MY TIPS ON HOW TO WRITE A BETTER

NARRATIVE ESSAY

1. BRUSH UP YOUR GRAMMAR

There is nothing more important than having a good grammar skills. So,
language must be taken into consideration when writing an essay. Refer to
the above writing practises.

2. ESSAY SHOULD DEPICT WIDE USE OF VOCABULARY AND
INTERESTING PHRASES

Unlike the other types of essays, a narrative essay requires you to have a
wide repertoire of vocabulary in the story you wrote. This is to avoid a
dull story to be presented to the reader; in this case the examiner. From my
previous writing, I wrote that the marking system for continuous writing is
based on impression. Thus, to give good impression to the examiner on the
essay you wrote, you must include a wide range of vocabulary and some
interesting phrases. Study the examples given below:

Example 1
"It was a boring weekend. We were lazy to read books and study, so we
planned for a camping trip. After gaining permission from our parents, we
brought necessary camping things and food for the camping trip. Then, we
went to Mount Tahan."

Example 2
"It was a mundane and lacklustre period after the school final examination.
Danny, Erik and I had had enough of reading books and studying, so we all
set on going for a camping trip. After getting the green light from our
parents, we equipped ourselves with the necessary camping gear and
enough food to last us for the two-day camping trip. Then, we embarked on
our journey to Mount Tahan in high spirits."

Between both examples, Example 1 depicts a dull story but Example 2
depicts a colourful story although both are mainly telling the same
idea. Why? Here are the answers:
1. Example 1 lacks of vocabulary.
2. Reading Example 1 does not portray sense of maturity in writing unlike
Example 2.
3. Example 1 lacks of details but Example 2 has an adequate details in
the writing that added the value of interest.
4. The use of word/phrase like mundane and lacklustre, green light,
camping gear, embarked and high spirits added more sophistication to
Example 2.

So, how to make your essay more interesting to read?
1. Find words or phrases that can replace a common word that you
think can be used for every essay you want to write. For example
happy can be replaced by cheerful, cheery, merry, joyful, light-
hearted, jovial, gleeful, buoyant, carefree, blithe, glad, elated,
ecstatic, euphoric, overjoyed, exuberant, in seventh heaven,
propitious, auspicious and fortuitous. Actually these replaceable words
for happy just only a portion of it. A thesaurus may come handy for
this job. Try searching for sad, shocked, scared and so on.
2. Insert at least two idiomatic expressions in your essay like
Example 2 that uses the idiom green light which means giving
permission and high spirits which means happy. From Example 2
which is a complete paragraph there are already two idiomatic
expressions. So, imagine if there are five similar paragraphs!
3. This next tips could be very ambitious. Try to insert common words
and phrases from Latin and modern languages which had been
accepted and used in English Language. Such words like ad initio
(Latin) meaning from the beginning, esprit de corps (French) meaning
team spirit, genre (French) meaning style and so on. These words can
be found in english dictionary.
3. HAVE A FIXED PLOT WHEN WRITING NARRATIVE ESSAYS

Here is another important part in narrative essay writing. Plot. A good
narrative must have a strong plot. Beginning with an introduction, then
there is rising action, a climax, then falling action and lastly a resolution.

Example of a narrative essay:

From Terengganu 2010 Trial Examination; beginning with "I could not sleep
throughout that night..."

Stranded



I could not sleep throughout that night. Not even a minute. It
was just because I might miss the ships or boat that passed by




the island. I was shivering in cold even it was just a gentle
breeze. I thought to myself that things would have been
different if I did not take part in that vacation. Never in my
wildest dream that a spectacular vacation on a cruise ship at
the beginning turned out to be a nightmarish affair.




Introduction

The day before was a joyous one. I embarked on a three-day
vacation trip on a cruise ship. The vacation was amazing. The
scenic view was splendid across the horizon of the sea as far
as the eyes could see. The sea water was crystal clear and the
sky was a magnificent azure. My blissful day did not stop
there. The dusk thrilled me as I sat on a chair. The sky gave
its golden appeal and the Sun looked like it was sinking into
the sea as night began to unfold. Then, the golden yellow
background of the sky changed to twinkling stars. I was
staggered to see the view of the opulent God's magnum opus.


As the night grew older, something totally different started to
appear up to the sky. The sky was too dark. It darken so much
as the glimmering stars started to disappear. To my instinct,
something bad would happen any time soon, but I just could
not figure it out. I went into my room and soon dived into a
deep slumber.






Raising
action

'RIIIINNNNGGGG!!!!!!'


"This is your captain speaking. Abandon the ship! This ship is
about to sink!"


The loud ringing sound really woke me up from my comfort
bed and I was taken aback to hear the announcement. To my
horror, the ship was in topsy-turvy. High jinks enshrouded the
air. Then I realised, there was a storm happening outside. To
my flummox, I dragged myself outside and saw people
running higgledy-piggledy as they did not know what to do. As
for me, the only thing I could remember is that a huge wave
came crushing upon the ship and then everything seemed to
darken.





