Narrative essays are common assignments in language and composition classes. You will be assigned to write these types of essays whether you are in elementary school, middle school, or college. This article will help you understand narrative essays and their types. Furthermore, you’ll get awesome narrative essay ideas on different types of narrative essays.
Narrative Essay And Its Types
A narrative paper is a form of academic assignment in which the writer relates a tale about a personal experience while conveying a point. The purpose is not only to tell an engaging story but establish the setting, conflicts and resolutions, character development, conversation, and turning points.
Another goal of this writing is to emphasize the importance of the experience and the reasons for sharing it. Furthermore, in contrast to the tightly planned persuasive essay, the narrative essay is more free-form. Each story has a beginning, middle, and end.
In short, a narrative essay is essentially a storytelling essay. It can be any kind of story – a personal experience, a wonderful trip, a simple recounting of an incident, and so on. Writing this essay is an excellent technique for kids to hone their writing and storytelling abilities. So students must learn how to write a narrative essay first.
Types Of Narrative Writing
Narrative writing is defined as writing that relates ideas, concepts, or occurrences.
- It connects events by displaying patterns and relating them to one another or specific ideas, themes, or concepts.
- It is both a discipline and an art form where we tell a story, and shape the narrative and the link between events.
- Narrating a story entails shaping occurrences around a more extensive set of goals or outcomes (whether consciously or unconsciously).
Some of the types of a narrative essay include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Personal narrative essay
- Descriptive narrative essay
- Cultural narrative essay
- Viewpoint narrative essay
- Narrative argument essay
- Historical narrative essay
- Fun narrative essay
- Linear narrative essay
- Non-linear narrative essay
How Narrative Essay Topics Are Chosen?
There are numerous considerations while selecting a topic. Nevertheless, choosing a topic for your essay gives you an advantage as you can write about something you are passionate about and ambitious about.
For example, the most exemplary narrative speech topic could be a personal experience. You can choose one memory and utilize it to create a fantastic tale.
Here are some brief pointers on how to choose ideas for narrative essays:
1. Narrate a tale
The theme you select should allow the audience to connect with your own experience, abilities, and crucial life lessons.
2. Select valuable/helpful topics for discussion
Choose issues that you have struggled with if you have a love for something. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to avoid writing about things that make you yawn.
3. Be prepared – don’t skip the planning stage
Your paper must prove a specific argument, so consider how much material you need to gather on various themes.
4. Continue to experiment throughout the phase
Combine different experiences from your life with different topics. Consider the topic that will provide your readers with the most emotional experience.
5. Remember the essay’s format
In terms of structure, an academic paper usually requires a golden formula. Consider whether creating relevant, logical parts using the intro-body-conclusion organization for your list of thoughts is possible. Given that the body section of your work will require at least three paragraphs, consider whether you will be able to provide at least three claims (subject sentences) to support your thesis statement.
Narrative Essay Topics For University Students
Finding an apt topic for your essay is the first step in captivating your audience. Here we will give some narrative essay topics for college assignments that you can write about
Personal narrative essay topics
A personal narrative essay is an essay on your personal experience. It must elicit an emotional response from the reader. The picture you’re painting (with words) must be vivid and emotionally appealing to the reader to accomplish such a goal. Using a lot of details is an excellent method to accomplish this goal. Some examples of personal narrative topics are:
- A funny incident that happened in your school
- Your favorite teacher from your childhood
- The memory of your first cooked meal
- A dangerous/thrilling experience you had
- Your favorite story in childhood
- An episode from your school life
- Your first trip abroad/your first trip with friends
- Your experience in learning a new skill
- Tell about a family member who is close to you
- Share an incident where you saved someone (maybe a stranger)
- Your favorite sport and the first experience of playing it
- The first time you met your best friend
- An incident that shook you in your childhood
- The most depressing time
- When did you attend your first music concert?
