NARRATIVE COMPOSITION.

NARRATIVE COMPOSITIONS

A narrative composition is a kind of writing were a candidate re-tells a story or an event that happened in the past.

NB: The aim of the writer is to catch the attention and interest of the reader at the same time stay within the given topic. The strength of a good narrative composition is to arouse the reader’s curiosity, anxiety and to keep the reader suspended until the climax of the story.

Typical narrative question.

 2) Write a story based on either one of the following:

Either a)

Or b)

You are free to write you own story here. It could/should even contain a lot of descriptions making it a narrative-descriptive composition but it still has to be a story that fully brings out the meanings of expressions made in the part of the question you chose. Do not answer both questions only answer a single part and make sure you number the answer you give correctly. The answer you give must clearly make sure the expression is an integral part of the story and not some afterthought. For example if the question was given as below:

Either a) If only I had been an adult

Or b) All hope was lost

For a) the key incident in your story must clearly show what happened could have been averted had you been an adult or it could have turned out differently at the very least. You could talk of, for instance, how you had an abusive father who abused you and your mother regularly, resulting perhaps in her untimely death and a life of hardship for yourself all which can be traced to that period. Clearly you could have stopped this had you been an adult, but it is all wishful thinking! You cannot write a story where you are an adult and seek revenge because that is not what you are being asked to do. If is an unreal conditional here. Nor can you write some other story and tack the statement either at the end or somewhere in the story.

 How to write a narrative composition

As part of your English Language Paper 1 examination you will be presented with the option to write a narrative essay or composition. Narrative essays tend to be very popular amongst students as the topics are usually approachable when compared to other options. This does not mean that narrative compositions are the easiest. Far from it! They are some of the most poorly answered questions in examinations.

A narrative composition question requires you to write a story. Narrative compositions have the following essential elements:

A point of view and a point of view character. This means the perspective from which the story is written. Usually stories are written from the author’s point of view where the candidate has to make ample use of the pronoun I. However this is not always the case and you should always take your cue from the question. For example:

Write a story based on one of the following:

Either a) His past had finally caught up with him.

Or b) After all the embarrassing things I had done, I never expected my parents to forgive and welcome me back home

The first question requires that you write the story from the point of view of some other character (he), it is up to you to provide a name and flesh him up. The second question requires a first person point of view where you will write the story as the main character.

Characters: Most stories require at least one character (the Point of view character above). A good story usually has more than one well developed characters who play important roles in furthering the plot of your story.

Plot: This is the sequence of events in the story. Always take care to include only relevant events in your composition otherwise it will become bloated with unnecessary details which increases the chance of you making errors. Often plots are characterized by conflict amongst the main characters in the story i.e. the protagonist and the villain, this is especially true in one word questions for example Love.

Setting: i.e. the place where the events in your story takes place. You should use imagery to quickly create the setting. Does the story take place indoors or outdoors? Is it in a small town or in the countryside? Here the candidate should demonstrate their descriptive skills.

Dialogue: Dialogue takes place between the characters of the story. Unless you are good with your punctuation you should avoid direct speech like a plague and instead rely on reported speech otherwise you will lose valuable marks due to punctuation errors.

Suspense: You should avoid cliffhangers i.e. needless suspense. You should carefully resolve and tie up all loose ends in your story especially those that have a bearing on the question. Consider the question above: His past had finally caught up with him. While suspense is a good thing you will lose valuable marks if, you say for example, fail to bring out the past that is supposed to have caught up with the main character in the story because it is a central requirement.

How to write the story

1. Choose a topic you are familiar with. It will do you no good to write about a story about a place you have never been to or a concept you are not acquainted with. For example if a story takes place in the country and you are a city person you would do well not to choose that topic.

2. Analyse and understand the topic taking careful note of all the key requirements in the story. For example if the title says: Write a story based on the following statement: Crime does not pay. Your story has to include an element of an actual crime i.e. an act that goes against the law. Disobeying one’s parents is not a crime for example. Secondly you have to show that crimes always have consequences.

3. Brainstorm by listing down ideas that come to mind. Order is not important at this stage.

4. Rearrange the ideas in a logical order. With stories this usually means in chronological order.

5. Using each idea form a topic sentence and flesh it up with details.

6. Write out the story making sure you give it a fitting introduction and conclusion.

7. Revise your story! This is important as often enough what you wanted to write/what you thought you wrote is not what you would have actually written.

8. Take care to do all these things in the set time.

9. Take care to use a consistent point of view.

10. Take care to use discourse maker, conjunctions and good punctuation.

11. Take care to be consistent with your tenses.

A narrative composition, like all other compositions has three parts namely introduction, body and conclusion.

Introduction

There are many ways of introducing a narrative composition, the candidate can:

         i.            Start by introducing the topic or question in the first line or sentence e.g. the accident I will never forget happened on…..

       ii.            Use direct speech or words from a character or person used in the story e.g. “police, police, please come to Masuwe river….” Cried Thabani as he tried calling the police using his cellphone.

      iii.            Anytime of the day, e.g. early in the morning… or late in the middle of the night….

     iv.            An action by any character in the story e.g. Jane woke up…

In introductions avoid the following: using phrases that have been used mostly in the past it bores the Examiner e.g.: it was during the holiday…, it was on Tuesday afternoon…, it was…. Instead the candidate can begin by writing: During the holiday…., On a Tuesday afternoon….

Body

Within the body of the composition the candidate should be able to keep the story interesting.

Narrative compositions calls for strong imagination (create mental pictures in the reader’s mind) and creativity (sensitive scenarios).

It would even be more interesting if the candidate would be able to explore the reader’s five senses (sight, taste, smell, hearing and touching).

Use discourse markers in a narrative writing, these can be used at the beginning of a paragraph or inside a paragraph or at the beginning of a sentence.

Examples (however, although, also, likewise, firstly, in addition, somehow, another point, secondly, finally, thirdly, the third issue is, moreover, therefore etc.)

Conclusion

A conclusion ties up the story thus in a narrative composition the candidate can conclude in any way he or she like as long as the conclusion sums up the story. The writer can use actual words of the character e.g. “oh shit, the devil is gone.” These were his last words as he turned, slung his gun and paced like a defeated soldier.

A candidate can conclude by using a question e.g. “A narrow escape, was it? Who would have thought that one could cheat death in such a way?”