SHS 1 ENG Lesson Note 34
NOTES FOR STUDENTS
This is English for SHS 1
Lesson 34
Essay Writing
Topic: Writing a Narrative
Objectives
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- identify the form of the narrative.
- plan a narrative essay.
- narrate using chronological order.
- use appropriate link devices to indicate time order in your narrative.
The Narrative
When you narrate, you tell somebody about something that has happened on a particular occasion or during an event. The narrative could be about something that has truly happened, or it could be an imaginary happening. In our literature lessons, we will refer to the account of the event that truly happened as non-literary, and the imaginary event as the literary form. The narration can be oral, that is, by word of mouth; it can also be written.
Narrative writing enables us to capture a moment, an event, or episode and keep it alive, perhaps, even forever. When you write a narrative paragraph, you tell a story by writing about a series of events, often in the order in which they occurred. These events are the details in your paragraph. Thus, a narrative paragraph has a narrator, a person who tells the story. The narrator may be a person in the story or an observer to what is happening in the story. Usually a narrative paragraph is a short story that is part of a longer story, or simply, an event that is part of a story. Now, listen to this:
Once upon a time, there lived a man called Kweku Ananse. He had a wife called Okonore Yaa.
His only son was called Ntikuma.
Kweku Ananse was rather greedy. He wanted everything for himself. He hated to share anything of his.
One day, Kweku Ananse had a dream. He dreamt that he was very very rich. He was very rich because he was the only person who had wisdom. He was selling out wisdom to the people of all nations. When the people came to buy wisdom, he dished it out to them using a teaspoon. One spoonful of wisdom in a matchbox cost hundreds of cedis.
When Ananse woke up, he set out at once collecting the wisdom from all over the world. In those days, wisdom was like butterflies. If you saw a bit of wisdom fluttering around, you could run after it and catch it. If that wisdom was related to the use of money, you became wise in using money. Many people didn‟t bother to be wise; they were content w ith eating and sleeping.
So, Ananse set about collecting all the wisdom in the world.
Features of a Narrative
Do you want to hear more of this story? Why do you want to hear more? What questions are running through your head?
- What will happen next?
- Will Ananse succeed?
- What will he do with the wisdom?
You see, the story teller has managed to arrest your attention. This is done by creating what is termed suspense. Suspense is that strong desire to know what will happen next. Suspense is a very important feature in a narrative.
Here are some other features of a narrative. These are the features that a written narrative will usually have.
The Title
A narrative is about a particular idea. This is the idea the writer wishes the readers to know about. This idea is usually captured in a title. The title will be a kind of summary of the idea discussed in the narrative. This means that the title will say very briefly what the story is about.
Imagine that I tell my children stories in the evenings. One evening as they sit around to listen to my story, I say to my children:
“This evening, I am going to tell you about „Ananse and the wisdom pot.‟”
This will mean that the story will be about Ananse and the wisdom pot. In the story, they will hear about Ananse; they will also hear about the wisdom pot. The events I will be relating will involve Ananse and the wisdom pot. This is the idea of the title of a narrative. The title may not necessarily be mentioned at the beginning of the story, but when the story is told, anyone who had heard the story will be able to say that it is about that particular idea.
The Narrator
The narrator is the person who tells the story. Remember that the narrator may be a person in the story or an observer to what is happening in the story. You will be taught in your literature lessons that if the narrator is a person in the story, this narrator will be called the first person narrator. On the other hand, if the narrator is an observer to what is happening in the story, this narrator will be called the third person narrator. The third person narrator is also called the omniscient.
In the story I tell my children about Ananse and the wisdom pot, I will be the narrator. I was not be there with Ananse in the story. However, I will tell the story as though I were there with Ananse when the things were happening. I will say, for example:
“One day, Ananse decided to collect all the wisdom in the world.”
In a statement like this, I, the narrator, am behaving as though I were in the mind of Ananse as he made the decision. I am behaving as God, who only knows everything. That is why sometimes this kind of narrator is referred to as the omniscient.
Imagine, on the other hand, that you witnessed fight between two boys and you were asked to narrate what happened. You may begin like this:
It was break and every student was anxious to go out of the classroom to get something to eat. I called out to Fabien, my best friend, to hurry up so that we could get to the „waakye‟ seller‟s stall quickly. Fabien walked to my desk and the two of us started walking toward the classroom door. I was walking in front of Fabien. At the door, I turned back and whispered to Fabien:
“Today, we can take that extra „wele‟. My dad gave me some extra money for mending his bicycle tyre.”
“Waaaoh!” Fabien said.
We both laughed aloud. We were then on the verandah. Then, I noticed Kofi Aaba coming toward us.
In beginning this narrative, I used the first person personal pronoun „I‟. I am part of the story, and I will narrate the story from the way I saw things happen, or my point of view. You see, this is the first-person narrator. I am in the story and I tell the story from my point of view.
The use of the past tense
The writer of a narrative will usually use the past tense. This is because the story the narrator tells is usually about something that has already happened.
However, the writer may also use dialogues in the story. These dialogues usually use the present tense.
