The Narrative Essay
This week you are going to learn how to write a narrative essay. A good
narrative essay describes a significant experience and how you changed or
learned from it.
Here are some examples of narrative essay types:
1) Significant person tells of your relationship with someone, and what you
learned/gained from that relationship. For example, while growing up, you
might have needed to define new boundaries with your parents. Or you
might initially have viewed a teacher or coach as irritating or overdemanding, but later realized that they were only pushing you to do your
best. Or you might have had a rivalry with a classmate only to find that they
would become a good friend.
2) New experience tells of something new that you did and what you
learned/gained from it. Travel—either to a new city/country to live in, or a
short-term journey to an unusual place—can teach us many things. Or it
could be discovering a new passion or hobby, undergoing a significant
change in your family life (parents’ separation, new sibling, family illness),
or encountering a book/film that taught you to see the world in a new way.
3) Overcoming a challenge, which can overlap with “new experience”, tells
of a difficult thing that you faced and how you dealt with it, eventually
achieving some sort of victory. It could be getting on the basketball team,
achieving first in a piano competition, standing up to a bully, dealing with
prejudice, surviving a difficult class…
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Narrative essay types can overlap. For example, if you are writing about
moving to a different country where you faced a lot of prejudice but
overcame it with the help of one good friend, all three types are covered.
The purpose of a narrative essay is to make the reader like and admire you
because of the way you deal with people, challenges, and new
experiences. This is the type of essay students write in their college
applications to get into top universities. Some high-school students pay
professional writers to write their university applications narrative essays. It
is important, however, not to sound fake. A lot of narrative essays sound
cheesy, boring and “the same” because writers think they know what will
please or impress readers, but don’t actually mean what they write.
Narrative essays also contain descriptive techniques!
All the techniques you remember from learning how to write a descriptive
essay—concrete detail, unusual similes, ONE MAIN THEME/LESSON—apply
in narrative essays too! Don’t forget them!
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Day 1: Significant person
We all have important people in our lives. To write a good “significant
person” essay, you need to think of a person you are genuinely interested
in writing about.
Also, when students write an essay about a person, most of them forget
that the essay is more interesting if (1) the person is presented as
admirable but not perfect, and (2) events actually happen in the essay—it’s
not just a description of the person, but a story with a plot.
Here is a good example of how the writer accomplishes both these things in
her “significant person” essay:
Susan Lewis is a woman that very few people would consider a role
model for anything. A fifty-something-year-old high-school dropout,
she doesn’t own anything except a beat-up truck, a little dog, and a
ragtag herd of old and/or nervous horses with which she’s run a largely
unsuccessful riding lesson program for twenty years with no business
plan to speak of and little hope of ever turning a profit. She curses like a
sailor, is often late, and has an erratic and often terrifying temper.
I’ve taken weekly riding lessons with Sue since middle school, often
against my own better judgement. Despite all her faults, she inspires
me—not necessarily as a person I’d strive to be like, but simply for her
unique determination and perseverance. In the five years I’ve known
her, I’ve never once seen her give up on anything. She would sooner go
hungry (and sometimes does) than give up on her horses and her
business. She sticks to her guns on every issue, from political views to
hay prices to her (frankly terrible) business model. Sue has never once
given up on herself or her horses or her business, and she never gives
up on her students.
My dad lost his job not long after I started high school, and horseback
riding quickly became a luxury we couldn’t afford. So I called Sue to
tell her that I wouldn’t be riding for a while, at least until my father had
another job.
I hadn’t expected any sympathy (Sue, as you may have guessed, isn’t a
very sympathetic person), but I certainly wasn’t expecting her to yell at
me, either. But she did. She yelled that I was ridiculous for thinking that
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money should stop me from doing something I loved, and she would
see me bright and early Saturday morning regardless, and if she had to
drive me to the barn herself then she would, and I’d better be wearing a
good pair of boots because I’d be working off my lessons until further
notice.
Her refusal to give up on me said more than I could ever put into words.
It would have been easy for her to just let me leave. But Sue was never
a person to take the easy way out, and she showed me how to do the
same. I worked harder in Sue’s barn to pay for my lessons than I’d ever
worked before, earning every minute of my riding time, and I’d never
felt more proud of myself. In her own stubborn way, Sue had shared
with me an invaluable lesson in perseverance. She may not be much of
a role model in any other respect, but Susan Lewis does not give up,
and I strive to live by her example.
