hi it's Wendy again from worldwide speak this video is going to show you how to write a narrative paragraph it's going to give you clear instructions about all the pieces that you need in order to write a successful strong narrative paragraph and remember this video is specifically designed for the English language learner let's get started what is the purpose of a narrative paragraph well its purpose is to tell a story from your life so well that the reader feels like they were there with you at the time of the event there are three important parts that you need to remember about the narrative paragraph when you're writing first you need to start the paragraph with a clear topic sentence and then you need to have strong supporting sentences that tell your story in a logical and clear way and last you need a concluding sentence that just restates the topic sentence and gives the reader the reason why you wrote the story now I'd like to take the time to make a special note about the narrative paragraph it's really important that you pick just one moment in time and then you expand on that woman you don't want to give a long history of the event because that would be a little boring for the reader you want to pick just one specific moment in time from that event and expand with the details on that okay first I'd like to talk about the structure of the paragraph we start with the topic sentence and the topic sentence gives the reader some background information it introduces the main character of the story which is you and then it gives some idea of what will happen in the story it it makes the reader want to read more then we have the supporting sentences and these sentences are the ones that tell the story by explaining the sequence of events also they give sensory detail like sight or hearing or taste as well as how the writer which is you felt during the event and last we have the concluding sentence this sentence finishes the story it often shares what was important about the experience or what the writer learned from the experience let's talk about the first part of your paragraph the topic sentence this is the first sentence of your paragraph this gives the reader some background information it introduces the main character of the story which is you and then it gets some idea of what will happen in the story it draws the reader in to make them want to read about your story this is how you need to write your topic sentence here is an example one of the best lessons I ever learned about friendship actually happened later in life let's take a closer look now to see why this is a good topic sentence first I tell you the main controlling idea for the paragraph it's the best lesson about friendship I put that there so that you keep reading to learn what was that lesson that I learned and then I put myself in the sentence I ever learned to tell you who's writing and last I tell you kind of when this occurred so I can give this paragraph more focus and I say later in life so you know it wasn't a story in my childhood and you're gonna read on and discover which part of my life which later part in my life where the story took place so we've talked about the topic sentence and what you need in order to have a clear and effective topic sentence now I'd like to focus on your supporting sentences by giving you some grammar tips when you write them number one watch your verb tense typically when we write a narrative paragraph we use the past tense we can use the simple past and the past progressive we use the past tense because the event happened in the past for example let's take a look at the sentence one of the best lessons I ever learned about friendship actually happened later in life I bet you recognize that sentence it's our topic sentence and the verbs that I used in the topic sentence are in the past tense learned and happened the signal to the reader hey this story happened in the past now I'm going to read a story and it's not going to be difficult because all of my verbs are gonna be in the past tense which makes it very easy for the reader to follow if you go back and forth with present and past it makes the reading much more difficult for the reader because the becomes confused when you have to jump back and forth between verb tenses so be very careful to keep your verbs in the past if you're telling a story in the past let's review the past tense a little bit so the simple past is used to show that something already happened for example she called me one morning to chat the simple past tense is also used to express how we felt about something or someone for this we use the verb to be in the past for example I was shocked at what I saw and I don't know if you remember but in one of the previous slides when I talked about supporting sentences I explained that in a narrative paragraph we want to show the reader what our emotions were during this event so that we can connect with the reader on a deeper level it makes your paragraph stronger and also remember the verb to be in the past tense it's irregular I was he-she it was and then for you we and they we use work now the past progressive tense is used to show that something was going on at some point in the past for example Kim was standing in the doorway when I walked upstairs I don't know when Kim got there but it was going on at the time when I walked upstairs now you can watch more about the past tense in our YouTube video 12 verb tenses it goes into much more detail about the past tense and how you use it and how you form it and you can just watch the part on the past tense if that's where you need to focus now grammar tip number two use a variety of sentence types this is really important for your paragraph do you remember the three sentence types we have simple sentences we have compound sentences and we have complex sentences the simple sentence just has a subject and a verb it's very simple Marc ran a race yesterday Marcus your subject ran is your verb now when we have the compound sentence we have two independent clauses or two simple sentences that can stand by themselves when we put them together with a comma and a conjunction it becomes this longer compound sentence if we took away the comma and the conjunction and put a period there then you could have two simple sentences and last the complex sentence is complex because it uses a special word called a subordinator Martha was hungry because she forgot to eat lunch these special words these subordinators make our sentences complex now if I took out the subordinator like I took out the comma in the conjunction for the compound sentence if I took the subordinator out I would not have two sentences because the first part of our sentence Martha was hungry I could put a period there and that's a nice simple sentence but if I have a sentence because she forgot to eat lunch it doesn't make any sense I'm still waiting for more information that subordinator that special word makes the sentence complex and then the second part of the sentence cannot stand alone if you would like a complete in-depth study of these three sentence types we have a wonderful video on YouTube on the three kinds of sentences how to improve