How to write a narrative essay「寫作技巧」
How to write a narrative essay？As the name suggests, narrative essays tell or narrate stories, anecdotes, experiences, whether these are personal or non-personal, individual or collective. Very often, students in US academic institutions are asked to talk about their personal experiences as part of such assignments. Narrative essays are normally expected to make a point, to come with life lessons, or to cause readers to appreciate certain life truths, human traits, importance of certain things or memories.This article provides you with relevant writing narrative essay tips, steps and examples for your reference.
一．What is a narrative essay
Writing A narrative essay is considered to be one of the most exciting learning activities. Most students don’t feel anxious about narrative essay format because of its simple structure and precision. One can trace the point on a narrative essay in the narrative essay definition. According to the latter, such an essay requires the writer to interpret a particular topic the way they see it while referring to examples from the author’s life. Unlike an argumentative essay, writing a narrative essay does not challenge the writer with seeking statistical data and scientific facts. The essence of a narrative essay is simply in storytelling.
寫記敘文被認為是最令人興奮的學習活動之一。大多數(shù)學生對敘事性文章的格式并不感到焦慮，因為它結(jié)構(gòu)簡單、準確。在記敘文的定義中，我們可以追溯到記敘文。后者認為，這樣一篇文章要求作者在引用作者生活中的例子時，以他們看到的方式來解釋一個特定的主題。與議論文不同，寫記敘文并不挑戰(zhàn)作者對統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)和科學事實的追求。敘事性文章的本質(zhì)就是講故事。
The author’s viewpoint and the perception of a particular issue are the fundamentals of a personal narrative essay. So, the focus is shifted from argumentation and facts to the narrative elements that contribute to the author’s story.
二．How to write a narrative essay
Without a doubt, you should consider various narrative essay topics as you start because it has to not only inspire your readers but also take your creative skills by storm. Here are the six steps you should consider as you start:
Step 1:
Careful Topic Choice. You should choose a topic that you know well unless you have to deal with a particular event provided by your course professor. Some narrative essay examples and ideas to consider:
My First Childhood Memory.
My First Trip Abroad.
Parents Are Your Best Friends.
A Lesson My Pet Taught Me.
The Day I Became Responsible.
Step 2:
Keep Your Narration Clear. It should be written in simple and clear language.
Step 3:
Correct Balance of Descriptive Details. Keep a healthy balance of details and do not overuse them. Since you will face the limitations of the small word count, every sentence should carry some value.
描述細節(jié)的正確平衡。保持細節(jié)的平衡，不要過度使用它們。因為你會面臨字數(shù)有限的限制，所以每句話都應該有一定的價值。
Step 4:
Write in the First-Person Narrative. As you describe the events that took place in your life or something that you know about, remember about this rule and try to test your narrative skills aloud as if telling a story to a friend.
Step 5:
Keep Things Engaging. Remember about bringing your readers to a creative climax of your story and let it unfold. Do so by writing three main points as if they are the book chapters.
Step 6:
No References. Avoid references if possible unless it is meant for some informational purpose. Make sure to quote properly according to your academic writing style.
Remember that your narrative essay should not be fictional as you talk about real events. It means that the plagiarism risks are quite low with this type of essay writing. Still, if you want to quote some information from the news or include anything that is not composed by you, it is best to use references to keep safe.
記住，你的敘述文章不應該是虛構(gòu)的，因為你談論的是真實的事件。這意味著這種類型的論文寫作的剽竊風險相當?shù)汀２贿^，如果你想引用一些新聞中的信息，或者包含一些不是你自己寫的東西，最好使用參考資料以保證安全。
三.narrative essay example
Prompt:The title of this essay is:Institution Of Slavery In Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl And Frederick Douglass’s Narrative.Once upon a time it was thought that slavery was just a normal developed part of life. It didn’t matter if you owned a slave or if you were a slave, this was just how things were. The slave narratives in the book were first-hand narratives of former black slaves in the South; and the first expression of humanity from a group of people in a society where antediluvian pseudo-science considered them to be minimal animals.
These former slaves were not allowed to be educated so their accuracy and their intelligence were always called into question by a system that had placed economic and social interests in maintaining slavery. Slaves saw themselves as human beings first, but their slave masters did not see them that way. They were constantly abused by their slave masters. Sometimes slavery rechanges murder into love.
