Narrative Mode of Writing Modes of Writing There

Modes of Writing There are four major modes of discourse (ways of writing): Exposition,

Narrative Mode of Writing Narrative uses these techniques to tell a story: A narrator,

Point of view is the perspective from which a story is told. In first

When you are telling/retelling a story, where is the line between truth and fiction?

Surprise! I’ve been tricking you into writing a narrative! Our writing activities the last

The Glass Castle How much do you think she changed the details? What makes

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Narrative Mode of Writing

Modes of Writing There are four major modes of discourse (ways of writing): Exposition, argument, description, and narration. Unlike the first three (which we will cover later), narration is totally centered on the telling of a story, and is made up of the ways that the creator of the story chooses to tell what happened.

Narrative Mode of Writing Narrative uses these techniques to tell a story: A narrator, which is the character or non-personal voice the author uses to tell the story. Narrative point-of-view, which is the perspective from which the story is told. A story can be told in first person or third person. Setting, which is a combination of the time and place when/where the story occurs. Narrative is very reliant on who the author chooses to be the narrator of his/her story and how the story is told. Narrators can be very trustworthy, or they can be unreliable; they can be very clear about what happened, or they can get all of their thoughts mixed up, etc.

Point of view is the perspective from which a story is told. In first person point of view, the story is told through the eyes of someone who is an active character in the story. In third person point of view, the story is told by some entity outside of the story. It’s never specified who or what this entity is. Third person limited POV limits you to the thoughts/actions of one character (think the Harry Potter series) Third person omniscient POV interacts with the thoughts/actions of many characters. This is sometimes called the “God’s eye” point of view.

Plot

When you are telling/retelling a story, where is the line between truth and fiction? Or, to be more cryptic: WHAT IS TRUTH?

Surprise! I’ve been tricking you into writing a narrative! Our writing activities the last several days have actually been the rough draft of your first essay in my class: a personal narrative about an event that happened to you in the past.

The Glass Castle How much do you think she changed the details? What makes you think this? Does the actual “truth” make much of a difference to how you read the story?