clear, concrete meaning the way somebody in a book might. If you flub the details a little, it’s okay—just don’t make them up entirely.
Also, nobody expects you to perfectly recall details that may have happened years ago. You may have to reconstruct dialog from your memory and your imagination. That’s okay, again, as long as you aren’t making it up entirely and assigning made-up statements to somebody.
Dialog is a powerful tool. A good conversation can add flavor and interest to a story, as we saw demonstrated in David Foster Wallace’s essay. As previously mentioned, it’s okay to flub it a little, especially because you’re likely writing about an experience you had without knowing that you’d be writing about it later.
However, don’t rely too much on it. Your narrative essay shouldn’t be told through people explaining things to one another; the motif comes through in the details. Dialog can be one of those details, but it shouldn’t be the only one.
Use Sensory Descriptions
Because a narrative essay is a story, you can use sensory details to make your writing more interesting. If you’re describing a particular experience, you can go into detail about things like taste, smell, and hearing in a way that you probably wouldn’t do in any other essay style.
These details can tie into your overall motifs and further your point. Woolf describes in great detail what she sees while watching the moth, giving us the sense that we, too, are watching the moth. In Wallace’s essay, he discusses the sights, sounds, and smells of the Illinois State Fair to help emphasize his point about its strangeness. And in Baldwin’s essay, he describes shattered glass as a “wilderness,” and uses the feelings of his body to describe his mental state.
All these descriptions anchor us not only in the story, but in the motifs and themes as well. One of the tools of a writer is making the reader feel as you felt, and sensory details help you achieve that.
What’s Next?
Looking to brush up on your essay-writing capabilities before the ACT? This guide to ACT English will walk you through some of the best strategies and practice questions to get you prepared!
Part of practicing for the ACT is ensuring your word choice and diction are on point. Check out this guide to some of the most common errors on the ACT English section to be sure that you're not making these common mistakes!
A solid understanding of English principles will help you make an effective point in a narrative essay, and you can get that understanding through taking a rigorous assortment of high school English classes !
Need more help with this topic? Check out Tutorbase!
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Melissa Brinks graduated from the University of Washington in 2014 with a Bachelor's in English with a creative writing emphasis. She has spent several years tutoring K-12 students in many subjects, including in SAT prep, to help them prepare for their college education.
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Narrative Essay
Narrative Essay Examples
Narrative Essay Examples: Free Examples to Help You Learn
Published on: Jun 23, 2018
Last updated on: May 26, 2023
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Narrative essay examples are great to help you understand how to write high-quality and effective narrative essay. This blog has included several narrative essay examples that will help you understand how to write A-worthy narrative essay.
A narrative essay is a form of storytelling where you have to provide sensory details of your personal experience. However, when writing a narrative essay , you will have to follow a set pattern and the guidelines closely.
Besides learning these basics, skimming through essay examples is also a great way of learning. In this blog, we will explain the basics to write a narrative essay with the help of narrative essay examples.
The examples given here will help you understand how to explain the plot, characters, setting, and the entire theme effectively.
Before writing your essay, make sure you go through a sufficient number of narrative essay examples. These examples will help you in knowing the dos and don’ts of a good narrative essay.
It is always a better option to have some sense of direction before you start anything. Below, you can find important details and a bunch of narrative essay examples. These examples will also help you build your content according to the format.
Sample Narrative Essay
The examples inform the readers about the writing style and structure of the narration. The essay below will help you understand how to create a story and build this type of essay in no time.
Introduction
The villagers had lost a few goats and poultry to a mystery. The mystery of the missing farm animals spread like a wildfire in the village. Many speculated there were thieves in the village while others suggested a wild beast was on the run. Despite several speculations, the mystery of the disappearances remained unsolved. The whole village was in a state of dismay when the tiger appeared and launched another attack on the village.
The prey was not any farm animal this time, it was a young child playing by the barn. The villagers had had enough, they had to put a stop to it once and for all. They organized a group of the bravest men from the village, armed them with shotguns and knives, and planned to attack the tiger. They also took a goat to lure to the tiger in our trap.
The plan was to trap the tiger and later kill him. I was amongst the members of the group who left for the jungle late at night. For hours we did not hear anything except the mosquitoes and crickets around us. Then we found paw prints on the muddy ground which assured us of the tiger’s usual trail. Thereupon, as the sun rose we set up a trap using a goat as bait. We were assured that this would catch the tiger immediately.
