Narration

A narrative tells a story.  This is a major technique in writing—so much so that this course even focuses one of its key assignments (The Narrative Essay, Chapter 03.2) on the dynamics of telling a story.   For more help with the specifics of narration, see that chapter. 

When used as a technique of development, narration is often used to provide key history or context on a subject to readers.  In many cases, a short narrative covering how the event, idea, situation, or controversy came to be can add significant flavor and depth to a piece of writing.  Here is a short example that could easily be added to the piece above on the Sunlight Foundation:

Narration]  In March of 2004, University of Richmond undergraduates Will Sams and Suzy Markos were working as volunteers with a local charity that provided meals to the elderly, disabled, and others who could not provide for themselves.  When delivering a meal to one of their clients, a Mr. Smith, both Markos and Sams noticed the condition of his apartment—it was badly in need of cleaning and even some minor repairs.  Mr. Smith, who had advanced Parkinson’s disease, was unable to clean his home effectively, and he had no family to help him.  It was at that point that Markos and Sams saw a need in the community.  They then talked to a classmate of theirs who ran a small professional cleaning business, and negotiated a deeply discounted rate for cleaning Mr. Smith’s apartment on a bi-weekly basis, funded by small donations from family and friends.   In a few months, Markos and Sams had forty-three clients and had set up a website for local community members and businesses to donate for or “sponsor” the cleaning projects.  The Sunlight Foundation was born.   Today, the Sunlight Foundation handles or subsidizes over two hundred cleaning jobs per month.  Thousands of elderly and disabled citizens in the Richmond area live in cleaner, more sanitary, and safer spaces because of the work of Markos and Sams.  

 

You should notice in the passage above that the writer uses key transitional words and description to give his narrative some depth—the same basic techniques that we use in longer narrative essays, here just compressed into a single paragraph.  The bold words above show the development of the narrative over time, and the words that follow describe the specifics of each event or scene in the story.  Even with a moderate amount of descriptive detail, the reader gets a nice overall history of the Sunlight Foundation’s origin and history.  

Exercise:  Narrative Paragraph Practice

As practice, write a short narrative paragraph on one of the topics below:

1. The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
2. Rosa Parks, Civil Rights activist
3. Sexual harassment in the workplace.

What is the basic “story” of each of these three subjects?  What historical background might a reader need to know?  Imagine for a moment that you are writing a piece about events / protests taking place at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.  (“The March for Our Lives” for example), an essay on the importance of women—and Rosa Parks in particular—in the Civil Rights movement, or an essay on the nature of sexual harassment in the workplace.    In the space below, choose one of these subjects and write a short narrative outlining the basic “story” that readers would need to know: