thesis sentence for narrative

Thesis Statement for Narrative Essay

Thesis statement generator for narrative essay.

In a narrative essay, the journey of your story is pivotal, but it’s the thesis statement that gives your tale its essence and purpose. Serving as a guidepost, the thesis captures the core message or emotion, ensuring readers are primed for what’s to come. Whether you’re narrating a personal experience or weaving a fictional tale, your thesis should be clear, evocative, and compelling. Dive in to explore examples, discover writing techniques, and imbibe tips to craft the perfect narrative essay thesis.

What is a Narrative Essay Thesis Statement? – Definition

A narrative essay thesis statement is a concise summary or main point of your personal story or experience. Unlike argumentative or analytical thesis statements, it doesn’t necessarily present an argument or a point of debate. Instead, it sets the tone for the narrative and provides a glimpse into the lesson, theme, or insight the story intends to convey. Essentially, it captures the essence of your narrative and gives readers an idea of what to expect.

What is the Best Thesis Statement Example for Narrative Essay?

While “best” is subjective and can vary based on the specific narrative, a compelling example might be:

“Despite the biting cold and fatigue, reaching the mountain’s summit at sunrise illuminated not just the world below, but also a truth: challenges, no matter how insurmountable, can be conquered with perseverance and a dash of courage.”

This statement provides a hint about the narrative’s setting (mountain summit at sunrise) and its central theme (overcoming challenges through perseverance and courage).

