Example:

“Write an essay explaining how email has changed the lives of students.”

Of all the types of essays, the narrative essay is the one that comes most naturally to most people. A narrative is just a story, and we all have plenty of experience at telling stories. Whether you have actually studied story construction or not, you already know the essential elements from experience.

A good story has an introduction, a plot, characters, a setting, a climax, and a conclusion. And you have room to work in the same moods that you might enjoy in the stories you read or watch. Your narrative essay can be a mystery, a suspense tale, or even a horror story. The possibilities are endless. But that’s not to say that you can just scribble anything down and call it a narrative essay. Here are some guidelines for writing a narrative essay:

Core Principles of the Narrative Essay

The use of the first person pronoun ‘I’ is allowed.

Your assignment may dictate whether or not it is appropriate to include yourself in the text, but if not, it’s up to you. This isn’t a short story, so even if you do decide to include first person words like “I” and “we,” they risk making your essay seem overly casual or, worse, like a diary entry. So use them if appropriate, but proceed with caution.

The essay should have a purpose.

A meandering, unfocused recounting of some arbitrarily chosen experience won’t do the trick here. You should have a point to make. If there’s no point to your story, the reader will feel like it’s a waste of time to read.

Start strong.

If possible, include something in the first paragraph which will grab the reader’s attention and make them interested to find out what is coming next. A vague or confusing beginning can compromise your essay’s impact.

Use evocative language.

The best narrative essays includes language which is carefully chosen to make an impact. Aim to evoke emotion and stimulate the reader’s imagination as much as possible. Rather than vaguely telling your readers what happened, aim to use specific details and vivid descriptions to recreate an experience for your readers.

Put yourself in the shoes of your reader.

Keep in mind that the information you present in your essay is all your reader will know about the experience you are describing. Remember that the small details, which may seem unimportant to you, are not necessarily known to your reader and could very well be worth including.

Communicating the significance of the experience.

You may want to jump right in. It can be very effective to begin a narrative essay with a paragraph that gets straight to core emotion you are communicating. With this technique, the reader will have no doubt as to the significance or your essay as they move through it. The opposite strategy can also work well. You can start out relating the details of the experience, but hold off of explaining its significance until closer to the end.

Don’t be afraid to experiment.

You may try it one way, only to decide upon another later. None of that work will be wasted, and your essay will be stronger for it in the end.

Be aware of how time flows in your essay.

Don’t describe each and every one of your own movements. Jump forward if you want. You can jump back, too, as long as you can do it in a way that does not confuse the reader.

Example Narrative Essays

Now that you’ve learned how to write an effective essay, check out our Sample Essays so you can see how they are done in practice.

The goal is to evoke the senses and effectively depict an image that is vivid and moving in the mind of the reader. As such, it allows for a great deal more room for artistic freedom. A little specificity goes a long way here. If you can weave in a few choice details that hook the reader, you are on the right track.

Guiding Principles for the Descriptive Essay

Be clear, concise, and specific. Even one well chosen detail goes a long way, and the more vivid you can be in painting a picture for your reader, the more impact your essay will have. Be careful not to go off on tangents, though. Everything you include should directly support the overall goal of your essay.

Show, Don’t Tell

Take the time to come up with descriptive words and images. Metaphors and similes can come in particularly handy. Here are some examples:

Try to have fun with it. This kind of essay works best when it creates a vivid picture in the mind of the reader, and coming up with good details about a person, place, or thing can be an enjoyable part of the writing process, even when you are away from your draft.

Evoke all five senses

Our five senses – sight, sounds, taste, touch, and smell – are the way we experience the world. To really draw your reader in, do your best to represent all of the senses, not just sight, which is the crutch most people tend to lean on. Our sense of smell can be particularly evocative and is closely tied to our memory.

Go deep

If you can describe an emotional connection to your topic, you can draw your reader in. We all have experience with the same feelings in life – joy, sadness, loneliness, worry – and if you can successfully evoke or even just describe these feelings, you create a reading experience that will leave a strong impression on the reader.

Stay focused

Just because this kind of essay hinges on personal experience doesn’t mean that it can be a random gush or thoughts and ideas. Structure is still vital here and a clear organizing principle is still needed. You must strive to present an organized and logical description if the reader is to come away from the essay with a cogent sense of what it is you are attempting to describe.

Example Descriptive Essays

Now that you’ve learned how to write an effective essay, check out our Sample Essays so you can see how they are done in practice.