We had almost given up when suddenly around daybreak we heard the bushes rustle and the leaves crackle. All of us shivered to our spines and saw the mystery east coming towards us. We changed our guns and pointed it towards the wild beast. We steadied our guns towards the tiger as he jumped to grab the goat. He fell into the trap. One of the members shot the tiger dead and we rescued the goat safely back to our village.
The mission was accomplished. We had killed the wild beast and had emerged successful. It was an amazing hunting trip. One that would always remain in my memory for all time to come.
Narrative Essay Example For High School
The narrative essay example for high school will help you build your own essay in an easy to understand manner. They also help you achieve your aim of explaining the main idea with deep analysis and detail.
Narrative Essay Example For College
The transition from high school to college demands better essay writing skills, to analyze and narrate subjects.
Go through the following example and learn how to formulate your ideas and explain them in words.
Personal Narrative Essay Examples
Personal narrative essay samples given below will help you make a difference between the third and first-person accounts.
Literacy Narrative Essay Example
When we talk about essays related to literacy, these essays contemplate all kinds of issues. From simple daily life events to more complex social issues, they cover them all.
Descriptive Narrative Essay Example
In descriptive narrative essays, the writer explains everything with vivid details. This could be something visual also, like a photo or a painting and the writer narrates it.
3rd Person Narrative Essay Example
As seen in the above examples, a narrative essay is usually written to share a personal experience.
The 3rd person narrative essay example shows how these essays are written from a protagonist’s point of view.
Narrative Essay Example for 3rd Person
The Essentials of Narrative Essays
Let's start with the basics. The four types of essays are argumentative essays, descriptive essays, expository essays, and narrative essays.
The goal of a narrative essay is to tell a compelling tale from one person's perspective. A narrative essay incorporates all of the story components, such as a beginning, middle, and conclusion, as well as plot, characters, setting, and climax.
The narrative essay's goal is the plot, which should be detailed enough to reach a climax. Here's how it works:
- It's usually presented in chronological order.
- It has a function. This is typically evident in the thesis statement's opening paragraph.
- It may include speech.
- It's told with sensory details and vivid language, drawing the reader in. All of these elements are connected to the writer's major argument in some way.
How to Write a Narrative Essay in 10 Minutes or Less
Remember that you're giving the reader sensory and emotional information when crafting a narrative essay.
- Your writing should be vivid and colorful to help the reader put themselves in your shoes.
- The best way to do that is by using words and phrases from the story. You should also place a reference to it in the first sentence of your essay.
- You should utilize conflict and sequence, as you would in any other narrative.
- You can utilize flashbacks and flash-forwards to advance the plot toward its conclusion.
- It's generally written in the first person, but third-person is also acceptable.
Create captivating essays effortlessly!
Hire A Highly Qualified Narrative Essay Writer
Do you need help with your narrative essay? If so, our narrative essay writing service is the solution for all your ‘write my essay’ requests.
Narrative essay writers at MyPerfectWords.com are always here to help you with your essays. Our customer support is exceptional and we are available round the clock to answer all of your essay writing needs. With our essay writing service , you will get the best deals for the best essays!
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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Personal Experience — My Literacy Journey: Tracing the Evolution of My Skills
My Literacy Journey: Tracing The Evolution of My Skills
- Subject: Education , Life
- Category: Studying Process , Life Experiences
- Essay Topic: Literacy , Personal Experience
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Narrative Essay Writing
Narrative Essay Examples
Narrative Essay Examples by Writing Experts
Published on: Apr 12, 2020
Last updated on: Apr 5, 2023
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A narrative essay is a form of writing that includes storytelling using multiple techniques to entertain the audience. Unlike the argumentative essay, a narrative essay does not attempt to persuade its audience and only focuses on sharing personal experiences
The writer forms a central point on which the entire narrative essay revolves. All the events, plot, characters, setting, and happenings present in the essay serve one motif that is the central theme.
Writing a narrative essay requires a writer to effectively use sensory details and other creative elements for the readers. If you are writing a narrative essay, and looking forward to impressing the audience, go through the narrative essay examples.
This article is written to provide some great examples and samples for your narrative essay. Continue reading to learn how an attractive narrative paper is written.