The events of the Middle Passage took the enslaved Africans away from what they were accustomed to and their homeland, bringing them to the Americas. During this time period these enslaved people experienced countless incidents that consisted of physical violence and mental violence. They were constantly dehumanized and objectified, as well as being brutally whipped, and raped. The women were separated from their children. Of course, no parent wants to be separated from their child but especially a mother who has carried the kid for 9 months. It was very evident in the slave narratives and some of the videos we watched that the mothers will do anything just to prevent their child from having to experience what they must experience. For example, in the video “Life Aboard a Slave Ship” the mother held her baby close to her chest and then she decided that they both fall overboard, she made this decision for a few reasons. She did not want to be physically and mentally abused and dehumanized, she did not want her body to be objectified and used as a sex toy, and she did not want to be separated from her child. In a sense, she basically committed murder, because she killed herself and her child. However, she did this because she loved her child much more than anything else, so she felt that this was the better decision instead of having her child become enslaved. I think this example gives grounds for my thesis that sometimes slavery rechanges murder into love.
Slave mothers weren’t allowed to speak about who the father of their child was. If they did, they would be punished for it. In Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl a young slave girl had given birth to a child that was almost white, and she was slowly dying afterwards. The mother of the girl said, “The baby is dead, thank God; and I hope my poor child will soon be in heaven, too” (Jacobs, 422). While the child’s eyes were closing in death, “she thanked God for taking her away from the greater bitterness of life” (Jacobs, 422). No parent wants their child and grandchild to die, but the grandmother’s love for her child and grandchild was so evident that she would rather they both die and be in heaven as opposed to going through slavery. The child distinctly told her mother not to grieve because God knows all about it and he will have mercy upon her.
In the same narrative Jacob’s body was constantly being a target for sex at such a young age of 16 by her mistress’s father Dr. Flint. He repeatedly subjected her to aggressive and harsh sexual harassment because he saw her as an object and wanted to use her for his sexual pleasures without considering her feelings. Dr. Flint went as far as to build a little house for her to stay in just so that he can have access to her whenever he wanted. Forced her to become pregnant adding to his number of slaves, something she did not want. She wanted to have the freedom of choosing whom she wanted to be intimate with and she chose Mr. Sands. He got pregnant for him and then told Dr. Flint that she is “carrying another man’s child”. Once a woman is a child bearer it allows them pardon to death. Jacob’s was smart enough to know that and her fear of death or murder is now taken away and changed into a love that she will now have for her child she is pregnant with.
在同樣的敘述中，雅各布的身體在她16歲的時候就一直是她情婦的父親弗林特博士的性目標。他不斷地對她進行侵略性和嚴厲的性騷擾，因為他把她視為一個對象，想利用她來獲得他的性樂趣，而不考慮她的感受。弗林特博士甚至為她建了一所小房子讓她住，這樣他就可以隨時接近她。強迫她懷孕增加他的奴隸數(shù)量，這是她不想要的。她想有選擇親密對象的自由于是她選擇了桑茲先生。他為他懷了孕，然后告訴弗林特博士，她“懷的是另一個男人的孩子”。女人一旦生了孩子，就會被赦免至死。雅各布很聰明，他知道她對死亡和謀殺的恐懼現(xiàn)在被消除了，變成了對她懷孕的孩子的愛。
In Fredrick Douglass’s narrative his mother was a former slave and she was excluded from the cult of true womanhood. The cult of true womanhood is believed that the woman’s proper place was in the home taking care of the children, making beds, cooking, and needlework, they were supposed to be submissive and remain virgins until marriage and value their religion. However, Douglass’s mother was deprived of this privilege her role of motherhood was broken and she couldn’t be with her child; bodies being used for slavery. Instead she had to work on a farm, and she was separated from her son when he was very young. “Before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for the field labor” (Douglass, 316). Douglass being able to see his mother only a few times in his life “I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times” (Douglass, 316) demonstrates the institutional rape being done to black slave mothers. Hence why many of the mothers in these narratives rather undergo murder, death, or harsh treatments in exchange for the love of their children, they value that way more than anything else.
