Hello again 

Today we are going to look at essay structure and narrative writing.

General info on essay writing:

It is very important not to write in one solid block. Your paragraphs must be clear and flow in
continuous prose. Part of Cambridge marking includes seeing your topic (main), supporting, and link
sentences.

A topic sentence is the main sentence of the paragraph. Most of the time, this sentence is at the
beginning of the paragraph but it doesn’t have to be. The other sentences in the paragraph then
add to the topic sentence and, at the end of the paragraph you can write a link to the next
paragraph. The purpose of this is to keep the flow of the writing going.

I am going to start with a very simple example. Imagine I wanted you to write an essay about your
pet. Sounds boring? Not at all – it can be amazing. Imagine now that I asked you to write 900 words
on your pet! Now that sounds crazy, and yet, it is doable.

Your first step is to think about all the things you could write about. These include:
 Appearance
 Age and when you got him
 Care
 Play
 Bad habits
 Good habits
 How other pets react to him
 How other people react to him
 Training
 What you appreciate most about him

The above form the basis of 10 paragraphs, plus and introduction and conclusion, will make 12. To
make 900 words will require an average of 75 words per paragraph which is easily doable…and
that…is how easy it is!!!!
The next step is to actually write. If you use the above I think you’ll find the topic or main sentence
easy. The link sentences connect the one paragraph to the next. You can decide in what order you
will write these paragraphs in.

For example, between appearance and age you could write something like, ‘He did not always look
like a bear and wolf combination however’, at the end of the first paragraph. This immediately tells
your reader that you’re going on to another topic, a topic in the past, when you got him. Between
pet’s reactions to him and people’s reactions to him, you could write something like, ‘Other dogs
are not the only ones to respond in a playful way to him, you should see my friends time travel to
their childhood when they are with him.’

Now onto Narrative Writing – let’s tell a story!

If you don’t choose the descriptive essay your other option is a narrative essay. Narrative essays can
be written in first or third person.

First person is when you write as yourself, you are a character in the narrative. You use the word ‘I’
as well as ‘we’ if you include other characters. In first person narrative you are in the story so you
can only write about what you see, your interactions with the other characters and your thoughts.
However, a first person narrative can be very powerful because you can describe, with passion, what
you are going through, experiencing and how you perceive what the other characters are
experiencing. You can describe sounds, smells and sights accurately.

If you choose third person narrative you are then looking down on the scene. You can see all the
characters at any time and in any setting. You can change scenes because you are not in the story so
you can have more than one location.

As with ANY Cambridge instruction, always keep the question in your sites so that you don’t go off
target. It is a suggestion, but a strong suggestion, that you don’t have more than 3 characters in
your story. Characters require work and direct speech can get messy. Keeping it clean is important -
simple, powerful, good interaction between characters is more effective than a long ‘chat’ story.
In fact, very little direct speech is needed, sometimes you can get away with none, it just depends on
how you write. For example, in the question below you could be sitting at a coffee shop, observing.
The man in the long, black coat approaches. There are other characters sitting at or walking past the
coffee shop. They may not say a word; you may not say a word; you simply tell what happens.

You can also deliver a powerful story that includes speech. An effective tool is to have someone say
something in the last line, the clincher as it were. Gestures are also great and open a big door for the
use of figures of speech. E.g. ‘He slanted his eyes like the moon’s crescent’.

Don’t write a novel!! You are limited in your word count to 350 to 400 words. Keep the topic about
one event, not a year of events 

You must decide on the plot before you begin or you will find that you have no more words available
and the story isn’t finished. So decide on the beginning, middle and end – then stick to it! Keep it
simple and powerful. You must control your story, not the other way around.

You also need a setting, where and when is this taking place? Although you can write in the present
tense it is often easier, and always safer, to write in the past tense.

Good narratives often have a protagonist and an antagonist. The protagonist is usually the main
character who is struggling with something. It might be a problem, a situation, a condition, or a
force. Whatever the case, a protagonist needs to solve something and the reader roots for them.
The antagonist is the thing or person who keeps the protagonist from getting what they want.

Who or what is the antagonist in your story? To answer this question, you also need to find out what
the protagonist wants. What is the goal? What's the best case scenario for the protagonist? What
stands in the protagonist's way? The antagonist isn't "the bad guy" of the story, necessarily, and not
every story has a clear antagonist. Also keep in mind that for some good personal narratives, you
might be the antagonist yourself.

When using direct speech remember that whenever a new person speaks you have to go onto a new
line  Never forget to open and close with speech marks and have a comma after the words but
before the verb ‘said, explained, shouted, questioned, answered’ etc.
This is your question that I have taken from a specimen paper, enjoy!

‘The figure in the long, black coat.’ Use this as the title of a narrative. Write about 350 to
450 words