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
INTERESTING PHRASES

WIDE

USE

OF

VOCABULARY

AND

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 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 with 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 Introduction
a spectacular vacation on a cruise ship at the beginning turned
out to be a nightmarish affair.

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 amagnificent azure. My blissful day did not stop there. The Raising
dusk thrilled me as I sat on a chair. The sky gave its golden action
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.
'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 myflummox, I
dragged myself outside and saw people running higgledypiggledy 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

Climax

the ship and then everything seemed to darken.

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 Falling
action
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!"
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

Note: the underlined words or phrases in the essay really help in earning 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
NARRATIVE ESSAY

ON

WRITING

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