How to Write a Narrative Essay or Speech

A narrative essay or speech is used to tell a story, often one that is based on personal experience. This genre of work comprises works of nonfiction that hew closely to the facts and follow a logical chronological progression of events. Writers often use anecdotes to relate their experiences and engage the reader. In doing so, you can give your narrative a level of emotional appeal. It can be serious or humorous, but this emotional appeal is essential if you want to give your audience some way to connect with your story.

Constructing the Essay

Magazines like the New Yorker and websites like Vice are known for the pages-long narrative essays they publish, sometimes called long-format journalism. But an effective narrative essay can be as short as five paragraphs. As with other kinds of essay writing, narratives follow the same basic outline:

• Introduction: This is the opening paragraph of your essay. It contains the hook, which is used to grab the reader's attention, and the thesis or topic, which you'll detail in the next section.
• Body: This is the heart of your essay, usually three to five paragraphs in length. Each paragraph should contain one example, such as a personal anecdote or noteworthy event, that supports your larger topic.
• Conclusion: This is the final paragraph of your essay. In it, you'll sum up the main points of the body and bring your narrative to an end. Writers sometimes embellish the conclusion with an epilogue or a takeaway.

Narrative Essay Topics

Choosing the topic for your essay may be the hardest part. What you're looking for is a particular incident that you can recount in a well-developed and clearly organized essay or speech. We have a few ideas to help you brainstorm topics. They're quite broad, but something will surely spark an idea.

1. An embarrassing experience
2. A memorable wedding or funeral
3. An exciting minute or two of a football game (or another sporting event)
4. Your first or last day at a job or new school
5. A disastrous date
6. A memorable moment of failure or success
7. An encounter that changed your life or taught you a lesson
8. An experience that led to a renewed faith
9. A strange or unexpected encounter
10. An experience of how technology is more trouble than it's worth
11. An experience that left you disillusioned
12. A frightening or dangerous experience
13. A memorable journey
14. An encounter with someone you were in awe of or afraid of
15. An occasion when you experienced rejection
16. Your first visit to the countryside (or to a large city)
17. The circumstances that led to the breakup of a friendship
18. An experience that showed that you should be careful of what you wish for
19. A significant or comic misunderstanding
20. An experience that showed how appearances can be deceiving
21. An account of a difficult decision that you had to make
22. An event that marked a turning point in your life
23. An experience that changed your viewpoint on a controversial issue
24. A memorable encounter with someone in authority
25. An act of heroism or cowardice
26. An imaginary encounter with a real person
27. A rebellious act
28. A brush with greatness or death
29. A time that you took a stand on an important issue
30. An experience that altered your view of someone
31. A trip that you would like to take
32. A vacation trip from your childhood
33. An account of a visit to a fictional place or time
34. Your first time away from home
35. Two different versions of the same event
36. A day when everything went right or wrong
37. An experience that made you laugh until you cried
38. The experience of being lost
39. Surviving a natural disaster
40. An important discovery
41. An eyewitness account of an important event
42. An experience that helped you grow up
43. A description of your secret place
44. An account of what it would be like to live as a particular animal
45. Your dream job and what it would be like
46. An invention you'd like to create
47. A time when you realized your parents were right
48. An account of your earliest memory
49. Your reaction when you heard the best news of your life
50. A description of the one thing you can't live without

Other Types of Essays

Narrative essays are one of the major essay types. Others include:

• Argumentative: In argumentative essays, the writer makes the case for a specific opinion on a topic, using research and analysis to persuade the reader.
• Descriptive: This kind of writing relies on detail to describe or define a person, place, thing, or experience. Writing may be either objective or subjective.
• Expository: Like argumentative essays, expository writing requires research and analysis in order to expound upon a subject. Unlike argumentative essays, the intention is not to change the readers' opinion but to inform the readers.

Sources

• Angelli, Elizabeth; Baker, Jack; and Brizee, Allen. "Essay Writing." Perdue.edu. 9 February 2018.
• Beck, Kate. "Instructions to Write a Narrative Essay." SeattlePI.com.
• Santa Barbara City College staff. "Structure of a Personal Narrative Essay." SBCC.edu.