Write simple notes for this but not too simple:
Narration tells a story by presenting events in an orderly, logical se-quence. In the following paragraph from “The Stone Horse,” essayist Barry Lopez recounts the history of the exploration of the California desert.

Western man did not enter the California desert until the end of the eighteenth century, 250 years after Coronado brought his soldiers Into the Zuni pue os in a ewi ered searc or t e cities o Ci o a. T e ear iest apprats so t e and were cur-sTÄÄÆurried. People traveled through it, en route to Santa Fe or the California coastal settlements. Only miners tarried. In 1823 what had been Spain’s became Mexico’s, and in 1848 what had been Mex-ico’s became America’s; but the bare, jagged moun-tains and dry lake beds, the vast and uniform plains of creosote bush and yucca plants, remained as obscure as the northern Sudan until the end of the nineteenth century.

Narration can provide the structure for an entire essay, but narrative passages may also appear in essays that are not primarily narrative. In an argumentative essav supportin• stricter gun-safety legislation, for example,you might devote one or two paragraphs to the story ofa child accidentally
killed bv a handgun. In rhis chapter, hcmvever. we focus on narration as the
dominant pattern ofa piece ofwriting.
Throughout vour college career, many of your assionments will call for
narration. In an English composition class, you may be asked to write about
an experience that was important to your development as an adult; on a
European hisrorv exam, votl may need to relate the events rhat led to Napo-
leon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo; and in a technical writing class, you
may be asked to write a report tracinc a companv’s negligent actions. In
each of these situations (as well as in manv additional assicnments), vour
writing has a primarily narrative structure, and the narrative supports a
thesis.
The skills you develop in narrative writing will also help you in other
kinds ofwriting. Aprocess essay, such as an explanation ofa laboratory exper-
iment, is like a narrative because it outlines a series of steps in chronolog-
ical order; a cause-and-effect essay, such as your answer to an exam question
that asks you to analyze the events that caused the Great Depression, also
resembles a narrative in that it traces a sequence of events.
a pro-
cess essay explains how to do something and a cause-and-effect essay ex-
plains why events occur, writing both these kinds of essavs will be easier
after yotl master narration. (Process essavs and cause-and-effect essays are
discus.sed and illustrated in Chapters 9 and 10, respectively.)

Developing a Thesis Statement Although the purpose ofa narrative mav be simplv to recount events or to create a particular mood or impression. in college writing a narrative essay is more likelv to present a sequence of events for the purpose of sup-porting a thesis. For instance. in a narrative about vour problems with credit card debt, your purpose may be to sh0M’ vour readers that college students should not have easv access to credit cards. Accordingly, you do not simply tell the story of your umvise spending. Rather. you select and arrange details to show your readers whv a credit card encouraged you r.o spend money vou didn’t have. Although it is usuallv best ro include an explicit thesis statement (“Mv necacive experiences with credit have convinced me that college students should not have access to credit cards”). you may also imply your thesis through vour selection and arrangement of events.

Including Enough Detai} Narratives, like other types of writing, need to include rich, specific details if they are to be convincing. Each detail should help to create a pic-ture for the reader; even exact rimes, dates, and geographic locations can be helpful. Look, for example, at the following paragraph from rhe essay “MvNarration Mother Never Worked” by Bonnie Smith-Yackel, which appears later in this chapter: In the winter she sewed night after night. endlesslv, begging cast-off clothing from relatives, ripping apart coats, dresses, blouses. and trousers to remake them to fit her four daughters and son. Everv morning and every evening she milked cows. fed pigs and calves. cared for chickens. picked eggs, cooked meals, washed dishes. scrubbed floors. and tended and loved her children. In the spring she planted a garden once Inore, dragging pails of water to nourish and sustain the vegetables for the fanl-ily. In 1936 she lost a baby in her sixth monch. This list of details adds interest and authenticicv co the narrative. The cen-tral figure in the narrative is a busy, productive \volnan, and readers know this because they are civen an exhaustive cataloe of her activities.

