Narrative Essay Outline

Knowing how to write a narrative essay is quite an essential skill in your academic life. Nearly all levels of academia require students to write some form of this paper. When you compose it, you are normally considered the author of the narrative, and you are expected give a story whether fictional or real to an audience. This story is usually written in the first person if the story is yours initially. When you are narrating a story by another person, then it's best to use the third person in the narration.

While writing a narrative essay, the author ought to have a narrative essay outline or a narrative essay outline worksheet. This acts as a guide while composing the whole piece. It is a crucial step in writing. It serves as a worksheet that highlights all the main points to be discussed in the article. It ensures that the essay sticks to the rubric and also enables one to avoid unnecessary details in the entire essay. A narrative essay outline template can be used when trying to craft an outline for the narrative essay.

Importance of a Narrative Essay Outline

1. It helps the author in organizing content for an informative narrative essay.
2. It enables the author to maintain a logical flow of events and ideas in the entire essay.
3. It serves to map out the critical pillars of the essay.
4. It fosters coherence of the whole essay.
5. It enables the author of the narrative essay to ensure a chronological flow of events.
6. It gives the writer an opportune time to brainstorm over the plausible points that are of relevance to the subject of the essay.

A standard outline for the narrative essay has three main sections:

• Introduction
• Body
• Conclusion

This article will consider how to write a narrative essay outline against the backdrop of the above insights.

Writing the Introduction of the Narrative Essay Outline

The introduction is considered the hooking point of the essay. As a writer, you get to hook your readers at this point. If you slack in this, then it sets a negative or low tone for the whole narrative essay.

As a rule of thumb, the introduction of the narrative essay should state the intent of the essay, usually in a captivating and interest-arousing manner. It should introduce the reader to the subject without having to disclose too much.

It is crucial that you write a compelling introduction to capture the attention of the reader. Use literary techniques and some creativity to do this. For example, you could write a powerful and inspiring quote. You could also mention a few exciting aspects that would happen at the end of the piece to arouse the curiosity of the reader. She/he would read the essay in its entirety to see how the events uncovered to reach the mentioned ends.

The introductory paragraph normally consists of a topic sentence and some few following sentences that describe the subject. A thesis statement is part of this paragraph, and it is usually the last sentence of the paragraph.

Since your central mandate as an author is to prove a specific point to the readers, use your creativity to garner support for your points. An effective way of doing this is by starting with a topic sentence that seems conflicting and controversial. The subsequent sentences should add more salt to this controversial statement, and lastly, your thesis statement should try to prove the correct position as regards the controversial statement you initially wrote.

To illustrate:

Topic sentence: “Everything requires money, but money isn’t everything.”

2nd sentence: “This statement has some level of truth in it when looked objectively.”

3rd sentence: “Nearly all aspects of life require some money, but there’s more to life than just getting money.”

Thesis statement: “In light of this, this narrative essay will determine whether money has a central position in life even when it is supposedly not all that matters in life.”

As denoted from the above illustration, the introduction is quite captivating to anyone who reads it; especially the topic sentence. The supporting sentences have even aroused more interest by expounding further on the issue mentioned in the topic sentence.

The thesis statement objectively tries to find the right and fair position of what has been mentioned in the topic sentence; which forms the subject of the narrative essay. It focuses on what the reader should uncover and the intent of the author of the narrative essay.

When writing the thesis statement, you should strive to be concise and be clear so that the reader can rightly see the subject of the narrative essay. Failure to do so might overshadow the whole intent of telling the story.

The Body of the Narrative Essay Outline

The body of the narrative essay should ideally have three paragraphs, but this is subject to the length of the piece. The length of the paragraphs should ideally be 4 to 5 sentences, but this is also subject to the length of your narrative essay. The body presents the whole story to the reader. It is where you as the author try to defend your stance on the subject in question.

The structure of the body paragraphs includes:

• A topic sentence
• 1stSupporting sentence
• 2nd Supporting sentence
• 3rd Supporting sentence
• Concluding Sentence.

There should be smooth transitioning between your paragraphs in order to enhance the flow of ideas and to aid the chronology of events. One paragraph should be able to introduce the other in the entire essay.

In your narrative essay outline worksheet, you should write the points that each paragraph will cover. The supporting arguments and points should follow this. Then the final position should also be mentioned with regard to the case in relation to the subject of the essay.

The importance of jotting these points in the narrative essay outline is so that you don’t deviate from them while writing the narrative essay. It helps you stick to the necessary aspects of the story.

Here’s an illustration:

1st paragraph:

Topic sentence: “As soon as I got my first internship, I moved out of my parent’s house; and that is where I got to see the value of money.”

1st supporting sentence: “I had to fend for myself now, meeting all my basic needs.”

2nd supporting sentence: “I had to pay utility bills all by myself.”

3rd supporting sentence: “Some things became like transport to, and fro work and my social life became vibrant due to my spending ability.”

Concluding sentence: “Indeed, everything started to seem as if they required money but since I had it, it wasn’t an issue.”

2nd Paragraph:

Topic sentence: “After some time, my internship contract expired, and the firm offered the opportunity to renew it, though I declined it for a better offer of advancing my career elsewhere, but as an unpaid intern.”

1st Supporting sentence: “Having no income had some serious implications in my bachelor life.”

2nd Supporting sentence: “I was unable to fend for myself, pay bills, and meet the necessities."

3rd Supporting sentence: “My social life spiraled down; no one wanted to be associated with me because I didn’t have the dollars now.”

Concluding sentence: “Could it be that money is everything?”

3rd Paragraph:

Topic sentence: "My unpaid internship started becoming more fruitful, but I was forced to move back to my parent’s home to ease my financial burden."

1st Supporting sentence: “I started gaining vital skills at work which increased my human and social skills; I made new true friends and vital networks.”

2nd Supporting sentence: “I started becoming the darling of many in the workplace as I increased my capacity as a professional.”

3rd Supporting sentence: “Within a short period, I was offered a plum job that had all the perks and money that anyone my age would only dream of and I accepted it.”

Concluding sentence: “I quickly learned that money isn't everything in life as it comes and goes; there are other things such personal development and inspiration that make life meaningful.”

Writing the Conclusion of the Narrative Essay Outline

The conclusion serves to bring a summary of the main points discussed in the narrative essay. The writer takes the three discussed points and integrates them into one statement that fully supports his intention of writing the narrative essay.

The writer should write the moral of the story and the points that the reader should reflect on after reading the narrative. The author may also put a call-to-action if the context of the subject permits it.

The narrative essay outline should have some questions which the writer should answer while writing the narrative essay.

See the narrative essay outline template of the conclusion:

“What have you learned from this experience?”

“How has your life changed due to this experience and realization?”

"Would you have acted differently if you were to relive this experience?"

By answering these questions when writing the conclusion, you would have brought the essay to a great end.

Conclusion

The above narrative essay outline example can be used to guide you as you write your narrative essay. Use it today and apply it to come up with a winning narrative essay.

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