What is a Narration Paragraph?

Cherry Red

Narration
(download)
A narration or narrative paragraph tells a story about a single event.  Like the process paragraph, the sentences follow a sequential order.  Re-creating the story with great details, such as in a description paragraph, allows the readers to experience the event.  The action is given priority over the description.

According to Gerald Grow (1999), a narration paragraph is:

  • normally chronological (though sometimes uses flashbacks)
  • a sequential presentation of the events that add up to a story
  • different from a mere listing of events. Narration usually contains characters, a setting, a conflict, and a resolution. Time, place, and person are normally established.
  • always helped by specific details or interpretive language. You don't just lay the words on the page; you point them in the direction of a story.

Here is an example of a narration paragraph (Grow, 1999):

Around 2 a.m. something woke Charles Hanson up. He lay in the dark listening. Something felt wrong. Outside, crickets sang, tree-frogs chirruped. Across the distant forest floated two muffled hoots from a barred owl. It was too quiet. At home in New Jersey, the nights are filled with the busy, comforting sounds of traffic. You always have the comforting knowledge that other people are all around you. And light: At home he can read in bed by the glow of the streetlight. It was too quiet. And much too dark. Even starlight failed to penetrate the 80-foot canopy of trees the camper was parked beneath. It was the darkest dark he had ever seen. He felt for the flashlight beside his bunk. It was gone. He found where his pants were hanging and, as he felt the pockets for a box of matches, something rustled in the leaves right outside the window, inches from his face. He heard his wife, Wanda, hold her breath; she was awake, too. Then, whatever was outside in the darkness also breathed, and the huge silence of the night seemed to come inside the camper, stifling them. It was then he decided to pack up and move to a motel.

In this paragraph, notice how the following elements are established:

Character - Charles Hanson

Setting - 2 a.m., dark, a camper in a park

Conflict - nature, something did not feel right

Resolution - Charles and his wife left the park to stay at a motel

Now, tell us a story!  Post your own narration paragraph on this group blog.  It can be a real story or something that you created, but make sure that it has at least 5 sentences.  You can post it in any format, a picture with text, an audio file, or a video.  Post a comment on two of your classmates' blogs.  Have fun!