Narrative Essay Outline
Like every other type of essay, a narrative essay requires an outline to be well structured and understandable by the readers. Without an outline, the content will be difficult to read, and the purpose will not be obvious.
A narrative essay uses the traditional essay outline of 5 paragraphs. According to this, the content of the essay is divided into the following sections:
- Introduction
- Body Paragraph 1
- Body Paragraph 2
- Body Paragraph 3
All the information on the topic is presented in these sections in a way that makes the content sensible for the readers.
After you have decided on an interesting topic for your narrative essay, it is time to start drafting it. Are you worried about making a start on your narrative essay? Follow the writing steps provided.
1. Introduction
The introduction of a narrative essay is the first section that includes the following information:
- A hook statement
- Scene setting
- The narrative essay thesis statement or the central theme
Narrative Essay Introduction Example:
“The villagers had lost a few goats and poultry to a mystery. The mystery of the missing farm animals spread like wildfire in the village. Many speculated there were thieves in the village, while others suggested a wild beast was on the run.
Despite several speculations, the mystery of the disappearances remained unsolved. The whole village was in a state of dismay when the tiger appeared and launched another attack on the village.”
In the above-given example, the introduction opens from a hook statement followed by the central theme.
2. Main Body
The main body of a narrative essay is based on three paragraphs according to the basic essay structure. Following are the major details that are presented in the body section of a narrative essay:
- Vivid and clear descriptions
- Chronologically ordered events
The purpose of this section is to elaborate on the central theme providing detailed explanations. This is the main section of the content that shares every detail on the topic. A narrative essay builds stories, characters, events, and scenes into the reader’s minds.
Body Paragraph 1 Example:
“The prey was not any farm animal this time; it was a young child playing by the barn. The villagers had had enough; they had to put a stop to it once and for all. They organized a group of the bravest men from the village, armed them with shotguns, and planned to attack the tiger. They also took a goat to lure to the tiger in our trap.”
Body Paragraph 2 Example:
“The plan was to trap the tiger and later kill him. I was amongst the members of the group who left for the jungle late at night. For hours we did not hear anything except the mosquitoes and crickets around us. Then we found paw prints on the muddy ground, which assured us of the tiger’s usual trail. Thereupon, as the sun rose, we set up a trap using a goat as bait. We were assured that this would catch the tiger immediately.”
Body Paragraph 3 Example:
“We had almost given up when suddenly around daybreak, we heard the bushes rustle and the leaves crackle. All of us shivered to our spines and saw the mystery east coming towards us. We changed our guns and pointed it towards the wild beast. We steadied our guns towards the tiger as he jumped to grab the goat. He fell into the trap. One of the members shot the tiger dead, and we rescued the goat safely back to our village.”
3. Conclusion
The conclusion is the last section of an essay. The closure of your essay should be remarkable in order to make the whole content effective. If you want your audience to remember your essay, draft a tremendous conclusion.
A conclusion of a narrative essay includes the following elements:
- Moral of the story
- Lessons in your essay
- Call-To-Action, if any.
Narrative Essay Conclusion Example:
“The mission was accomplished. We had killed the wild beast and had emerged successfully. It was an amazing hunting trip. One that would always remain in my memory for all time to come.”
Before jumping onto the writing process, go through a plethora of narrative essay examples to make sure that outlining and formatting are done correctly. Moreover, looking at examples will allow the writer to understand the use of sensory details and vocabulary to describe events, settings, characters, and emotions.
In order to help our students, CollegeEssay.org has gathered a few examples. These examples will help you learn the correct formation of a narrative essay.
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Personal Narrative Essay Example
Are you looking for a sample to draft a personal narrative essay? Go through the example provided below to understand how the first-person and third-person perspectives are used in a narrative essay.
Sample Personal Narrative Essay (PDF)
Narrative Essay Example for Middle School
A narrative essay is frequently assigned to middle school students to assess their writing and creative skills. If you are a student looking for a sample narrative essay for your middle school assignment, go through the example provided below.
Sample Middle School Narrative Essay (PDF)
Narrative Essay Example for High School
When drafting assignments for high school, professional writing is essential. Your essays and papers should be well structured and written in order to achieve better grades. If you are assigned a narrative essay, go through the sample provided to see how an effective essay is written.
