Narration &
Description
Modes of Discourse
Patterns of Development
Organizational
Strategies
Narration & Description
Background

Narration – telling a story to make a
point

Description – evoking the senses to
create a picture

BEST when used together for writing a
detailed account of some memorable
experience

First trip alone

Last-minute political victory

Picnic in some special place
Narration & Description
Purpose

Introduce or illustrate a complicated subject


Analyze an issue or theme


Often used to support some other strategy such as
causal analysis or argument
Example: new awareness of patriotism because of
travel in a foreign country

Narrative purpose (what happened) and
descriptive purpose (what it felt like) linked to
other purposes

Could explain what caused new awareness
(why it happened) or to argue that everyone
needs such awareness (why everyone should
reach the same conclusions)
Report actions and describe feelings

Autobiography, history, fiction (most common)
Narration & Description
Audience

Consider


How much do I tell my audience? (narration)

Personal experience – few people will know
it before you tell it

Add or delete material to fit occasion
How much do I show my audience? (description)

Unusual subject – include a lot of info,
especially if it’s technical

New images & insights that create a fresh
vision of the subject
Narration & Description
Strategies

Beginning

Experiences and an essay about the experience
are NOT the same


Memory will be disorganized and poorly
defined
Experience to essay

Locate the central conflict

Between writer & himself

Between writer & others

Between writer & environment
Narration & Description
Strategies (cont’d)

After identifying the conflict


Arrange action so readers know

How conflict started

How it developed, and

How it was resolved.
Types of arrangement (choose pattern according to purpose)

Simple chronological order (1, 2, 3, 4, …)


Angelou’s “My Name is Margaret” – describes an evolution of
events leading up to the broken china
Start in the middle or near the end (4, … 1, 2, 3)

Williams’ “The Village Watchman” – describes impact of social
stigma
Narration & Description
Strategies (cont’d)

After identifying the conflict & deciding the plot
sequence


Establish pace – the speed at which the writer
recounts events

Quick – omit details, compress time, summarize
experience

Slow & careful – include every detail, expand on time,
present the situation as a fully realized scene
Select details – make scenes and summaries effective

Special details that satisfy the needs of readers and
further your purpose

Objective or technical to help reader understand

Subjective or impressionistic to appeal to readers’ senses

Figurative image or create dominant impression
Narration & Description
Strategies (cont’d)

In order to identify the conflict, decide the plot
sequence, vary the pace, and select details

Determine point of view

“I” OR “he” or “she”

Choose position – how close do you want to be to the
action in time and space

Involved in action

View it as an observer

Tell as events are happening or many years after
they’ve taken place
Narration & Description
Points to Remember
1.
Focus your narrative on the “story” in your
story – that is, focus on the conflict that
defines the plot.
2.
Vary the pace of your narrative so that you
can summarize some events quickly and
render others as fully realized scenes.
3.
Supply evocative details to help your readers
experience the dramatic development of your
narrative.
4.
Establish a consistent point of view so that
your readers know how you have positioned
yourself in your story.
5.
Represent the events in your narrative so that
your story makes its point.
In this excerpt
from her graphic
novel Persepolis:
The Story of a
childhood (2003),
Marjane Satrapi
recounts the
reaction of young
schoolgirls to the
law requiring
them to wear “the
veil.”
Some argue that
the veil debases
and even erases
female identity.
Others argue
that it provides
women with
safety and secret
power. How do
the characters in
Satrapi’s
narrative feel
about this
regulation?
Read Judith Ortiz Cofer ’s
“The Myth of the Latin
Woman: I Just Met a Girl
Named Maria”
Purpose

Why does Cofer introduce the conflict between custom and
chromosomes ? How does this conflict help explain the
concept of stereotype ?

How does this narrative help accomplish Cofer ’s “personal
goal in her public life?”
Audience

In what ways does Cofere use the references to Maria and
Evita to identify her audience?

How does she use the example of the piropos to educate her
audience?
Strategies

How does Cofere use the details of Career Day to explain how
a cultural stereotype is perpetuated?

How does she manipulate point of view at her “first public
poetry reading” to illustrate how she intends to change that
stereotype?