Characteristics of a Good Narrative Essay Text

Jonathan Friesen - Writing Coach

The purpose of the narrative essay is to share a personal experience that a reader can identify with or learn from. The characteristics of a narrative essay are use of characters and setting, literary techniques, chronology and a moral to the story. Characters and setting are storytelling elements that give life to the narrative essay.

It is important to choose the characters who are most important to the story development. Characters' personalities should follow the showing not telling rule and demonstrate the qualities of each character. In developing the characters, use the actions and dialogue of the character to show personality and mood. You may choose to write about a sad or wonderful experience you have ever had and if the experience will pass a message to your reader which is the essence of your writing. The experience that you have chosen must have some significance both to you and to your readers. Ensure it carries some importance if not to everyone then a specific target of age. Creating an outline will enable you to write quickly your narrative essay since you already have a guideline to follow.

In narrative essay you don’t exactly tell what exactly happened but you have a chance to recreate the experience in a creative way for your readers. Remember to write a valuable essay that which your readers will be able to understand and put them in the same experience as you.try to share more on the experience you are writing about to put your readers in the same line as you. This will give readers the urge to continue to read and get to know what they will learn from the essay.

Where there is no clear communication readers will simply look for better essays. Immediately start your experiences, avoid skirting around and making irrelevant remarks as this will turn off the reader. Let the reader digest the narrative within your essay and begin to connect with the ideas and enable them to flow till the end where the last sentence you provide the lesson learnt and the significance of the narrative. You may also use the technique where you introduce your experience in the first paragraph then delay the lesson learnt till the end of the narrative. This will keep the reader stuck to your essay with anxiety on what lesson is learnt. After completion take a break of few minutes then go through your draft to see if your readers will notice some recreation of experiences.

An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Writing Assignment

Avoid revising immediately after finishing as chances of noticing error are slim as your mind is completely saturated. Ask your friend to read through your work, some may have other impressions which will guide you to redo and come up with a perfect narrative. When you read through take note of areas that need more emphasis, details etc remove unnecessary statements that cause distractions or confusion to readers. Potential prompts for your narrative essay achieving a goal start to think of either short term or long term goals you wish to achieve, for instance passing your final exam at the university or getting a good job that will enable you buy a good car and a house for yourself. A change you might have a change in your life either positively or negatively, e.g.

Death of your parents that prompted you to change your lifestyle, an accident that might have led to your wheelchair trauma. In todays do it yourself and get it done fast world, quality plays second fiddle to quantity. Who cares if your books are full of typos, bad grammar, and poor logic as long as you have published lots and made a bunch of money? readers care. And while you can still make a million with a bunch of badly written books and a stellar marketing scheme, your work wont be taken seriously. Also and this is critical , while its possible to make it big by writing badly, its not likely.

The better your writing, the better your chances for securing a readership and building a career. There will be different traits that make good fiction versus good poetry or good nonfiction. However, we can cull together a general list of the characteristics of good writing in no particular order:

    clarity and focus: in good writing, everything makes sense and readers dont get lost or have to reread passages to figure out whats going on. Focused writing sticks with the plot or core idea without running off on too many tangents. organization: a well organized piece of writing is not only clear, its presented in a way that is logical and aesthetically pleasing.

    You can tell non linear stories or place your thesis at the end of an essay and get away with it as long as your scenes or ideas are well ordered. ideas and themes: is the topic of your paper relevant? does your story come complete with themes? can the reader visualize your poem? for a piece of writing to be considered well crafted, it has to contain clearly identifiable ideas and themes. Its your unique way of stringing words together, formulating ideas, and relating scenes or images to the reader. language word choice: we writers can never underestimate or fail to appreciate our most valuable tools: words. Good writing includes precise and accurate word choices and well crafted sentences. grammar and style: many writers would wish this one away, but for a piece of writing to be considered good let alone great , it has to follow the rules of grammar and break those rules only when theres a good reason. Style is also important in ensuring that a piece of writing is clear and consistent.

    credibility or believability: nothing says bad writing like getting the facts wrong or misrepresenting oneself. In fiction, the story must be believable even if its impossible , and in nonfiction, accurate research can make or break a writer. thought provoking or emotionally inspiring: perhaps the most important quality of good writing is how the reader responds to it. Does she come away with a fresh perspective and new ideas? does he close the cover with tears in his eyes or a sense of victory? how readers react to your work will fully determine your success as a writer. However, putting old ideas together in new ways and creating remixes of the best that literature has to offer is a skill worth developing. To write well, a writer must be able to recognize quality in a piece of writing. How can you assess or improve your own work if you cant tell the difference between mediocre and better writing in others work? writing is also an art form and therefore subject to personal taste.

    Can you read a book and dislike it but acknowledge that the writing was good? have you ever read a book and loved the story but felt that the writing was weak? a writer should be able to articulate why a piece of writing succeeds or fails, and a writer should also be able to recognize the qualities in a piece of writing even when it doesnt appeal to personal taste. These skills are especially necessary when writers are reviewing or critiquing other writers work and when revising, editing, and proofreading their own work. Where do you stand? do you rate other peoples writing? do you worry about whether your own writing is any good? would you add or remove any characteristics of good writing from this list? share your thoughts by leaving a comment, and keep writing. Pick a topic you can explore fully, without picking one so broad that you try to cover too much information or one so narrow that your writing and research options are limited.

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