How to Write A Narrative Text: Sad Stories
Learning Objectives
Expressing meaning and generic structure in an essay by using written text accurately and fluently in daily life context in a text form: Narrative. In this lesson, you will learn more about narrative text and you will learn how to write a narrative text.
Lesson
How to Write A Narrative Text: Sad Stories
Do you like reading stories? What kind of stories do you like? There are a lot of types of stories. There are drama, romance, mystery, comedy, etc. At school, you might call this kind of story as narrative text. Narrative basically means spoken or written story. A narrative text is a written story which happened in the past.The story is often fictional. It doesn’t always tell about human beings. There are also narrative stories about animals, fairies, and other creatures.
Narrative text has a purpose to entertain or to amuse the readers which means a narrative should be entertaining or amusing. This means, writing a narrative is not as easy as reading it. There are some things that make a narrative text different from other genres. Before you learn how to write a narrative text, read the following story.
Read
The Lonely Rabbit
Once upon a time, there lived a rabbit in a forest. He liked running around the meadow, but he was always alone. He looked for a friend, but he never found any other rabbit. He only had a parrot which came flying around the meadow once a day. He always thought of leaving the place he was living so that he could meet other animals, but he was too afraid of what was out there.
One day, the parrot sat on a branch of a tree while the rabbit sat under it. “It must be fun to be able to fly.” said the rabbit to the parrot. “Yes, it is. I can meet other birds and other animals, too.” said the parrot. “Aren’t you scared?” asked the rabbit.
“No, I am not. I can look everything from above.”The parrot answered.
The rabbit said, “Please teach me how to fly. I am all alone here. I want to see other rabbits.”
The parrot advised him to stay on the ground. The rabbit could not fly because he did not have wings. Nevertheless, the rabbit did not listen. He climbed the tree. “What are you doing?” asked the parrot “You will fall." The rabbit jumped off the tree hoping he could fly. Sadly, he instantly fell down and injured himself. The parrot took him to the rabbit’s place. The rabbit was very sad. Since then, he could not run around the meadow anymore. The rabbit regretted what he did. He wished he could turn back the time and listened to what his only friend ever said.
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Do You Understand?
There are three main parts, and another one, in a narrative text:
- The first part is called orientation. In this part, you tell the readers about the main character of the story and his or her condition (happy, sad, poor, rich, etc.), where the story took place, and when it happened. This part always comes in the first paragraph. As in the story of The Lonely Rabbit, the rabbit is the main character.
- The second part is called complication. This is where you tell the problem which arises in the story. For example, when the rabbits wanted to fly and asked the parrot to teach him, that is the problem of the story.
- The third part is called resolution. This is where you tell the readers how the problem is solved. In the rabbit story, the rabbit tried to fly but he failed and ended up injured himself. That is how the problem is solved although it doesn’t end with a happy result, but it is how the story ends.
- In writing narrative story you might also want to add re-orientation. This is optional. This is the part where you can add closing statement or give moral value, because a narrative text should have a moral value.
Key Points
Furthermore, there are several things you should note about writing a narrative text:
* In writing narrative text you should use past tense.
* A narrative text usually starts with adverb of time such as: once upon a time, a long time ago, etc.
* You can add dialogues in direct speech form (e.g. “What are you doing?” asked the parrot.)
Lets Practice!
Soal 1
A narrative text is mainly written in ....
a. Past tense
b. Future tense
c. Present tense
d. Future perfect
e. Present perfect
- Petunjuk: The story happened in the past.
- Pembahasan: The tense used in a narrative text is past tense. Narrative stories tell about events, conditions, that happened in the past. To show this, using past tense is the most appropriate way to write a narrative text.
Soal 2
We write a narrative text to ....
a. amuse the readers
b. describe something
c. tell about future events
d. explain how things work
e. tell how to do something
- Petunjuk: The basic purpose of narrative
- Pembahasan: A narrative text is aimed to amuse the readers. It means that the story is entertaining the readers. Although the genre is sad, it still can entertain readers in terms of taking readers away to the imagination of the writer. The plot, nature of the characters and setting are all the elements that can entertain readers.