There are certain things you should notice about this essay. Answer
the following questions.
1) How is the intro paragraph so unlike a typical “significant person”
essay? How does this unusual introduction actually encourage the
reader to continue reading?
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2) What concrete details does the author use in the first paragraph to give
us a clear, interesting picture of Sue?
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3) This essay isn’t just a description of a person (which is often boring);
there is a story with a lesson. What is the story and what is the lesson?
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4) The writer portrays herself as an admirable person as well. What
admirable qualities does she have? Explain.
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Your turn!
Complete the following sentences.
1) My favourite teacher isn’t perfect because
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and yet I really admire the way he/she
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2) My best friend gets on my nerves when
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and yet I can’t imagine having another best friend because
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3) My parents and I don’t always see eye to eye. For example,
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However, I deeply respect them because
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Next, choose one of the above examples and think of an event that
showed that person’s admirable nature to you. For instance, in the
Sue story, the author doubted whether it was worth taking lessons
with Sue until her inability to pay for the lessons showed that Sue
didn’t care about money—she cared about her pupil.
Describe that event here:
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HW: Write your own “significant person” essay. Start by describing the
person including his/her flaws, then describe the significant event and
how that person handled it with his/her special quality. End by telling
the reader how that quality makes the person a role model for you.
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Day 2: New experience
Writing about a new experience in an interesting way can be difficult. For
one thing, no experience is really “new”. Let’s take travel as a common
example. Everyone has traveled before. How do you make your travel
experience seem new and interesting for the reader?
The trick is to catch the reader off guard—don’t give them what they
expect. For example, a lot of people who travel to a different country or
environment make it seem absolutely wonderful and eye-opening. When
you idealize something (make it seem all good), it’s easy to become fake.
Here is an essay with an unusual approach to writing about a travel
experience. How does the author avoid idealizing either her home country
(the U.S.) or the country she is visiting (Cuba)?
In my life, I have taken many journeys without which I would not have
experienced important truths. My father started us off early: we took
trips every winter break to Madrid, Mexico, Costa Rica, and to Jamaica
and Trinidad, my parents’ homeland for Christmas. Silly things I
remember from those trips include the mango chili sauce on the pork in
Maui, the names of the women who gave out the towels by the pools in
Selva Verde, Costa Rica, eating dinner at 10 p.m. in Spain.
These were all tourist experiences that I, at first, found amazing. My
truths were the truths of the tourist magazines: beautiful hotels,
beaches, and cities. However, the beauty of the surface—the lovely
beaches and cities—blinded me to the Mexican or Costa Rican beggars
on the other side of the hotel wall; I did not understand how the need
for hotel workers to speak English to us kept me from the sound of the
Spanish language that my grandparents had spoken.
I learned more about these truths in my sophomore year of high school,
when I was among a group of students selected to volunteer in Cuba.
My grandmother was born in Cuba, yet I had never thought to research
my own background. I have remained the naïve American who saw
Castro, the Cuban dictator, as some distant enemy of my country. Since
the Cold War, the U.S. and Cuba have never traded with each other. I
soon became interested, however, in Cuba and its culture. I began to
think, just what is communism anyway? What’s so bad about this form
of government? Why do our school textbooks in the U.S. tell us that
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Cuba is a completely corrupt nation with thoroughly bad leaders? I
believed that what was missing was a lack of understanding between
our two cultures, and that acceptance of our differences would come
only with knowledge.
My first impression of Cuba was the absence of commercialism. When
we got out of the airport, I saw no giant golden McDonalds arch,
enticing hungry Cubans with greasy, beef-laced fries. No McDonalds,
no Starbucks, no Apple or Mircrosoft stores and products. Instead, I
saw striking street paintings of Che Guevara, the Cuban leader, and
signposts telling people to be unified with other Cubans and love their
country. I realized, however, that much of the unique culture that I
enjoyed here might be gone if America started to trade with Cuba, the
way it did with the rest of the world. The Cuban truths in the paintings
and signposts were just as real/unreal as the American truths told to us
by McDonalds, Starbucks, Microsoft and Apple—but it was great to
experience things from another point of view.
