NARRATIVE TEXTS

Forms of narratives:

Traditional Narratives: fairy tales, folk tales, myths and legends, parables, fables, moral tales

Modern narratives: science fiction, adventure, mysteries, heroes and villains, cartoons, horror stories, realistic fiction.

Structure of Narrative Texts

1.      Orientation

Who? (characters)                           Where?                                              When?

Writer sets the scene for the story, informing the reader of the time, place and main characters of the story. Often gives an idea of the action to follow. For beginning writers, this would be one or two sentences.

2.      Complication (What?)

Something goes wrong or a problem arises. This usually involves the main character and one or more of the minor characters. This is the part of the text which makes the story interesting, by developing problem situations which can then be resolved.

What went wrong in the story?                              Why did it happen?

Which characters were involved?

3.      Resolution (How?)

This is where the problem or complication is resolved. The events and characters return to normal in a satisfying way. However, there can be an unhappy resolution.

How was the problem solved?                              Who solved it?

How did they solve it?

4.      Re-orientation (or Coda)

Optional. The reader is made aware of how the characters have changed and what they have learned from dealing with the complication and its resolution. It may be written in the form of a moral to a story (such as in a fable).

Language Features of Narrative Texts

·            use of the simple past tense

·            contain characters which may be human, animal, realistic or imaginary

·            sequence of events shown through the use of conjunctions (‘joining words’) which build up relationships of time, addition, cause (eg because, so)

·            can be written in the first person (I, we) or the third person (he, she, they) Some may use the passive voice.

·            descriptive adjectives are used to enhance the visual imagery

·            use of adverbs and adverbial phrases

·            use a variety of verbs to refer to a character’s actions and thoughts (think, feel, do)

·            when dialogue is included in a narrative, it involves a change of tense: eg When he got home, he walked in the front door and went through to the kitchen. “Trish, what are you doing here?” he said. (He asked Trish what she was doing there?)