Narrative Text

Narrative tekt is a text that tells a story / description of events.

Purpose of Narrative text :

To entertain, to gain and hold a reader’s interest. However narratives can also be
written to teach or inform, to change attitudes / social opinions.

Types of Narrative are Imaginary and Factual or a combination of both.

They may include Fairy Stories, mysteries, science fiction, romances, horror
stories, adventure stories, fables, myths and legends, historical narratives, ballads,
slice of life, and personal experience.

Features :

· Characters with defined personalities / identities

· Dialogue often include – tense may change to the present or the future

· Descriptive language to create images in the reader’s mind and enhance the story.

Structure :

In a traditional narrative, the focus of the text is on a series of actions :

* Orientation :

In which the characters, setting and time of the story are established. Usually answers who ? when ? where ?

e.g Mr.Wolf went out hunting in the forest one dark goomy night.

* Complication or a problem :

The complication usually involves the main character(s).

(often mirroring the complications in real life).

* Resolution :

There needs to be a resolution of the complication.

The complication may be resolved for better or worse / hapilly or unhappily.

* Re-orientation

The ending of story.

* Evaluation

A stepping back to evaluatethe story or the moral message of the story.

The narrative text use the temporal conjuction . Example :

. once upon a time

. after

. before

. when

. Then, etc.

Sometimes there are a number of complications that have to be resolved.

These add sustain interest and suspense for the reader.

To help students plan for writing of narratives , model, focusing on :

· Plot : what is going to happen ?

· Setting : where and when will the story take place ?

· Characterisation : who are the main characters ? what do they look like ?

· Structure : how will the story begin ? what will be the problem ? how the problem going to be resolved ?

· Theme : what is the theme / message the writer is attempting to communicate ?