Outline Your Narrative Essay Like a Pro

Outline Your Narrative Essay Like a Pro

A narration essay seems to be the easiest college assignment. You tell stories to your groupmates every day. Sharing your experience with your professor is the same. Or not? Let me open you a secret of storytelling and give you some tips how to get A+ for your narrative essay.

Focus on One Scene, Not on Your Whole Life

The first task of writing a narration essay is choosing an accident you will describe. If you traveled abroad last summer, do not try to cram the whole vacation into 250 words. Write about a single day or a situation that you remember with many details instead.

It is like retelling a movie. If you try to explain what happened from the beginning to the end, your friend will probably understand nothing and get bored in a couple of minutes. But if you choose a single scene and cut unnecessary information out, your story will be interesting and the main idea will be definitely clear.

Brainstorm Topics

If you are not assigned to write an essay on a specific topic, you face one more task - decide what to tell about. In order to help you with research of your personal memories, I have listed ten ideas below:

  1. A score-changing minute of a football game you were present at
  2. An embarrassing situation
  3. Your first day at college
  4. A horrible date
  5. A memorable moment of your success
  6. An event that taught you a lesson
  7. An experience that dispelled your illusions
  8. A dangerous accident
  9. How you met your best friend
  10. A comic misunderstanding

Grab Your Readers Attention From the Start

A dull first sentence is the worst you can do in your story. Even if the further narration is exciting, you will not get a desired effect with a weak opening. There are lots of tricks to help you make your narration essay engaging. For example, shock your readers, ask a question, tell a joke. You may even present surprising statistics. But your first phrase should not be created out of thin air. It must be related to your point.

Stay Concentrated on Your General Idea

Every literature work has the main idea, and your story also should have it. While working on your essay, keep in mind the crucial message you want to convey to your readers. Every your sentence should gradually lead them towards your conclusion. As a result, you create a kind of a frame with your thesis statement: it appears in the first paragraph and in the last one in a rephrased shape.

Make Your Story Realistic

Dedicating a half of the narration essay to the weather description is not a winning strategy. But you can give details to help your readers to understand your point of view, tune them to the right mood, cause certain feelings. Let your audience see, smell, taste your story through the words. At the same time, do not hesitate to get rid of any excessive words and unimportant characters that distract your readers attention from the main idea and do not help the story flow smoothly.

Narrative Essay Checklist

If you want your story to be perfect, consider our tips:

  • The narrative essay is written in the first person. The third-person narration is applicable if you are retelling an accident that occurred to somebody else.
  • Use the past tenses if it is possible. Do not shift to the present tenses in order to not disturb the flow of your story.
  • Brush up on formatting. Do not forget about the quotation marks, paragraphs, commas. Your paper should meet academic writing requirements to get a good grade.
  • Proofread your essay before submitting it. Read it aloud and remake any weak wordings. Ask your friends to check your work. If they have any questions or anything looks unclear for them, refine those parts. Your story should be read in one breath.

I believe this article will help you to write your narrative essay like a professional. But if you have doubts about your storytelling skills, you are welcome to ask PaperCoach specialists to complete the assignment for you. Your excellent narration essay is a few clicks away.