Soal 3
The part where the problem arises is called ....
a. Resolution
b. Orientation
c. Description
d. Complication
e. Re-orientation
- Petunjuk: The part in which there is a conflict.
- Pembahasan: The part where the problem happens is called complication. A complication contains conflicts. Conflicts can appear in many forms and many ways, such as conflicts between characters (external conflicts) or conflicts within an individual (internal conflicts).
Soal 4
The part where you can add moral value is called ....
a. Crisis
b. Resolution
c. Orientation
d. Complication
e. Re-orientation
- Petunjuk: This part is optional
- Pembahasan: You can add moral value to the story in re-orientation part. This is usually placed at the end of a story. Story ending is contained in re-orientation, including the moral value.
Soal 5
These adverbs of time can be used to open a narrative, except ....
a. Once
b. One day
c. Next year
d. Long time ago
e. Once upon a time
- Petunjuk: The story happened in the past.
- Pembahasan: The adverbs of time which doesn’t indicate past event is “next year”. Although what you mean is the following year, in writing a narration, use the year after or the following year to keep the context in the past. Beware of choosing the right adverbs of time.
Soal 6
The following things are there in the orientation part except ....
a. The solution of the problem
b. The condition of character’s life
c. The time when the story happened
d. The place where the story took place
e. The introduction of the main character
- Petunjuk: Orientation is the opening of the story which tells introduction.
- Pembahasan: The solution of the problem comes in the resolution part. This is where problem solving takes place. The solution usually comes after the climax or peak of a problem.
Soal 7
Arrange these sentences into a good paragraph:
- Every day she came to a river bank to read a book.
- There once a pretty little girl who lived in a village.
- The old lady didn’t have anything to eat.
- One day, she met an old lady near sleeping the river.
- She looked so pale that the girl felt pity for her.
a. 2-1-3-4-5
b. 2-1-4-5-3
c. 2-1-5-3-4
d. 2-1-5-4-3
e. 2-1-4-3-5
- Petunjuk: The story is about a little girl who met an old lady.
- Pembahasan: The correct arrangement is: “There once a pretty little girl who lived in a village (2). Every day she came to a river bank to read a book (1). One day, she met an old lady near sleeping the river (4). She looked so pale that the girl felt pity for her (5). The old lady didn’t have anything to eat.” (3)
Soal 8
The following text is for questions no 8 to 10.
Choose the correct words to fill in the blanks.
Days passed away and his father . . . (8) being ill. He had to leave the city in go back to the village to take care of his father. He was afraid of losing his father. This is where he . . . his mind (9). He didn’t want to go back to the city anymore. Since he left the village his father lived alone. No one . . . (10) care of him.
The correct word to fill in the blank no 8 is ....
a. start
b. starts
c. started
d. will start
e. have started
- Petunjuk: The action happened in the past.
- Pembahasan: The past form of start is started.
Soal 9
The following text is for questions no 8 to 10.
Choose the correct words to fill in the blanks.
Days passed away and his father . . . (8) being ill. He had to leave the city in go back to the village to take care of his father. He was afraid of losing his father. This is where he . . . his mind (9). He didn’t want to go back to the city anymore. Since he left the village his father lived alone. No one . . . (10) care of him.
The correct word to fill in the blank no 9 is ....
a. left
b. lost
c. ended
d. changed
e. stopped
- Petunjuk: He thought differently.
- Pembahasan: “He didn’t want to go back to the city anymore” indicates that he changed his mind.
Soal 10
The following text is for questions no 8 to 10.
Choose the correct words to fill in the blanks.
Days passed away and his father . . . (8) being ill. He had to leave the city in go back to the village to take care of his father. He was afraid of losing his father. This is where he . . . his mind (9). He didn’t want to go back to the city anymore. Since he left the village his father lived alone. No one . . . (10) care of him.
The suitable word to complete the paragraph is ....
a. took
b. asked
c. saved
d. looked
e. wanted
- Petunjuk: Take after
- Pembahasan: His father lived alone. No one took care of him.
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