WRITING A NARRATIVE / A

Roadmap
REFLECT & WRITE. As you read this roadmap section,
HIGHLIGHT the three tips you feel are most important to remember when
writing your own narrative. Why did you choose each of these?

Choose a topic that matters—to you, and

to others
Whether you write a narrative for personal reasons or in response
to an assignment, choose your own topic or work with an assigned
topic, try to write about something that matters to you—and try to
make sure that it will matter to your audience as well.

If you are writing a personal narrative, choosing a topic can be

difficult. You will need to choose an experience or event that you
feel comfortable sharing, in some detail, with an audience. Be sure
that the experience is not only important to you but also of enough
general interest to engage your audience.

If your narrative is not a personal one, you still want it to be

compelling. Narratives that aren’t personal are often part of a
larger conversation about an event, or some topic that the event
represents, which gives the story significance. For example, if you
are writing a narrative about how specific students’ academic
performances changed when their school began participating in a
school lunch program, you need to recognize that such stories are
part of an ongoing educational and political debate about the
effectiveness and public benefit of such programs. You may need to
do some research to understand this debate and how your
narrative fits into it.

Consider your rhetorical situation

Whenever you write a narrative (or anything, for that matter), you
need to consider the following elements of your rhetorical
situation:

Think about your AUDIENCE . Who will be reading what you write,
and what’s your relationship with them?

• Will your audience have any knowledge about your topic?

Will you need to explain anything or provide any
background information?
• How are they like or unlike you? Consider age, gender,
income, cultural heritage, political beliefs, and so on. How
will such factors affect how you tell the story?
• Can you assume they’ll be interested in what you write? How
can you get them interested?
• How are they likely to react to your narrative? What do you
want them to think or do as a result of reading what you say?

Think about your PURPOSE . Why are you writing this narrative?
What is the significance of this story, and what do you hope it will
demonstrate to your readers? Remember that your narrative needs
to do more than just tell an engaging story; it needs to make a point
of some kind.
Think about your STANCE . Are you telling a story that is very
personal to you, or is it one you have some distance from? How do
you want to present yourself as the narrator? Do you want to come
across as witty and amusing, if you’re telling a humorous family
story? As knowledgeable but impersonal, if you’re recounting
historical events for a political science essay? Whatever your
stance, how can you make your writing reflect that stance?

Consider your LANGUAGE . Almost everything can be said in a

variety of ways. Regardless of how many dialects or languages you
use in your everyday life, you have many options for your
narrative. Will your audience expect a certain kind of language or
style? Do you want to meet those expectations? challenge them?
What do you want your language to say about you? What risks
might you be willing to take with your language? How will the
medium and larger context limit or expand the language options
that are available to you? (You may want to consult Chapters 4 and
33 for more advice about language options.)

Consider the larger CONTEXT . What broader issues are involved in

your narrative? What else has been said and written about this
topic? Even if your narrative is personal, how might it speak to
some larger topic—perhaps a social or political one? Considering
the larger context for your narrative can help you see it from
perspectives different from your own and present it in a way that
will interest others.

Consider your MEDIUM . If you have a choice, think about which

medium best suits your goals and audience. The kinds of details
you include, the language you use, the way you present materials
from sources, and many other things depend on the medium. The
conventions of a print essay, for instance, in which you can use
written words and images, differ markedly from those of an audio
essay (in which you can use sounds but no written words or
images).

Consider matters of DESIGN . Does your narrative need headings? Is

there anything in the story that could be conveyed better with a
photograph than with words alone? Will embedded audio or video
clips help you engage your audience? Often in academic writing,
you may have to conform to a specific design format. If you can
determine the look of your text, though, remember that design has
a powerful impact on the impression your narrative makes.

Explore your topic and do any necessary

research
If you are writing a personal narrative, write down all that you
remember about your topic. Using FREEWRITING or other activities
for GENERATING IDEAS , write down as many specific details as you
can: sounds, smells, textures, colors, and so on. What details will
engage your audience? Not all the details that you jot down in this
exploratory stage will make it into your essay. You’ll need to
choose the ones that will engage your audience and support your
main point. In addition to sensory details, try to write down direct
quotations or dialogue you can remember that will help bring your
story to life.