History, I recognized, is never completely truthful. The journeys I have
taken have been colored by my experiences and by what my feelings
were in those moments. Everyone holds a piece of the truth. Maybe
facts don’t matter. Perhaps each person’s experience is their truth and
the more truths I hear from everyone else, the closer I will get to the
whole reality. Maybe I must go through life challenging and being
challenged, perhaps finding perspectives from which I can take a part
of—but never call—truth. I must find ways to understand others, to
seek what is common to us all and perhaps someday find unity in our
common human bond. This is what life has taught me so far. I hope that
my college experience will be like my trip to Cuba—challenging some
truths, strengthening others, and helping me experience new ones.
1) To the Americans, describing yourself as a traveler in a narrative essay
suggests you grew up in a rich, cultured family (it takes money to travel,
and American kids who live/travel abroad are often the kids of diplomats,
university professors, international company leaders…) This is why many
teenagers, American or not, mention where they’ve traveled in their
applications to U.S. universities. Where have you traveled, and why?
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2) In the second paragraph, the author gets you to “like” her by making it
clear that she is not too proud, that she understands what goes on outside
her privileged life. What details does she use to show she understands what
life is like for other people?
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3) What are the good/bad things about the U.S., as described in the
essay?
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4) What are the good/bad things about Cuba, as described in the
essay?
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5) What is the lesson learned from her travel experience, summarized
in the last paragraph?
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Your turn!
Compare and contrast two places you’ve lived. Think about how schools are
different in the two places, how culture is different, how you might be
expected to behave differently in each place.
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1st city/country: _______________
2nd city/country: _______________
HW: Write an essay about a significant experience that involved traveling to
a new city or country. Do not idealize either the old place or the new place,
but explain why you value what each place had to give you.
For example:
o Intro: How Chinese school is different from Canadian school
o 1st body paragraph: Learning math with the best teachers in China
o 2nd body paragraph: Discovering a love of biology in Canada
o Conclusion: “My schooling in China helped me to become the
excellent math student that I am, and I hope one day to be a
scientist, but the outdoor aspect of Canadian schooling gave me a
love of nature. I will need both my skills in math and my love of
nature to be a good biologist.”
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Day 3: Overcoming a challenge
Some people have had bigger challenges in their lives than others. It is
easier for some people to write a more interesting “overcoming a
challenge” essay because they have faced greater challenges and
become more mature and thoughtful. This is why it isn’t a good idea to
write about how you studied really hard and got a good mark. You will
be beaten by people who have overcome much greater challenges.
Another trap that a student can fall into when writing this type of
essay is by focusing on how awful the challenge was, rather than the
qualities that it brought out in him/her, and the lessons that he/she
was able to take away. When people ask you about a challenge you’ve
overcome when you’re interviewing to get into private school, get a
part-time job, or get into university, they won’t give you a spot by by
feeling sorry for you, but by seeing how well you deal with difficulties.
But cheer up! Anyone can write a good “overcoming a challenge”
essay by doing what all good narrative writers do: being different from
others, meaning what they write, and giving the reader something
positive to think about.
Read the essay below. How does the author (a) describe the challenge
in a way that we feel it’s “big”, and (b) show how he faces it well?
The weight of snow can be crushing. It’s ironic, really, how something
so airy, so light, can trap and kill people. And that’s where I found
myself: trapped in snow. I was alone, atop of Mammoth Mountain, with
no one and nothing around me.
Being stuck at the top of the Sierras really puts things into perspective,
and that afternoon, I found a new respect for the sport I love:
snowboarding. From my youth, I had been amazed at the feats of the
professionals in this sport, and in my ambition I told people that I
wanted to imitate them. I was laughed at by both family and friends for
this; it was understandable, I suppose, when you consider that making a
career out of hurdling down a 14,000 foot cliff at sixty miles an hour
isn’t exactly a ‘safe work path.’ But they failed to realize that ‘safe
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work’ never really appealed to my senses. Many people make
substantial careers crunching numbers behind desks—including my
father—and enjoy doing it. I, however, am extremely spatial in nature,
and the thought of being trapped in an office cubicle horrified me (and
it still does). Movement is what I need in my everyday existence, and a
small dose of danger helps to feed my manhood as well. Thus, my
ambition with snowboarding led to obsession, and consequently I
convinced myself of the talent I possessed to succeed.
Sure there were obstacles, but my boy’s mind told me I was invicible—
I had no limits to dangers I put myself to. This mentality is how I found
myself there, stuck waist-deep in powder snow as eighty mile-an-hour
winds howled around me at 11,000 feet.
