The majority of primary school essay topics are accounted for by narratives, such as describing an event, a person or a place; the theme is explored through the narration and description of an event, the words or action of a person. To score high marks in narrative writing not only requires more observations, reading and writing practice, it is also very important to study the methods and techniques for narrative writing!  

Five key points in narrative writing:

1. A clear understanding of the topic requirements

The worst mistake to make in essay writing is to digress from the subject matter. Narrative writing requires a clear understanding of the topic and a central theme that will capture the core ideas. If the topic is to write about someone that you miss, then you need to remind the children the difference between someone that you reminisce about, someone that is on your mind and someone that you miss. Reminiscence refers to people from the past, someone that you are unlikely to see or something that will not happen again. In this instance you are expressing sentiments and memories that have a deeper meaning compared to someone that is on your mind or you miss. If a student is writing about reminiscing about his father who has to travel to Mainland China for work then there will be severe penalties for failure to grasp the theme.  

2. Clear structure and organization

Narrative elements include the location, time, people, the cause, process and result of an event. If these six elements can be explained clearly in a coherent and logical manner, the writing will show clarity and completeness. To make the writing even more appealing for the audience, it is also possible to use other narrative techniques such as flashbacks, interleaved plot and multiple perspectives. However, note that to make your narrative clear and easy to understand, it is essential to have an outline. Students that do not write an outline often seem to be in disarray when creating a narrative. 

As part of the day parents can also spend time with their children to do some verbal communication practice. For instance, if children are talking about something interesting that happens at school the tendency is to say something off the top of their head. Parents can ask their children to fill in the gaps for each of the six elements when providing a narrative, so that the children can learn to describe things in a structured manner and improve their communication skills.

3. Selection of appropriate materials

 A common pitfall for many students in narrative writing is the choice of materials and the lack of novelty. Take the example topic of “Going to the park”, many students that write about their experience and feelings going to Sea World often will not attain high grades. Why? Because some students spend too much time dwelling on the process of going to Sea World, such as traveling in the car or standing in the queue that are symptomatic of a poor choice of materials. Some other students talk about the usual experiences at Sea World such as going on the rides or the oceanarium, and how they were still lingering when it is time to go home without any real feelings. Students that produce more compelling narratives will focus on the creatures at Sea World such as the dolphins or jellyfish, animals such as pandas and similar subjects to describe, and then introduce their feelings about animal protection and conservation.

Once the student has identified the theme, there will be a lot of potential essay materials that emerge from their thoughts, so it is important to know how to select what is meaningful and give up on those “me too” material and write about things that come from your own observations, experience and feelings.  

4. Depth in detail

Students often make cursory references to a lot of content in their narratives without being specific or detailed enough for the text to leave an impression for the audience. To add depth to the descriptions, try to describe something from all different sensory perspectives, to open your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin and your heart. These will describe your personal feelings about events, objects and people instead of a plain or lifeless description. In addition, try to add rhetorical devices, metaphors, richer vocabulary, proverbs and quotes from classic literary works that has been taught at school to bring more colour and life to the narrative.  

5. Accuracy in the use of words

Lastly, students need to pay attention to the use of word because an incorrect word or phrase will provide an accurate delivery of the intended meaning. The most common mistake is the misuse of idioms or proverbs. For example, a student may write on a blog that: “Going to the beach, I take off my clothes and go naked and jump into the sea.”However, ‘nothing to wear’ has been written as “Doesnt care about anything” so the sentence does not convey the true intention of the author and has an unintended or often humorous side effect. To address this problem, students need to read more books and newspaper regularly and grasp the exact meaning of the words and phrases to strengthen their ability to apply the correct words and expressions in writing.

@ 2014 Education Ladder