Narratives are stories about characters in fictitious situations. In such writings, the writer is like a film producer, trying to capture the readers’ attention through words and sentences that convey actions, plots, meanings, feelings and connections in a skilful manner.
In schools, students are given different composition topics to practise which require them to generate logical and interesting ideas, develop their language competencies and experiment with various styles of developing good story writing skills. Writing is more than just stating what someone did at a certain place due to certain circumstances. More than that, writing must ‘enlighten’ and ‘illustrate’ the action, people and scenario like a movie does.
If a student writes – ‘The boy tripped and fell into the big drain’. A reader or a teacher would want to know more :
what kind of a boy is he? – naughty, playful, athletic, careless or clumsy
how does he look like? – skinny with spiky hair and huge bookish glasses
what tripped him? – a rock, his shoe laces, a cat or was he day dreaming
what kind of drain? – smelly, dirty drain with disgusting and filthy rubbish
where is this drain? – beside a busy road, in front of the shops or near home
how would he feel? – foolish, terrified, embarrassed, stunned or bewildered
The following pointers serve to provide and imbue beginning and intermediate young writers with some useful tips on writing well and writing meaningfully in class or for exams.
1. Describe The Scene
2. Describing People (Characters)
3. Describing Action(s)
4. Describing Feelings (Emotions)
5. Using Dialogues
6. Be Different (Beginning & Ending)
7. Detecting Errors (Nothing Is Perfect)
Which I will further elaborate in the following posts.
Further Reading:
(ii) Describe the Scene
(iii) Describing People (Characters)
(iv)Describing Action(s)
(v)Dscribing Feelings (Emotions)
(vi)Using Dialogues
(vii)Be Different (Beginning & Ending)
(viii)Detecting Errors (Nothing Is Perfect)
(ix)Conclusion
Mr. James Chow (Nov 2013)
English Tutor
Kent Ridge Tutors @ Jurong
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