Definition and Peculiarities
Is there silence when you start telling the story? Great! Then you will perfectly cope with the paper. This type of essay presupposes telling a story or a moment from your life along with emotions. Professors like giving this assignment to students because, on the one hand, it requires good writing skills, but on the other hand, it allows learners to be themselves by sharing the exciting experience.
Paper Purpose
Having checked the definition, you may wonder, "Is sharing a story the main purpose?" Yes! But do not think that it is too easy, and you do not need any guidelines and tips. In reality, this paper requires as much attention and effort as other academic assignments.
Your story should be vivid, with an interesting and clear plot that has all the necessary elements such as characters and conflict.
Moreover, you need to find a middle ground. Otherwise, the reader can get bored if your essay is too long, or he/she will not understand the resolution if the paper is too short. Thus, you have to think deeply to make it clear and fascinating!
Essay Structure and Format
No matter what your topic is, you can fail the paper as well as make it successful. What affects this? First of all, the structure! So let's discuss how to write a narrative essay step by step to make sure you will not miss anything.
Like any type of academic assignment, an essay starts with an introduction that includes about 5 sentences. The first paragraph has to spark curiosity and desire to keep reading a paper as well as state the main purpose.
After that, you can move on to the main body that includes some elements from the story mountain. The classical version consists of three paragraphs that correspond to rising actions, climax, and falling actions. But you can add two or three paragraphs depending on the professor's requirements and your story. Perhaps, you have a lot to tell.
The last paragraph is the conclusion of your story. What have you learned from a situation that happened in your life? How has it changed you? Share your thoughts and emotions.
The second essential and influential thing is formatting. In most cases, professors indicate the narrative essay format, and this turns out to be the MLA. It is the most popular paper style for regular academic papers that has the following requirements:
- Times New Roman 12 with double spacing
- 1″ margins on all paper sides
- a heading
- title in the center of the paper
- paragraphs have to start with one half inch indent
Tips on How to Write a Narrative Essay of High Quality
📍 Be passionate about your topic
If the professor provided an opportunity to choose a topic, then take this chance! Look through as many topics as you can and choose the one that evokes emotion. You can also find a quiet place to think about a moment that you would like to share. If you are not indifferent to the topic, then you will definitely write an amazing story!
📍 Think about the content in advance
Any academic paper requires a good plan, and this paper is not an exception. If you do not want to miss a crucial detail or break the chronological order, we recommend coming up with a narrative essay outline. It is essential to organize your thoughts, especially when you describe an event from your past.
📍 Check how others cope with this essay
You may think that you will quickly write the paper without any problems because it is just about telling a story. But when the writing process begins, students have hundreds of questions or do not know how to describe the moment in an interesting way.
Thus we recommend reading a few paper samples to get some ideas and even inspiration for your future paper.
Narrative Essay Checklist
We know that students do their best to write a meaningful essay and be praised by a professor. It will be disappointing to get a low grade because of the missed weak paper parts. How to prevent it? Answer the questions below to check the paper content.
✔️ Is there a logical and chronological sequence of events?
✔️ Have you included time signals to show the development of the situation?
✔️ Have you described a place where a situation happened?
✔️ Are there enough details to make a story clear to the reader?
✔️ Have you shared your emotions to make a story vivid?
✔️ Have you finished the paper explaining the significance of the learned lesson?
✔️ Have you composed a first-person paper?
✔️ Have you used simple and clear language?
✔️ Have you proofread an essay several times?
We hope you have only positive answers. If there are some doubts, you should reread a paper and make the necessary improvements. Our last piece of advice is to give a paper to a close person so you will be able to hear someone's opinion before submitting an essay.
Topic Narrative Essay Ideas: Choose the Most Interesting One
📌 A funny story from life
📌 A moment that changed your attitude to parents
📌 A first travel experience
📌 The best moment with parents
📌 The first book that you read
📌 How you overcame a hard time in life
📌 The favorite place in the world
📌 A funny and embarrassing situation
📌 The best day with a friend
📌 The favorite toy in the childhood
📌 A time when you realized that other people envy you
📌 The place where you would like to go back
📌 The moment of your life that you would like to repeat
📌 The biggest regret
📌 The first serious conflict with a friend
📌 The best moment at school
📌 The moment when you felt alone
📌 Your first pet
📌 The best birthday party in your life
📌 Your first day at work
📌 How you overcame a fear
📌 An experience of attending an event
📌 A situation that changed your relationship with another person
📌 Your first school trip
📌 A person who inspired you
📌 A funny camping story
📌 The best holiday in your life
📌 A day of your greatest accomplishment
📌 A moment that changed your life
📌 A day when you helped someone
FAQ
📍 What is a narrative essay?
It is a piece of writing where students describe moments and situations that play a significant role in their lives. So they have to tell a realistic story with a logical plot, characters as well as provide details, share emotions to make it vivid and captivating.
📍 How long is a narrative essay?
You should discuss it with your professor, but the essay should be at least 500 words long. As for the advanced level, the number of words can reach up to 1000-2500.
📍 How to write a narrative essay?
Dealing with this paper, you have to follow the structure: introduction (give an idea of what you are going to tell about), main body (rising actions, climax, resolution), conclusion (explain how the situation affected you).
📍 How to start off a narrative essay?
This paper seems to be different from other academic papers, but nevertheless, you can use similar hooks. Depending on the topic, you can start it off with some anecdote, quote, shocking fact or statement, rhetorical question. Think about what works best for you.