Narratives

Many students consider writing a narrative the easiest among all types of written assignments. But is this really the case?

In fact, narratives are the most difficult to write. First of all, they involve a lot of planning beforehand. What is even more important is the fact that narratives require the use of numerous adjectives and adverbs to make the story flow – the knowledge of which students usually lack. Nevertheless, we can definitely make it easier for our students to learn useful methods and strategies to write a gripping story.

Following are some useful tips concerning narratives as well as two exercises that will expand students’ knowledge of more sophisticated vocabulary items.

NARRATIVES

A narrative can be written in the first or the third person.

It describes a series of events, either imaginary or based on your own experience. 

It consists of three parts:

INTRODUCTION	You set the scene: PEOPLE INVOLVED, TIME, PLACE You set the scene in an interesting way to catch the reader’s attention
MAIN BODY	Two or more paragraphs You develop your story
CONCLUSION	You can refer to people’s FEELINGS, COMMENTS and REACTIONS or CONSEQUENCES

Points to consider:

1.      PLAN BEFOREHAND– plan your story – don’t start writing without doing it!

2.      USE TIME WORDS – such as at first, before, until, while, then, finally, etc.

3.      USE DIRECT SPEECH and a variety of VERBS

4.      BE CAREFUL WITH THE TENSES

•        Past Continuous – to set the scene
  The sun was shining and there were almost no clouds when we were preparing for the big match.
•        Past Simple – to describe the main events of the story
  When Alan was getting ready to kick the ball to Rick, he suddenly fell down and his team lost the chance of scoring a point.
•        Past Perfect – to give the background of the story
  Our team had been preparing for months before we were actually able to face our opponents.

Following are two exercises to practice linking events with the use of time words, and using more sophisticated adjectives and adverbs.

Exercise 1

Read the following short texts and fill the gaps with the phrases from the lists below.

AS SOON AS, AT LAST, IMMEDIATELY, MEANWHILE, THEN, WHEN, WHILE

The  aeroplane  had  only  been  in  the  air  for  about  twenty  minutes 1) ...................... suddenly it began to dive towards the ground. 2) ...................... the  passengers  began  to  panic. 3) ...................... the  flight  attendants  realised what   was   happening,   they   did   their   best   to   calm   everyone   down, 4) ...................... the plane continued to lose altitude. 5) ......................, in the cockpit, the pilot was struggling to control the plane. 6) ...................... it  righted  itself  and  he  sighed  with  relief. The  flight 7) ...................... continued without any further problems.

AFTER, BEFORE, FINALLY, SINCE, THEN, WHEN

There  had  never  been  a  storm  like  it  1) ...................... —  at  least  not 2) ...................... the great flood in 1962. Kevin was trying to steer his car through the  pouring  rain 3) ...................... all  of  a  sudden  his  car  stopped.  The  engine continued to run for a few seconds, 4) ...................... coughed twice and fell silent. Reluctantly, Kevin got out of his car and watched it sink slowly into the mud at the side of the road. 5) ...................... staring at his useless car for a few minutes, he 6) ...................... stuck his hands into his pockets, bent his head and began the long walk home.

Exercise 2

The following adjectives or adverbs can be used instead of other simplistic ones. Put them into the correct box. Can you think of any more words?

absolutely, delightful, enormous, entirely, horrible, massive, miniature, microscopic, superb, terrific, thoroughly, horrifying, extremely, gigantic, tiny, nasty, disgusting, huge, terrible, wonderful, unpleasant, fabulous

BIG
SMALL
VERY
BAD
GOOD/NICE

And now it’s time to put the theory into practice! Using the abovementioned time words, sophisticated adjectives and adverbs, as well as the sports vocabulary, write a narrative.

Describe a sports event that took an unexpected turn. Your story should be no longer than 200 words.

Source – adapted from: Evans, V. Successful Writing. Upper-Intermediate. Express Publishing.