Since I was only thirteen at the time, I was horror struck at the thought
of hypothermia, frostbite, or even death. Not being able to see your
arms outstretched in front of you isn’t exactly the most comforting
circumstance for a young teenager. Yet in the heat of the storm, calm
came over me. I realized that the professionals in this industry really
were beasts of men—dangerous men—who knew exactly what they
were doing. I realized that at a mere age of thirteen, the odds were
stacked against me, and that my thought that I was invincible would
lead to my fall. Still, I dug myself out, picked myself up, and charged
down the mountain with a new energy. I realized, as my Uncle Don
repeatedly tells me, “difficulties strengthen the mind as labor
strengthens the body.” For the first time in my youth, the whisper of
possible failure never sounded so sweet.
Life has difficulties, and rather than being discouraged, I have realized
that such challenge is really opportunity. When I reached the bottom of
the hill, I was proud that I had physically managed to snowboard down,
and even prouder of my mind than my body. As Napoleon Hill states,
“If you think you can, you can!” And I will.
1) What facts (and numbers) show that this mountain is SUPER HARD to
snowboard down? What does this tell you about the importance of details
and facts when describing a challenge you’ve overcome?
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2) Why do you think the author starts his story on the top of the mountain,
then gives us the background information about his childhood dream, then
brings us back to the mountain to finish the story? Why begin the story “in
the middle of the action”?
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3) What sentences tell us that the author is fearless?
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Your turn!
Think of a challenge you’ve overcome. Describe it in 1-2 sentences.
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Now, think of concrete details that will describe this challenge.
Numbers are good, but don’t overuse them.
o For example: “Here I was stuck waist-deep in powder snow as
80-mile-per-hour winds howled around me at 11,000 feet.”
o Or, in the case of another essay writer who’s discussing how he
prepares for a photography competition: “I waited in the field
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for four hours, while it kept snowing, taking 836 pictures just to
get one perfect image of frost wisping around the sun.”
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HW: Write about a challenge that you had to overcome.
o Start the introduction in the middle of the challenge—you are
already there. Use concrete details and facts to describe where
you are, what is scary, and how difficult the challenge seems.
o Spend 1-2 paragraphs after the introduction describing how you
got there. Why did you want to face that challenge? Or did you
have no choice? How did your family/friends support you?
o Bring us back to the challenge itself. Tell the story until its
conclusion. Describe the skills/knowledge/attitude that helped
you to meet the challenge.
o In your conclusion, describe what you learned from the
challenge and/or how it made you a better person.
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Day 4: Revising a narrative essay
Your narrative essay is the kind that you will need to re-write again
and again, getting others’ feedback, before you send it to be marked
or judged. This is because narrative essays are often “high-stakes”
essays—which means there is a big prize if you do well on them: you
get into a school you want to get into, you get a job (after telling the
same story in much shorter form and face-to-face)…
Today you will work on revising ONE of the narrative essays you have
written. Get out one of your essays and give it to a partner to edit. Get
your partner’s essay. If there is an odd number of students in the class,
have one group of three exchange essays in a circle.
Narrative Essay Checklist
1. Does the introduction clearly show what kind of essay this is going
to be: “challenge”, “new experience”, “significant person”, etc.? What
sentence(s) show the type of essay it will be?
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2. Give a mark (1 = boring, 5 = super interesting) for the essay’s intro.
Explain why you think it is boring, interesting, or just “OK.”
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3. For every event that the author mentions, are the basic facts clear: what
happened, where did it happen, etc.? Is there any missing information
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anywhere? (For example, someone might write about a scary public
speaking experience, but not say where they were giving the speech, who
the audience was, or what the speech was about.)
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4. Is the order of events confusing or easy to follow? If confusing, where
and why?
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5. Did the author include enough concrete details and facts about his/her
experience? What details/facts would make the story more interesting?
(For example, instead of just writing “It was a high, scary dive”, the author
might instead write: “I stood on a 10m diving board, looking into the deep
end of an Olympic-sized pool.”)
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6. In the conclusion, does the author clearly explain what he/she gained or
learned from the experience? If so, what is it?
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Give your feedback to the essay writer and explain it to him/her.
Then, choose one narrative essay that you are especially proud of
and share it with the class.
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