Douglass was so determined that he did not want to be a product of slavery after knowing of the struggles that his mother went through, he was committed to learning to read and write. His Mistress was unlike any other and was teaching him the A, B, Cs, until her husband out. She was given strict orders by her husband to not teach him anything else. “It was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read, if you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him” (Douglass, 338). What the master told his wife was true and after hearing that Douglass decided that he would do whatever it took to learn so that he could escape slavery. He learned from other white children in the neighborhood and that is how his opposition to slavery came about.
Douglass是如此堅定，他不想成為奴隸的產(chǎn)物在知道他母親所經(jīng)歷的斗爭后，他致力于學習閱讀和寫作。他的情婦與眾不同，一直教他A、B、c，直到她的丈夫離開。她丈夫嚴令她不得再教他任何東西。“教一個奴隸識字是不合法的，也是不安全的，如果你給一個黑鬼一寸，他就會收一寸。一個黑鬼除了服從他的主人什么都不知道，如果你教那個黑鬼如何閱讀，就沒有辦法留住他了”(Douglass，338)。奴隸主對妻子說的都是真的，Douglass聽了之后決定不惜一切代價去學習，這樣他就可以擺脫奴隸制。他從鄰居的其他白人孩子那里學來的，這就是他反對奴隸制的原因。
Fredrick Douglass is an anti-racist and anti-essentialist, he believed that systems are what create behaviors. The poor white children in the narrative are an outside system, they have not been put into the slavery but because they are surrounded by the system of slavery it is what causes them to be racist. In the narrative the poor white children were always starving and not being fed. Douglass mentioned that he was better off than much of the white children. He portrays that white children weren’t intentionally racist by explaining how they were the ones who taught him and gave him the knowledge that he had to read and write. “This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge” (Douglass, 342). He would feed them bread and they would give him knowledge in return. He had so much gratitude and affection for them. Again, this gives ground for my thesis because since it is against the customs of slavery to teach a slave how to read and write, he could’ve been killed or murdered by his master if they had found out that he was being taught. But if this was to happen Douglass would’ve just been quite content that he was able to learn to read and write before he was killed/murdered, and he would’ve loved the white children for what they had done for him.
Similarly, in the Phyllis Wheatley reading she played with the images of light and dark. She believed in the racist theology of the time and that was because she was surrounded by a system of slavery and racism. Wheatley was mentally enslaved and thought that black people were “under the white”. In Africa her life was wrong because she did not know Jesus and her soul was filled with darkness. “Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land; Taught my benighted soul to understand that there’s a God, that there’s a Savior too… Their colour is a diabolic die” (Wheatley, 219).
In closing, the institution of slavery was an inconceivable, physical, emotional, and spiritual cruel system supported by racism and greediness. These slave narratives are so important because they mark the beginning of written self-expressions from the enslaved people in America. What is especially important to me is that I noticed in each of the narratives, the opening sentence is “I was born” which shows the slave existed as a human. The sad part about it is that throughout the narratives we see how the system of slavery continuously denied them of that humanity and instead treat them like animals. Like denying Douglass the right of knowing his birthdate and separating him from his mother. I personally, cherish these slave narratives because they are the first-hand accounts, real stories and experiences from former slaves. Also, because helps me to expand my own moral imagination in terms of being able to better identify and understand other people’s experiences.
Once you are finished with narrative essay writing, revise it to reach more clarity and proofread the parts that seem the most challenging. If there are paragraphs that require editing, don’t be afraid to ask your fellow students for help. It has been proved that outside advice can do a lot to the overall coherence of the text. We also recommend checking the essay for plagiarism in case there are parts that might have been used previously. Grammar is another essential part of the narrative. It is good to know that your story has a steady word flow and can impress the readers on an emotional level.
一旦你完成了記敘文的寫作，修改它，使之更清晰，并校對那些看起來最具挑戰(zhàn)性的部分。如果有需要編輯的段落，不要害怕向同學尋求幫助。事實證明，外部建議對文本的整體連貫性有很大的影響。我們還建議檢查論文是否抄襲，以防其中有一些部分可能是以前使用過的。語法是敘述的另一個重要部分。知道你的故事有一個穩(wěn)定的文字流動，可以在情感層面給讀者留下深刻印象，這是很好的。
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