your writing I strongly suggest you watch that so that your sentences which are the foundation of your writing are strong which therefore makes your writing clear and effective and successful last my third grammar tip for your narrative sequence words these are words that we use to show the order of events of a story often in a narrative paragraph we're telling how something happened and the following words are examples of words that we use to show chronological or time events that occur in order there's after that eventually then next afterwards soon later and finally here is an example of a sentence that uses one of these sequence words I quickly hung up the phone and then I called an emergency plumbing company now we also want to use words that show simultaneous events two things happening at the same time some words that we can use to show this are at the same time that while and meanwhile here is an example of a sentence that uses one of these special words that show simultaneous events while I was on the phone with her I heard a strange noise in the basement so I'm on the telephone and while I'm speaking on the telephone there's a loud coming from my basement to events happening at the same time so what does this look like when you go to write your narrative paragraph for school well you remember our topic sentence one of the best lessons I ever learned about friendship actually happened later in life and then let me give you an example of how I would start out my supporting sentences since I mentioned later in life I'm probably going to continue and tell you which part of my life the event took place in I was in my 30s and I had four young children at home luckily my best friend Kim and her family lived down the street from me I've told you what part of my life has occurred and then I introduced a new character so now you are interested in learning why have I introduced Kim in the story what part is she going to play and then the concluding sentence is going to restate the topic sentence and then it's going to explain to you the lesson I learned knowing when and how to help without being asked was one of the most valuable things I learned about being a true and thoughtful friend why don't we take a look at what the entire paragraph would look like as you would write it in real life let's read this together one of the best lessons I ever learned about friendship actually happened later in life I was in my 30s and I have four young children at home luckily my best friend Kim and her family lived down the street from me she called me early one morning to chat while I was on the phone with her I heard a strange noise in the basement immediately I went downstairs to invest I was shocked at what I saw a pipe burst and dirty water was everywhere I quickly hung up the phone and then I called an emergency plumbing company all I could think about were the piles of clean laundry that I would have to rewash for small children a flooded basement and now more work to do overwhelmed me soon I started crying when I walked upstairs Kim was standing in the doorway she held a large bottle of laundry detergent in each hand it was exactly what I needed at that moment I had a friend to comfort me and I had laundry detergent for the numerous loads in the basement it was like she read my mind knowing when and how to help without being asked was one of the most valuable things I learned from her about being a true and thoughtful friend let's take a look at this narrative paragraph in relation to grammar tip number one do you remember what that was we talked about verb tense specifically keeping our verbs in the past I've taken the time to highlight all of the verbs in this paragraph first of all look how many there are it's a very active paragraph second if you take a look at each and every verb that's highlighted those verbs are in the past tense that's what makes it really easy for the reader and because they can follow along and their brain doesn't have to get confused by jumping back and forth between present and past now let's look at the paragraph in relation to grammar tip number two those were the sentences simple compound and complex and I told you that you need a variety of sentence types in order to make your paragraph flow if your paragraph were also all sentences it would sound more like a grocery list than a story it would be rather boring for the reader if you look at the paragraph I have color-coded it with the sentence types if you look at the green sentences those are simple sentences the pink sentences our compound sentences and the yellow sentences are complex sentences and you notice when you take a look at this entire paragraph it has all the colors sprinkled throughout the paragraph and so you have a nice variety of simple compound and complex sentences which makes it very easy for the reader to read it makes the paragraph flow smoothly and last do you remember grammar tip number three that talked about words that show sequence of events and also simultaneous actions those special words that I had talked about in the previous slides I used a few of these in my paragraph to signal to the reader that something was happening next or that something was happening at the same time finally let's talk about this concluding sentence it's your last sentence of the paragraph it restates the topic sentence and then wraps up the paragraph also like in my example it may tell the reader what you learned or what was important about the experience our topic sentence was one of the best lessons I ever learned about friendship actually happened later in life in our conclusion sentence was knowing when and how to help without being asked was one of the most valuable things I learned about being a true and thoughtful friend so what I did here was one of the best lessons I just changed the wording a little bit and I said one of the most valuable things same idea same meaning and then for friendship I changed that around a little bit to say true and thoughtful friend and of course I tell you what I learned in the beginning of the sentence that was knowing when and how to help without being asked all right let's review you need a clear topic sentence you need supporting sentences that stay in the past tense that have a variety of sentences and in those sentences you use words to show chronological order or simultaneous action and then you have a concluding sentence that wraps up the paragraph and shows the reader what you learned or what was important about the event you can do this you can write a clear and effective narrative paragraph you can tell your story with lots of details that connect on an emotional level with your reader by telling the reader how you feel you can include words that show sequence of events you can show that two things happen at the same time you can use a variety of sentences and you're gonna keep your verbs in the past tense your paragraph is going to be strong and successful and please remember for more English tips you can always visit our website at worldwide speak comm we have tons of resources there including one-on-one coaching for English language learners thank you so much for watching take care you