Sample Narrative Essay For High School (PDF)
Narrative Essay Example for College
College essays are more complex in nature than other academic levels. They require a better understanding of the concept, following a proper writing procedure, and an outline.
Although you are to draft a narrative essay for your college assignment, make sure it is professionally written. Read the sample narrative essay provided below.
Sample Narrative Essay For College (PDF)
Descriptive Narrative Essay Example
If you are to draft a document on the recreation of an event, a descriptive narrative essay is written. It presents an incident that happened to the writer and the backed-up information that supports the story.
The following is a perfect example of a descriptive narrative essay.
Sample Descriptive Narrative Essay (PDF)
Literacy Narrative Essay Example
Academic assignments often require students to draft essays on education. Education is the most significant topic of discussion, and for this purpose, almost every essay type and research paper studies it.
If you are drafting a narrative essay on literacy, go through the sample provided.
Sample Literacy Narrative Essay (PDF)
Fictional Narrative Essay Example
Drafting a fictional piece of a document requires a more vivid description and detail. If you are assigned a narrative essay to draft on a fictional theme, read the example provided below.
Sample Fictional Narrative Essay (PDF)
Narrative Essay Writing Tips
Professional essay writers of CollegeEssay.org have gathered some tips and tricks for you to follow in order to make your narrative essay remarkable. Even if you are aware of the writing procedure, it is advised to use expert tips to make your documents flawless.
Follow the tips provided below to draft an exceptional narrative essay.
- The narrative essay content should be clear. All the details and descriptions provided should be readable and understandable by the audience. Avoid using complex words and distribute content into paragraphs.
- Avoid describing every minor detail or movement. Provide only explanations that are important for the readers to imagine.
- In order to make something believable and interesting for the readers, state it from the first-person perspective. Share your personal experiences, stories, and opinions to make the content impactful.
- Choose appropriate and accurate wordings for your ideas. Whether describing a character or an event, the vocabulary should be completing it.
- Use limited referencing. When drafting an essay, according to the instructed format, avoid using frequent in-text citations.
- Write your point of view clearly, so the readers feel that it is a genuine piece of writing.
Using the tips provided by the professionals and going through the narrative essay samples will let you draft an effective paper.
But if your analyzing and writing skills are not impressive, you can always get professional help. CollegeEssay.org is an expert essay writing company that provides custom services and high-quality content.
No matter which college essay type you are drafting for your academics, you can get assistance from the most qualified writers.
Simply hire an experienced writer by placing an order at the most reasonable price.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is a narrative paragraph.
Paragraphs vary in length depending on the content, but a standard 5-sentence paragraph usually isn't enough to tell an interesting story.
How do I write a narrative essay?
Here are some steps that will help you to write a great narrative essay.
- Consider the topic
- Start writing the draft
- Provide supporting facts
- Revise your essay
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Definition of Literacy Narrative Essay. A literacy narrative essay lets the student reflect upon and describe the connection they have with reading, writing, and language in general. By zeroing in on the first moments one experienced these subjects, it forces one to reach greater clarity.
3 Great Narrative Essay Examples. One of the best ways to learn how to write a narrative essay is to look at a great narrative essay sample. Let’s take a look at some truly stellar narrative essay examples and dive into what exactly makes them work so well.
Literacy Narrative Essay Guide Features of a Literacy Narrative. First-person point of view: A literacy narrative is typically told from the... Short Literacy Narrative Example. Below is a very simple and short essay example of a literacy narrative to give you a... Famous Literacy Story Examples. ...
Literacy Narrative Essay example. At this point in my life I find myself in an interesting predicament regarding my attitudes toward reading and writing; more so towards reading. Years ago I used to love reading books for pleasure but nowadays I find myself reading things that little to no effort to digest.
In this blog, we will explain the basics to write a narrative essay with the help of narrative essay examples. The examples given here will help you understand how to explain the plot, characters, setting, and the entire theme effectively.
My name is Noora, and this is my personal literacy narrative. Like most people, my literacy skills grew with me at a very young age. It all started when I was born. I can’t remember a lot of things in detail, but I do know that I was brought to a place where soon I had to remember things.
Narrative Essay Examples. Narrative Essay Writing Tips. A narrative essay is a form of writing that includes storytelling using multiple techniques to entertain the audience. Unlike the argumentative essay, a narrative essay does not attempt to persuade its audience and only focuses on sharing personal experiences.