If your narrative is not a personal one, you’ll likely need to

conduct RESEARCH so that you can provide accurate and sufficient
details about the topic. Whether your research takes you to sources
in the library or online, or into the community to conduct
interviews, it’s important to get the what, when, and where of the
narrative right, and consulting sources will help you do that.
Decide on a point of view
The subject that you choose to write about will usually determine
the point of view from which you write. If you’re telling a story in
which you are a central participant, you will usually use the first
person (I, we). In some academic disciplines, however, or if you’re
narrating a story that is not personal, the third person (he, she,
they) may work better.
Also think about what verb tense would be most effective for
establishing the point of view in your narrative. Most personal
narratives that are arranged in chronological order are written in
the past tense (“When I was twelve, I discovered what I wanted to
do for the rest of my life”). However, if you want readers to feel like
they are actually experiencing an event, you may choose to use the
present tense, as Georgina Kleege and Chloé Cooper Jones do in
examples earlier in this chapter.

Organize and start writing

Once you’ve chosen a subject and identified your main point,
considered your rhetorical situation, come up with enough details,
and decided on a point of view (not necessarily in this order), it’s
time to think about how to organize your narrative.

Keep your main point in mind. As you begin to draft, type out that
point as a tentative THESIS and keep your eye on it as you write;
you can decide later whether you want to include it in your text.

Organize your information. What happened? Where? When?

Who was there? What details can you describe to make the story
come alive? Decide whether to present the narrative in
CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER , in reverse chronological order, or in some
other order.

Draft an OPENING . A good introduction draws your audience into

the story and makes them want to know more. Sometimes you’ll
need to provide a context for your narrative—to describe the
setting and introduce some of the people before getting on with
what happened. Other times you might start in the middle of your
story, or at the end—and then circle back to tell what happened.

Draft a CONCLUSION . However you organize your narrative, make

sure your readers see the point of your story; if you haven’t made
that clear, you might end by saying something about the story’s
significance. Why does it matter to you? What do you want
readers to take away—and remember?

Look critically at your draft, get

responses—and revise
Read your draft slowly and carefully. Try to see it as if for the first
time: Does the story grab your attention, and can you follow it?
Can you tell what the point is, and will your audience care? If
possible, get feedback from others. Following are some questions
that can help you or others examine a narrative with a critical eye:

• How does the OPENING capture the audience’s interest? Is it

clear why you’re telling the story, and have you given readers
reason to want to find out what happened? How else might
the narrative begin?
• Who’s telling the story? Have you maintained a consistent
POINT OF VIEW ?

• Is the setting of your story clear? Have you situated the

events in a well-described time and place?
• Is the story easy to follow? If it’s at all confusing, would
TRANSITIONS help your audience follow the sequence of
events? If it’s a lengthy or complex narrative, would headings
help?
 • Are there enough vivid, concrete details? Is there a good
balance of showing and telling? Have you included any
dialogue or direct quotations—and if not, would adding some
help the story come alive?
• Are there any visuals? If not, would adding some help bring
the narrative to life?
• How do you establish AUTHORITY and credibility? How
would you describe the STANCE and TONE ? Do they reflect
your purpose and appeal to your audience?
• Does the story have a clear point? Is the point stated
explicitly—and if not, should it be? If the main point is
implied rather than stated, is the significance of the narrative
still clear?
• How satisfying is the CONCLUSION ? What does it leave the
audience thinking? How else might the narrative end?
• Does the title suggest what the narrative is about, and will it
make an audience want to read on?

Revise your draft in light of any feedback you receive and your
own critique, keeping your purpose and especially your audience
firmly in mind.
REFLECT & WRITE. Once you’ve completed your narrative, let it
settle for a while and then take time to REFLECT . How well did you tell the
story? What additional revisions would you make if you could? Research
shows that such reflections help “lock in” what you learn for future use.