- An embarrassing moment that you would like to forget
- A book that inspired you the most
- Your role model
- Your journey through failures and success
- Your ‘Eureka’ moment
Narrative essay topics for college
- Your first day at college
- Your most memorable incident from High School
- Your favorite subject/course
- Most memorable incident in college
- Last day of High School
- Your experience on shifting to another city for studies
- Your feeling after meeting an old friend from high school
- Your favorite professor
- Share a funny incident that happened on campus
- Your bonding with your roommate
Literacy narrative essay topics
- The most interesting book you have ever read
- A thought-provoking news piece that changed your perspective on life
- Your favorite storybook in childhood
- Boring books that you came across
- The scariest story that you have read
- Your favorite piece of non-fiction
- Your favorite self-help book that changed your life
- Which famous book character can you relate to?
- A story that captured your imagination
- A storybook character that you hate the most
Descriptive narrative essay topics
- The place you loved in childhood
- Your first ride on the subway train
- Walk on the beach
- Looking at the world from the perspective of an astronaut
- Watching sunrise or sunset from a mountain top/beach
- The secrets of nature
- The art you loved most
- Describe a happy moment in your life
- Share your experience of Switzerland
- The discovery of the atom
Funny narrative essay topics
- The best stand-up comedy piece you have been to
- Funny incidents in your college
- Inside jokes of your family
- A summary of the funny skits that you were part of
- Your favorite comedian and some of their famous lines
- Your embarrassing moment
- Funny incidents involving your family members
- A minor misunderstanding that led to a funny encounter
- Humorous incidents with teachers
- A funny encounter where you couldn’t laugh
Narrative argument essay topics
- An incident where you had disagreements with your friend
- Your graduation day
- An accident that involved you
- A conflict that you were part of
- An incident when you were bullied
- Humiliating incident
- Your experience with charities and services
- A specific problem that you helped with
- A summary of suicide
- An incident involving cheating in an exam
Cultural narrative essay topics
- Why knowing your culture is essential?
- Unique family traditions
- A culture/tradition that astonished you
- Your cultural identity and its comparison with other cultures
- How does culture define a person?
- How your family spends Easter?
- Media’s influence on culture
- Your favorite holiday and how it is observed in your culture
- An incident when you were ashamed because you didn’t understand a particular component of a group of people’s culture.
- How does culture evolves in response to environmental factors?
- Food customs in your family
- What were you thankful for this Thanksgiving?
Interesting narrative essay topics
- A difficult decision that you had to make
- Someone who forever altered your life
- The time when you flooded your neighbor’s apartment
- A day you wish you could relive
- A period when you were failing a class
- The scariest event of your life
- A time when you were really sick
- A time when you went into a haunted house
- The first time you received a prize
- Your first employment was when you had a flat tire
- A time when you saved someone’s life
- What do you do while you’re alone?
- When was the first time you went to the emergency room?
- Your first run-in with the cops
- A shocking incident during the holiday
- The time you nearly missed a flight
- Making a new friend while on holiday
- Meeting a friend by surprise while on holiday
Narrative Essay Topics Examples
Here is a small example (excerpt) for a personal narrative essay:
My identity
Identifying oneself and understanding what one really wants is a crucial step, and it has been my main quest in life. It may seem easy, but finding one’s identity is not easy, and it’s definitely not a one-time phenomenon. I believe that it typically takes a lifetime to discover your identity.
My notion is based on the arguments made by psychologists who propound that identity changes over time. I have deduced that both my choices and factors over which I have no control eventually contribute to establishing who I am and, as a result, the part I play in life. On the other hand, life is a broad term, and I am aware of the part I play in numerous situations such as home, church, school, and community.
Conclusion
Overall, to write a narrative essay, you’ll first have to find a topic you are interested in and most comfortable with. You can find some useful topics in this article that you can work with; once you find a topic that interests you, research it and brainstorm.
Create a draft and organize your points into a proper and unique outline. Follow the instructions issued by your professor without fail. Furthermore, ensure you are adhering to the proper formatting guidelines.
Make sure to draw on your experiences, whether you choose personal narrative themes or topics concerning culture and morality. That will boost your work and make anybody who reads it impressed!