Climax



Streaks steaks of light awaken me found out that I was on a
beach. At last I thought that my misery had ended. But a little
exploration did not bring much hope. There was no one there.
So, being an optimistic person, I built up a settlement near the
beach. I laid upon my leaves bedding. I wondered. Could I
survive? Did my family know that I loved them? For how long
did I have to wait?


Out of the blue, an abrupt siren was heard from afar. Swiftly, I
arose from my leaves bedding and ran nearer to the beach. I
shouted for my life while waving my hands up on the air.

"Help! I'm here! On the island! Help! Help! I'm here!"







Falling
action

Then, the siren became louder and louder. At the moment, I
knew they had noticed me. Unexpected, tears of joy started to
drop from my eyes. Before I even thought my life was over,
now the door back to my life was widely opened. By the
moment I stepped into the rescue boat, I know that it was the
time for me to go home.








Resolution

That is the example of a complete narrative essay written by me within a
week time after my trial examination. This essay earned me 45 marks out of
50 marks.


Note: the underlined words or phrases in the essay really help in earning
me a high marks.

Now back at the title above which is about a fixed plot. What is the meaning
of fixed plot? A fixed plot is the plot that you will be using during your exam.
How to do that?

The example essay above is from the question; beginning with "I could not
sleep throughout that night..."


But, what will happen if the question says; ending with "...It was truly the
experience of a lifetime." My suggestion is that you keep on using the same
plot, NOT the same essay by means memorising word by word, but change
either the beginning or ending with respect to the question given.

This an example for changing the ending with the same plot:

"...Then, the siren became louder and louder. At the moment, I knew they
had noticed me. Unexpected, tears of joy started to drop from my eyes.
Now, looking back to what had happened to me I realised that I am
surviving alone at a deserted island. Not everyone could say that they slept
on leaves bedding and have the sky as the roof. It was truly an experience
of a lifetime."

Now, can you see what I am trying to make point here? By practising two or
three times, you can easily remember the plot. When writing the essay, try
as much as you can to relate the plot to the question asked. This is what
I did for my examination.

Note: the benefit of having a fixed plot is that the time that you usually
used to plan for your essay can be used to write. By the way, it is the
written part is submitted to the examiner, not the planning part, right?

IMPORTANT NOTE ON WRITING A
NARRATIVE ESSAY
1. Give a title to your essay (refer to the example essay given above;
it has a title) . The title itself must be relevant to the plot. So, does the
title 'Stranded' relevant to the plot? Yes it is because the plot is about
a person was trapped in an island after a tragedy on a cruise ship. The
title of an essay can be anything as long as it fits the story.
2. Must write more than 350 words. But, the essay must not too long.
Remember this; the longer you write, the more mistakes you write. An
ideal essay should be around 350 to 400 words.
3. Use only one hour to write the essay and the same for Directed
Writing; only use 45 minutes. Be fair when writing the essay;
4. Include wide range of sentence structures, vocabulary and must have
at least one dialogue (MUST HAVE - one of the characteristics of
excellent essay). Why you should have dialogue in your essay? When
you include a dialogue in your essay, it shows that you have the
knowledge in punctuation. This is what is special about narrative essay
because there is no dialogue in factual essay, right?
5. At least include a word that plays a specific sound. In the
example essay I include the word 'RIIIINNNNGGGG!!!!!!'. In english, it
does not mean a thing, but it gives the reader a feel to the story you
wrote.
6. Include a wide range of vocabulary to your essay to keep the
interests of the readers.
7. Check for any grammatical error after finishing the essay. Make sure it
is grammatically correct in order to get high marks.
WHAT TO AVOID?

1. AVOID WRITING SOMETHING THAT YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND

My teacher used to tell me that narrative essay is relatively a little bit easier
that the other types of essays; but it depends on the question itself! If your
do not understand a word or a phrase for a particular questions; DO NOT
even try to write about it! For example you are given this question:

Write about your most propitious moment.
See the underlined word? Most of us do not understand the word
"propitious", some may guessed that it means sad, surprise and so on where
the real meaning is happy. Avoid to write something that you do not sure.



2. AVOID MEMORISING THE ESSAY WORD BY WORD

Continuous Writing is very related to Directed Writing in terms of language.
The quality of language you portray in Directed Writing reflects the grammar
knowledge that you have because in Directed Writing the is no specific
question to be asked. It can be anything of any format. Unlike Continuous
Writing, students tend to memorising an essay.

How do the examiner even know that a student was memorising an essay or
not? It depends on the language on Directed Writing. Let say R got 6 marks
for language in Directed Writing but in the Continuous Writing R's language
band stands for A. By that time the examiner know that R was memorising
an essay. Thus, R's Continuous Writing essay will fall to the lower band.
Directed Writing does play a major role here.


Therefore, it is crucial for you to have a strong knowledge on basic
grammar.

THE END
...................................................................