Things To Remember About The Structure Of A Narrative Essay
A narrative essay is type of writing assignment where your primary goal is tell a story, usually one that relates to a specific theme or attempts to shed some insight or truth. Despite a narrative essay’s relative free-form there are still some basic structural rules you should abide by. Here are things you should always remember about the proper structure of a well-written narrative essay:
- The Introduction, the Middle, and the Conclusion
- The Three Main Parts of the Introduction
- The Four Main Parts of the Middle or Body
- The Main Part of the Conclusion Paragraph
Like most other types of writing assignments a narrative essay has three basic components: the introduction, the middle or body paragraphs, and the conclusion. It’s usually a good idea to create an outline following this basic format and to fill in phrases or statements to signal the start of each of these components.
The introduction of a narrative essay should contain three parts: the sentence or statement hook, the necessary setting or background information, and the thesis statement or central argument. There are a number of ways of creating a great hook. One can start with an anecdote, a thought provoking question, or a well-known quotation. The necessary setting or background information should be three or four sentences describing the context in which the narrative takes place. And finally the thesis statement should explain exactly what you will be arguing or making the case for.
The four main parts of the middle or body paragraphs follow the same structure of most other types of academic writing assignments: each paragraph should have a topic sentence, some kind of supporting evidence or example related to the narrative’s theme, your thoughts or interpretation on this piece of evidence or example, and a transitional statement that signals to the reader that you are shifting or progressing to another part of your narrative essay.
The final paragraph serves to wrap everything up in a clear and concise manner. It should bring things full circle by remind the reader what it is you have argued, how your examples fit into the theme of the assignment and provide some kind of resolution or moral so the reader feels a satisfying sense of closure. Don’t simply repeat what has already been said, however. Expand on them in a manner that doesn’t bring up new information but explains what you have learned about the theme explored.
