Text: Refining Composition Skills 

The narrative paragraph is a recount of important events that have a somewhat significant impact on the writer's life.

Think about that as you read "My American Journey," by Colin Powell, p.38 and "The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl," by Elizabeth Wong. http://www.sabri.org/All-American-Girl.htm 

In a narrative paragraph, chronological development is required. Although narration usually refers to the telling of a story, the term is used to describe the relating of an experience.  That experience may be in the past or it may be a typical experience of usual activities or it may be going on in the present.

Biographies are examples of narration.  There is an interesting site on the net that you may want to discover. Go to: http://www.biography.com/news/virginia-woolf-biography-facts

The Narrative Paragraph

Refining Composition Skills pp.37-53.

A narration tells a story or describes a sequence of events.

Points to observe:

• Present and Past Narration

You can write about events that happen on regular basis, or write about events that too place in the past.  In either case, you need to pay close attention to your verb tenses.  Your verb tenses must be consistent.

• Writing a topic sentence and its supporting detail

Remember that a topic sentence must not be too broad, too narrow, or vague.  You must also avoid writing announcements such as "My paper is about...." or  "I'm going to tell you about.."  I addition, your topic sentence must have a controlling idea - ONE controlling idea - which you will develop in the sentences that follow.

• How to make your paper coherent

A narration tells a story or describes a sequence of events. You must show your reader the time relationship between sentences and ideas.  This helps to achieve coherence.

• Using adverbs of time and sequence
• The progressive and the perfect tenses