SIMPLE PROSE COURSE IN
ENGLISH
WINTER 2020
Chapter II: Narrative
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NARRATIVE WRITING
A
narrative is a STORY.
Narrative : A fictional story
you can make up all of the
events.
Personal Narrative: A TRUE
story about an event that
happened in your life.
WRITING NARRATIVES TO DEVELOP REAL OR IMAGINED
EXPERIENCES OR EVENTS USING EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUE,
RELEVANT DESCRIPTIVE DETAILS, AND WELL-STRUCTURED
EVENT SEQUENCES.
a. Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and point of view
and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence
that unfolds naturally and logically.
b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, marching, and description, to
develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
c. Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence
and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another.
d. Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory
language to capture the action and convey experiences and events.
e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on the narrated
experiences or events.
Now?
HOW DO I USE NARRATIVE
TECHNIQUES, DESCRIPTIVE
DETAILS, AND WELL-STRUCTURED
EVENT SEQUENCES TO WRITE
NARRATIVES?
A. ENGAGE AND ORIENT THE
READER BY ESTABLISHING A
CONTEXT AND POINT OF VIEW AND
INTRODUCING A NARRATOR AND/OR
CHARACTERS; ORGANIZE AN EVENT
SEQUENCE THAT UNFOLDS
NATURALLY AND LOGICALLY.
ORDER
Beginning:
 Introduce characters and setting
(time and place)
Middle:
 Events happen/conflicts (Rising
Action)
 Use descriptive details
 Keep the events progressing forward
End:
 Result (Falling Action)
POINTS TO CONSIDER:
Will you use chronological order?
 Will you use cause and effect?

POINT OF VIEW
First Person: Character is the narrator. Use “I”
and “we”
Second Person: When the narrator puts the
reader in place of the main character. Uses “you”
Third Person Limited: Only see the perspective
of one character.
Third Person Omniscient: The narrator knows
the thoughts of all characters. You see the story
from many perspectives.
ALL ABOUT THE NARRATOR

Point-of-view is only referring to the narrator’s
point-of-view.


You can only look at the narration to determine POV.
Words in dialogue do not count.
THREE POINTS-OF-VIEW
First
person
Second
Third
person
person
FIRST PERSON POV
The narrator is in the story and refers to him/herself.
 Narrator will use words like


I, me, we, us, our, my
FIRST PERSON POV

Example from Percy Jackson:
Look, I didn’t want to be a half blood.
If you’re reading this because you think you
might be one, my advice is: close this book right
now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told
you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.
…
My name is Percy Jackson. I’m 12 years old.
Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student
at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled
kids in upstate New York.
Am I a troubled kid?
Yeah. You could say that.
SECOND PERSON POV
The second person is almost never used in
literature.
 The second person is when the narrator says
“You” and puts the reader directly into the story.

SECOND PERSON POV
Example from Joeduncko.com
There is darkness everywhere. A small amount of
light is radiating from the halfmoon floating in the
sky overhead. There are no stars. It is cold and
humid. You look around you and find your friends
gone. You are completely alone.

WAIT JUST A MINUTE!
But the narrator says “you” a lot in the Percy
Jackson example. See:
If you’re reading this because you think you
might be one,
my advice is: close this book
right now. Believe whatever
lie your mom or
dad told you about your birth, and try to
lead a
normal life.
It’s true, Percy does talk to the reader sometimes.
But Percy is still the one narrating the story, so it
is still in his “first person” perspective.
THIRD PERSON POV

•
The narrator is telling a story about other people.
Narrator will use words like

He, she, him, her, they, them, their, (and characters’ names).
But wait! There’s
more!
B. USE NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES,
SUCH AS DIALOGUE, PACING, AND
DESCRIPTION, TO DEVELOP
EXPERIENCES, EVENTS, AND/OR
CHARACTERS.
STEP SEVEN- EDIT, REVISE, AND
PUBLISH
Edit- spelling, punctuation, grammar, and sentence
structure
Revise- make it better, reword parts, does the story
make sense?
Publish- recopy or word process and share!
BACK AND FORTH
CONVERSATION
“Look at that,” Jim said.
“I know,” whispered Joe.
“How do you know?”
“I just do.”
“Yeah, right.”
(You can stop using their names
each time when they talk back
and forth right away).
CONTINUED TALKING
 No
capital letter if you continue
after you write: I said or Joe
said
“Sir,” I said to the officer, “the
kid just broke his arm.”
NARRATIVE VOCABULARY
When you are telling your story,
you may want to use techniques
such as:
• Flashback: Go back in time to
explain an event or feeling
• Foreshadowing: Hints to
future events
C. USE A VARIETY OF TRANSITION
WORDS, PHRASES, AND CLAUSES TO
CONVEY SEQUENCE AND SIGNAL
SHIFTS FROM ONE TIME FRAME OR
SETTING TO ANOTHER.
USE TRANSITIONS:
Transitions:
 show
how ideas, sentences, and
paragraphs are connected.
 communicate the organization of
your writing
 are stepping stones that help the
reader get from one idea to the
next.
COMMON TRANSITIONS

o
o
o
o
o
o
Transitions run the
gamut from the most
simple — the little
conjunctions:
and,
but,
nor,
yet,
or,
(and sometimes) so —

o
o
o
o
to more complex
signals that ideas are
somehow connected —
the conjunctive
adverbs and
transitional
expressions such as
however,
moreover,
nevertheless,
on the other hand .
D. USE PRECISE WORDS AND
PHRASES, RELEVANT DESCRIPTIVE
DETAILS, AND SENSORY LANGUAGE
TO CAPTURE THE ACTION AND
CONVEY EXPERIENCES AND
EVENTS.
DESCRIPTIVE DETAILS
INCLUDE:
• Adjectives: Describe nouns
• Adverbs: Tell when, where, or
how something is done or to what
degree
• Sensory language: Appeals to
the senses: What do you see,
hear, feel, taste, smell?
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
• Idiom: Piece of cake
• Personification: The wind was
screaming…
• Simile: She was like a tiger on the
court.
• Metaphor: She was a tiger…
• Hyperbole: I am so hungry I could
eat a horse.
• Alliteration: Billy Bob bought a
bright blue BMW.
FIND EXAMPLES OF
DESCRIPTIVE DETAILS AND
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN
THE STORY “THREE
SKELETON KEY.”
Discuss what these details add to the
story.
LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING FROM A
SURVIVAL STORY:
Which example is more appealing?
 Rescuers say the group survived even though it
was cold outside.
 Rescuers say that a series of good choices enabled
the group to survive without frostbite or injuries,
despite temperatures which dropped to 21
degrees below zero.
What descriptive details do you
notice? What do the descriptive
details add?
E. PROVIDE A CONCLUSION
THAT FOLLOWS FROM AND
REFLECTS ON THE NARRATED
EXPERIENCES OR EVENTS.
NARRATIVE WRITING
 Tell
a fictional story.
 Write the events in order.
 Remember your plot diagrams.
 You can do flashbacks.
 Paragraphs can be any size.
INDENT!
 Use proper grammar, spelling and
capitalization.
SURVIVAL NARRATIVE DICE STORY/IDEAS
LOST
CHARACTER
YOU HAVE NO____
In a forest
Doctor
Water
At sea
Kid
Food
In a mall
Police Officer
Boat
In a desert
Teacher
Way to make a fire
In Alaska
U.S. Marine
Flashes
FREE CHOICE
FREE CHOICE
FREE CHOICE