Narrative can be a powerful tool in an essay. Many of the essays you'll have to write for college won't allow for narrative to play a role unless your subtle about it. For the free-write today I'm hoping to help you get an idea of how to thread narrative into your essays in ways your professors will embrace.
Before I get too far ahead of myself, let's look at what I mean when I say narrative. Narrative, simply, is a description of a series of events or scenes. Scenes are moments where actions occur that are central to the overall arc of the narrative. Usually, the first scene will introduce the place the narrative occurs and the characters involved along with some sort of problem or conflict. Each following scene develops the tension of the conflict until there is some kind climax, after which the tension is resolved. All this can happen in one scene, but typically occurs over the course of several.
- So, for the free-write today tell me a story that's important to your paper.
- Include at least 3 separate scenes.
- Be sure to introduce all characters early on and give the setting where the action takes place.
- Write from first person.
- Paragraphs can be no longer than 3 sentences.
- At least one descriptive paragraph per scene.
- If you feel your story is successful, consider using it in your essay as either evidence in support of a claim, strung out through your paper to keep your reader involved, or as an introduction or conclusion, or all three.
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