Let us look at the narrative above again. The narrator said:
“Today, we can take that extra „wele‟. My dad gave me some extra money for mending his bicycle tyre.”
Fabien replied:
“Waaaoh!”
Do you notice that what the narrator said and Fabien‟s replies are in the present tense. This is what will happen in a narrative. The story will be told in the past tense but dialogues will be in the present tense. The dialogue will be saying exactly what the two or more people engaged in the dialogue are saying. This is the reason why the dialogue will be in the present tense. This means that if one of the people engaged in the dialogue says something that refers to the past, that statement will be in the past tense.
Characters
When we listen to stories, we note that the stories involve individuals. In most stories these individuals are persons. In others, they are animals. In literature, you will learn that stories in which the individuals we hear about are animals are called fables. Where there are animal characters, these animals will behave just like humans do; for example, the animals will have their chief, hold meetings, maybe, even go to school like you do.
Characters are very important in a story. In fact, stories are often woven around characters. We will learn about types of characters in our literature lessons.
Chronological Ordering
When we narrate or tell someone about an event, we give an account of the event. This event will itself be made up of a series of incidents or smaller happenings. For example, if you narrate the events during a quiz competition, you will be talking about things other than the questions and answers during the quiz. For example, before the quiz, there will be preparations, meetings by the organisers, and practice for those taking part in the competition. On the day of the competition, there will be the preparation of the venue, the arrival of the competitors, the sitting arrangement, and the beginning of the competition, among other things. These are the incidents or smaller events that will eventually make up the overall event.
In presenting all these we must arrange the smaller events in a way that will enable the person listening to us or reading our account to easily follow our narration. This arrangeme nt is usually in the order of the time the events occurred, or chronological order.
Let us look at two examples: Example 1
The football matches between our school and OSSA are always great events. For this particular qualifying match we trained at the Kaneshie Sports Complex. All the thirty- five members of the football team gathered at the school playing field at 5:00 a.m. every morning except Sundays. Then we will jog to the Kaneshie Sports Complex which is some five or so kilometres away. When we get to the Sports Complex, we ran round the playing field once. After this, we lined up for what we called the “stretch exercises”. This was just the beginning.
Example 2
I was always curious about funerals. This one was happening next door and that was where my cousin lived. I determined that I will see everything that happened during this funeral. First, there was the painting of the old house. This gave me the opportunity to pilfer some paint which I intended to use for face-painting later. Next, was the bringing in of the ingredients for the preparation of food for the guests. Cousin Doe and I helped in packing the foodstuffs into one of the kitchens in the house, and it was exciting. Then, in the evening, I was put in charge of the blender. I had always done this at home and was glad I could show my competence at this here.
Let us go through the short narratives again.
Can you make a list of the incidents in the order in which they happened in each of the short narratives? This is what is being referred to as „Chronological order‟.
Using Link Words in Narratives
Look at the first short narrative again.
What will you say the word „then‟ does in the paragraph? It helps us to understand that something happened before this particular incident. Also note that the use of „after that‟ also tells us that something had happened earlier.
These words are called link words and phrases. Their use helps the reader to follow the narrative easily.
How do we plan a narrative essay?
We have learnt that it is important to plan any essay before we begin to write it. Let us consider what to think about as we plan to write a narrative essay. Firstly, we must be clear in our own minds regarding the event we shall talk about. We can help ourselves by asking ourselves some questions. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you think about the various parts of the essay.
Introduction
Remember that this is the first paragraph of the essay. One of the first questions to ask yourself is:
- What is my story about?
The answer to this question will help you to give a title to your essay. Other questions to answer in this first paragraph include the following:
- What happened before the main event? (You can give a background to the main event.)
You can also frame the question as:
- What smaller events in the past have led to this main event?
Perhaps it is the sports season and the „qualifying matches‟ are being played. This will lead to determining the two teams that will play in the finals. One of these two teams will lift the trophy. You are narrating the events leading to the final match.
Perhaps there had been a death in the neighbouring house and the funeral is to be celebrated. Preparations were underway and you were involved, or you witnessed the preparations. Now, you are narrating the event.
The Body
This is where you discuss the main event. The question to ask yourself is:
- What happened?
- How did the event begin?
- What happened first: in the morning, in the afternoon, etc.?
- What was the most interesting or important part?
- How did the event end?
Conclusion
This is the last paragraph. In this paragraph you close the narrative.
- How will I sum up all that happened?
- What are the key incidents that happened during this event?
- If I think about the event, what comes to mind, or how do I feel?
- Will I like to experience this again? Why? Why not?
- Does the event have a lesson for someone? Who?
Summary
In this lesson, you have learnt that:
- a narrative refers to telling others about events.
- what we narrate could be real or imaginary events.
- every narrative includes important features such as the title, narrator, the use of chronological or time order, and past tense.
CONTENT CONSULTANTS
Author
Prosper Kwesi Agordjor, M.Phil.
Peer Reviewers
John Tetteh Agor, Ph.D.
Modestus Fosu, Ph.D.
William Foli Garr, (Rev.) M.Phil.