What Is An Academic Narrative Essay
An academic narrative essay is a type of essay where you are writing in first person and you're discussing important events in your life as it relates to the assigned topic given by your teacher. For example, if your teacher asks you to discuss a time in your life where you felt you contributed the most to a person's life, you can talk about the time when you volunteered at a juvenile detention center and offered emotional support to at-risk teens there. When you write the narrative essay it is important that you get specific in the details of your topic and you should use descriptive rather than generic language.
Other Aspects of A Narrative Essay
An academic narrative essay will always include parts of the human experience and this is not meant to present an argument or a call to action unlike the persuasive essay. In a narrative essay you are trying to touch people's emotions through the topic you choose and you can also inspire people without purposefully trying. Stay away from using academic jargon and scholarly phrases because your essay should be conversational in tone.
Appeal To Readers' Senses
Your academic narrative essays should include words and scenes that make the reader feel as if he is in your environment and situation. For example, if you're describing your former life of drugs and alcohol, talk about the times when you would cry yourself to sleep and pray for deliverance from that lifestyle and mention key phrases you used in your prayers so readers can see your desperation. Or if you're writing about your decision to become a stay-at-home mom despite the criticism you received from relatives, give the readers examples of the joys of your new life such as singing to the babies, bringing them to the park and watching them babble aloud, or hearing them cry right before bath time.
Academic narrative essays are designed to give readers insight into certain situations or past experiences in the writer's life and readers can also learn from these essays depending on the topic you choose to write about. If you're stumped for ideas on choosing a good topic, you want to talk with the teacher and write a list of the most important things you've done in your life and how it changed your character. Finally, organize the notes for the essay before writing it.