Virginia Walz, Coral Springs High

Rhetoric: Organization

Introduction to Narration

Virginia Walz A.P. English Language Coral Springs High School © 2004

Narration - defined

 To NARRATE is to tell a story, to relate a sequence of events that are linked in time.

Virginia Walz, Coral Springs High

Purpose of Narration

 The emphasis in narration can be on the story itself, as in fiction, biography, autobiography, some history, and much journalism.

 OR, a narrative can serve a larger point: a brief story about an innocent person’s death may help strengthen an argument for stricter handling of drunk drivers.

Virginia Walz, Coral Springs High

Purpose of Narration, cont’d

 The point of the narrative – the idea the reader is to take away – then determines the selection of events, the amount of detail devoted to them, and their arrangement.

Virginia Walz, Coral Springs High

Narration – Time

 Narrative Time is not REAL time.



Dilation

: an important event which took only minutes can fill an entire page.



Contraction

: a less important event which took several hours can be dispensed with in a single sentence.

Virginia Walz, Coral Springs High

Narration - Arrangement

 The point of a narrative influences not only which events are covered and how fully, but also how the events are arranged.

Virginia Walz, Coral Springs High

Straight Chronology

1.

2.

3.

 This arrangement is easiest to manage because it relates events in the order of their actual occurrence.

Short narratives Last event most dramatic Events preceding and following climax contribute to the point being made Virginia Walz, Coral Springs High

Inverted Chronology

 The final event, such as a self-revelation, may come first, followed by an explanation of the events leading up to it.

Virginia Walz, Coral Springs High

Summation

 The entire story may be summarized first and then examined in detail Virginia Walz, Coral Springs High

Flashbacks

 Shifts backward rather than forward in time.

 May recall events whose significance would not have been apparent earlier.

 Common in movies and fiction: a character in the midst of one scene mentally replays another.

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Transitions

 Whatever the arrangement of a narration, the writer needs to help readers through the sequence of events with

transitional expressions

.

 Transitional expressions signal the order of events (

afterward

); the duration of events (

for an hour

); or the amount of time between events (

a week later

).

Virginia Walz, Coral Springs High

Point of View

 The writer of a narrative helps readers by adopting a consistent point of view, a position relative to the events, conveyed in two main ways:   Pronouns indicate the writer’s place in the story: first-person; third-person Verb tense indicates the writer’s relations in time to the sequence of events: present or past.

Virginia Walz, Coral Springs High

Sample Paragraph Writing Topics  Select One:  An incident from family legend  A storm, flood, earthquake or other natural event  An act of generosity  The first time you met someone who became important to you  A trip to an unfamiliar place Virginia Walz, Coral Springs High

Narration/Description Essay Assignment Guidelines/Due Date  Final Paper due Monday 09/13/10 – NO EXCEPTIONS ●● NO LATE PAPERS  Body consists of 500-750 words.

 Typed, double spaced, 1” margins, 12-pt font, Times New Roman  Cover page: Title, Name, Period, Date  Do not place the Title on the first body page.

Virginia Walz, Coral Springs High