As a student, whether in a school or college, you must be dealing with tons of academic papers and, primarily, essays. This kind of academic assignment is incredibly common and can be faced in the admission process, during tests and exams, and also as a kind of everyday homework for different subjects.
According to numerous surveys, essays are among students’ most common yet stressful tasks. They take a while to complete and have a significant impact on the final grade. And there are a few different types of them, which all have their own specific rules and characteristics.
If you are also facing challenges with this kind of task, getting the help of a professional research paper writer is an easy way to overcome the challenge and get a guaranteed high grade. Nevertheless, whether you like it or not, you will still need to know the difference between different essay types and learn how to handle them right. Read on, and an experienced research paper writer will tell you everything about narrative essays in this guide!
What Is a Narrative Essay?
It is a short piece of writing based on narration. Simply put, the primary purpose of this paper is to tell a story.
The first thing that differentiates this kind of task from the rest is that it’s often focused on personal experiences. That is, unlike most academic writing, this one allows students to get creative and personal while telling stories from their own lives.
Key Elements of a Narrative Essay
In order to see the difference between a narrative essay and the rest, it’s crucial to understand what it’s made of.
As was already mentioned, this kind of task tells a story, respectively it must contain storytelling elements. According to a research paper writer, there are five key elements to include in such pieces:
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Plot
When there is a story, there must be a plot. It is a roadmap of the events that take place in a story. It must be there in order to make your piece easier to understand for the reader and give it a logical flow.
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Setting
The setting is the next must-have element, and it’s basically a description of when and where a particular event has taken place. This element must be there to add more liveliness to the story and help the readers “feel” it better.
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Characters
First and foremost, every story needs to have the main character, a protagonist, who is in the epicenter of events. Most often, it will be you. And there also might be supporting characters who also participate in the described events and somehow affect the protagonist.
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Conflict
When there is a main character, there must be some kind of a journey that they go through and during which they often transform. To create such a journey, you need some kind of conflict – a moment when things get tough or an obstacle that your protagonist needs to overcome to transform and learn a lesson.
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Theme
Finally, in this kind of task, there should always be the main theme – the moral of the story. Simply put, it should be a lesson that the main character learned and that somehow affected their personality or life.
The combination of these five elements makes a great narrative essay. And it’s also one more feature that distinguishes this kind of task from the rest – other academic papers don’t feature such literary elements as a plot, setting, characters, etc. Most often, they feature bare facts, arguments, and so on.
Narrative Essay Structure
Each of us knows that a typical essay structure consists of three basic parts: an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Most academic papers fall into this structure. But not a narrative piece.
Since there is a story, it needs to have a narrative arc, which completely changes the overall structure. Namely, the arc consists of the following components:
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Exposition
This is the introduction of the story that provides background information about the setting and characters and gradually leads the reader to the development of the action.
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Rising action
This is the moment when you create tension and inform the readers about the appearing conflict.
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Climax
This is the description of the main event when the protagonist faces the challenge that they need to overcome.
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Falling action
This component reveals the consequences of the protagonist’s actions or choices made in the climax. This is the point when the conflict needs to get resolved.
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Resolution
This is basically the conclusion of your story where you need to state the moral or the main lesson learned.
Basically, all these components eventually break down into the three primary essay parts (intro, body, and conclusion). However, the content of these parts is much different than in other academic papers.
Other Distinctive Features of a Narrative Essay
Now that you know more about the purpose, structure, and essence of such pieces, you must be wondering what other differences might be there.
According to an expert research paper writer, there are five distinctive core features of this kind of writing:
- It’s written in the 1st person, whereas other academic papers are written in the 3rd person.
- The primary purpose is to inform the reader about a specific event, not teach them or argue about something.
- There are plenty of descriptions and vivid details related to scenes, settings, people, etc.
- It always tells a story, and it’s never fictional. Most often, the author tells about personal experiences.
- There must be present all main literary elements of a story, such as the plot, characters, etc.
These are basically the things that distinguish narrative essays from all other kinds of academic papers. Handling such assignments might be more engaging as they allow more space for creativity and personalization. Yet, in order to handle the task well, it’s crucial to know what it consists of and how to write it effectively. Hopefully, this guide will help you get on the right track!
