Return to Modes of Writing Descriptive | Narrative | Expository | Persuasive Teaching Tips: (adapted from Oregon State Department of Education publication and McDougal Littell's The Language of Literature and Writer's Craft)

The Narrative Mode

Definition:	Narrative writing recounts a personal experience or tells a story based on a real event or on an imagined event. All details come together in an integrated way to create some central theme or impression and, in the case of fiction, is created to entertain the reader. Narrative writing is usually characterized by the following: use of first or third-person narrator; plot, characters, setting; dialogue; showing, not telling; events organized in time-order sequence (although flashbacks and other organizational patterns are also used).
Forms:	Narrative writing appears in poetry, short stories, novels, personal essays, tall tales, and folk tales, to name just a few. It also takes a particular form in scripts and plays. A writer might use narrative writing to make a point in persuasive essay or to give an example in expository writing. Whatever the form, its purpose is to tell.
Guidelines:	No matter how narrative writing is used, the following guidelines for good persuasive writing will help. Students should organize the events effectively; depict characters and setting vividly; show, not tell; create a main idea, impression, or theme.

Vancouver School District - Spring 1999