Varying Sentence Structure
When narratives present a long series of events, all che sentences can
begin to sound alike: “She sewed dresses. She milked cows. She fed pigs. She
fed calves. She cared for chickens.” Such a predictable string of sentences
may become monotonous for your readers. You can eliiüinace chis monoc-
ony by varying your sentence structure — for instance, by usino a variety of
sentence openings or by combining simple sentences as Smith-Yackel does
in “My Mocher Never Worked”: "In the wincer she sewed niÜhc after night,
endlessly. Every morning and everv evening she milked cows, fed pigs
and calves, cared for chickens. .
Maintaining Gear Narrative Order
Many narratives presenc events in the exact order in which they oc-
curred, moving from first event to last. Whether or not you f0110\v a strict
chronological order depends on che purpose of your narrative. If you are
writing a straightforward account of a hiscorical evenc or sununarizing a
record of poor management practices, you will probably want to move
directly from beginning to end. In a personal-experience essay or a fictional
narrative, however, you mav want to engage vour readers’ interest by begin-
ning with an event from che middle of your story, or even from the end, and
then presenting the events chat led up to it. You may also decide to begin in
the present and then use one or more flashbacks (shifts inco the past) co
tell your story. To help readers follow che order ofevents in your narrative, ic
is very important to use correcc verb tenses and clear cransicional words and
phrases.
Using Acctrate Verb Tenses, Verb tense is extremely ilnporcanc in
writing that recounts events in a fixed order because censes indicate
temporal (cime) relacionships. When you write a narrative, vou should be
careful to keep verb tenses consistent and accurate so chat your readers can

follow the sequence of events. Naturally, you need to shift tenses to reflect
an actual time shift in vour narrative. For instance, convention requires
that you use present tense when discussing works of literature ("When
Hamlet’s mother marries his uncle "), but a flashback to an earlier point
in the story calls for a shift from presenc to past tense (“Before his mother’s
marriage, Hamlec was . . .”). Nevertheless, you should avoid unwarranted
shifts in verb tense; they will make your narrative confusincy.
using Transitions. Transitions — connectincr words or phrases — help
link events in time, enabling narratives to flow smoothly. Without them,
narratives would lack coherence, and readers would be unsure of the cor-
rect sequence of events. Transitions indicate the order of events, and they
also signal shifts in time. In narrative writing, the transitions commonly
used for these purposes includefirst, second, next, then, later, at the same time,
meanwhile,
soon, before, earlier, after, afterward, now, andfinally.
In addition to transitional words and phrases, specific time markers —such
as three years later, in 1927, after ttL’0 hours, and on January 3 — indicate how
much time has passed between events. (A more complete list of transitions
appears on page 57.)
Structuring a Narrative Essay
Like other essavs, a narrative essay has an introduction, a body, and a
conclusion. If your essay’s thesis is explicitly stated, it will, in most cases,
appear in the introduction. The body paragraphs of your essay will re-
count the events thac make up your narrative, followino a clear and orderly
plan. Finally, the conclusion will give vour readers the sense that your nar-
rative is complete, perhaps by restatino your thesis in different words or by
summarizing key points or events.
Suppose you are assigned a short history paper about the Battle of
Waterloo. You plan to support the thesis that if Napoleon had kept more
troops in reserve, he might have defeated the British troops serving under
Wellington. Based on this thesis, you decide that the best way to orcanize
your paper is to present the five major phases of the battle in chronological
order. An informal outline of your essav might look like this.
By discussing the five phases of the battle in chronological order, you
clearly support your thesis. As you expand your informal outline into a his-
torical narrative, exact details, dates, times, and geographic locations are
extremely important. Without them, vour statements are open to question.
In addition, to keep your readers æsvare of the order of events. vou must
select appropriate transitional words and phrases and pay careful attention
to verb tenses.
Revising a Narrative Essay
When you revise a narrative essav, consider the items on che revision
checklist on page 68. In addition, pay special attention to the items on the
following checklist, which apply specifically to narrative essavs.
Editing a Narrative Essay
WhenYOLI edit your narrative essay follow the guidelines on the editing
checklists on pages 85, 88, and 91. In addition, focus on the grammar,
mechanics, and punctuation issues chac are particularly relevant to narra-
cive essavs. One of these issues — avoiding run-on sentences — is discussed
below.