100 Thesis Statement Examples for Narrative Essay

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“The summer of ’09 wasn’t about the places I went, but the journey of self-discovery I embarked on.”
“In the midst of city lights, I found solace not in people but in the night’s embrace.”
“The relentless waves on that fateful day taught me about nature’s might and the fragility of life.”
“Grandma’s tales, woven with age-old wisdom, became my compass in life’s unpredictable journey.”
“Amidst the hustle of the market, I learned that life’s most profound lessons can come from unexpected places.”
“The old treehouse was more than wood and nails; it was a testament to childhood dreams and boundless imagination.”
“Lost in a foreign land, I discovered the universal language of kindness and smiles.”
“The train journey painted a tapestry of landscapes, emotions, and fleeting encounters.”
“Under the autumn sky, I found that letting go can be as beautiful as holding on.”
“The melody of mom’s lullaby was my anchor in stormy nights and sunny days alike.”
“A chance encounter in a coffee shop served as a reminder of the serendipities life often throws our way.”
“As leaves crunched underfoot in the forest, I felt the weight of the world lift off my shoulders.”
“Through the pages of my childhood diary, I journeyed back to dreams forgotten and hopes untarnished.”
“In the quiet corridors of the museum, art whispered tales of ages gone and worlds unseen.”
“The mountain’s shadow at dusk taught me that even in darkness, there’s an inherent light waiting to shine.”
“At the crossroads of choices, I found that destiny is but a collaboration between chance and decision.”
“Amongst the ruins of ancient cities, I felt the pulse of time and the stories etched in stone.”
“The carnival’s lights and sounds were a dance of joy, chaos, and the spectrum of human emotions.”
“In the heart of winter, I learned that endings often herald new beginnings.”
“The winding path through the meadow was a reminder that life’s journeys are seldom straight.”
“By the lakeside, with ripples as companions, I understood the profoundness of simple moments.”
“In the silence of the library, words spoke louder, echoing tales and truths of generations.”
“The chrysalis’s metamorphosis mirrored my own transformation – from doubt to self-belief.”
“As sand slipped through my fingers, I grasped the fleeting nature of time.”
“The orchestra’s crescendo was a celebration of unity, diversity, and the magic of coming together.”
“Within the walls of my childhood home, memories played in vivid colors and comforting echoes.”
“The pathway lit by fireflies was an enchanting journey through nature’s wonders.”
“On the city’s outskirts, the countryside taught me about life’s simple pleasures and unadulterated joys.”
“The ocean’s horizon was an emblem of endless possibilities and adventures yet to unfold.”
“Amidst the symphony of raindrops, I found rhythm, solace, and life’s refreshing melodies.”
“In the tapestry of the bustling bazaar, every thread wove a story of hopes, dreams, and daily triumphs.”
“Racing against the wind on that hilltop, I felt an exhilarating freedom and the weightlessness of being.”
“Beneath the canopy of stars, I was a mere speck, yet infinitely connected to the vast universe.”
“The gentle hum of the countryside at dawn brought lessons of patience and the beauty of the mundane.”
“As snowflakes adorned the earth, I was reminded of nature’s ability to transform the familiar into wonder.”
“Locked in a dance with my shadow, I confronted my fears and emerged stronger.”
“Every stroke of my paintbrush on canvas was a step towards understanding my inner chaos and colors.”
“The aroma from grandma’s kitchen wasn’t just about food, but a mix of tradition, love, and cherished memories.”
“Navigating the city’s labyrinthine alleys, I discovered hidden gems and facets of my own adaptability.”
“With every sunset on the beach, I learned about endings, reflections, and the promise of tomorrow.”
“Amidst the pages of an old book, I embarked on journeys to realms unknown and feelings unexplored.”
“The echo in the valley wasn’t mere sound; it was nature’s way of teaching me about resonance and reactions.”
“In the theater’s dim light, the play unraveled not just a story but facets of human emotions and complexities.”
“On the rollercoaster, as I soared and plunged, I experienced the highs and lows of life in mere minutes.”
“Gazing into the campfire’s flames, I saw tales of passion, change, and the cyclical nature of existence.”
“The footsteps on a snow-clad path were more than impressions; they were my journey’s evolving narrative.”
“In the ruins of an old castle, I felt the weight of history and the stories that walls can whisper.”
“The kaleidoscope wasn’t just a toy, but a lesson on perspective and the ever-changing patterns of life.”
“Aboard the night train, every passing landscape and shadow spoke of transitions and the journey of life.”
“The empty theater, with its echoing silence, taught me about presence, absence, and the spaces in between.”
“Gazing at my reflection in the serene lake, I pondered on identity, change, and the depths beneath the surface.”
“The forgotten trail in the forest was a testament to nature’s resilience and life’s unexpected detours.”
“On the pottery wheel, molding clay, I understood the balance of control, creativity, and surrender.”
“Within the confines of a photograph, I found a world of memories, emotions, and frozen moments.”
“Beneath the city’s neon lights, I discovered a mosaic of dreams, struggles, and undying hopes.
“Sailing on the tranquil sea, each wave whispered tales of depth, vastness, and the mysteries of the deep.”
“The aroma of the first rain on parched earth wasn’t just a scent, but a renewal of life’s promises.”
“Through the corridors of my old school, I journeyed back in time, reliving lessons beyond textbooks.”
“The meandering river, with its twists and turns, mirrored life’s unpredictability and the beauty of going with the flow.”
“The intricate dance of fireflies on a summer night showcased nature’s synchronicity and the magic of small wonders.”
“In the heart of the desert, amidst endless sands, I realized the value of persistence and the oasis of hope.”
“Each note from the old piano was more than a sound; it was an echo of love, memories, and bygone days.”
“Scaling the urban walls, the graffiti wasn’t mere paint; it was a voice, a rebellion, and a canvas of urban tales.”
“The ancient bridge, standing tall against time, was a testament to endurance, connections, and bridging divides.”
“Beneath the wizened banyan tree, I found tales of time, roots of wisdom, and the shade of legacy.”
“The labyrinth of mirrors in the carnival wasn’t just a maze but a reflection on perspectives, realities, and self-discovery.”
“On the cobbled streets of the old town, every stone had a story, an echo of footsteps from a time long gone.”
“The spectrum of autumn leaves was not just a display of colors but a lesson in change, acceptance, and renewal.”
“The cocoon, in its silent transformation, taught me about growth, patience, and the wings of change.”
“In the stillness of the frozen lake, I saw beauty in pauses, depths in calm, and the strength beneath the surface.”
“The mosaic on the cathedral floor wasn’t just art; it was a confluence of faith, history, and countless footprints.”
“The whispering winds atop the cliff carried tales of freedom, infinity, and the wild dance of nature.”
“The diary, with its faded pages, was a portal to youthful dreams, heartaches, and the purity of first experiences.”
“Amidst the bustling market square, I discerned life’s barter of dreams, efforts, and the currency of human connections.”
“The silhouette of birds at dusk was a painting of transitions, homeward journeys, and the cyclic rhythm of days.
“Walking through the quiet library halls, I felt a silent dialogue with countless authors, ideas, and epochs gone by.”
“The symphony of the city, from honks to hushed whispers, was an orchestra of life’s chaos and harmonies.”
“Each footprint on the moonlit beach spoke of transient moments, eternal tides, and the dance of time.”
“The annual rings on the old tree stump bore witness to seasons, storms, and the silent growth of years.”
“With every strike of the blacksmith’s hammer, metal sang a song of transformation, will, and fiery passion.”
“The abandoned mansion, with its cobwebbed chandeliers, whispered tales of opulence, time’s decay, and forgotten tales.”
“The tapestry of constellations in the night sky wasn’t just stars; it was a map of dreams, myths, and cosmic wonder.”
“Amidst the pages of a handwritten letter, I found not just words, but heartbeats, distance, and undying bonds.”
“The vintage carousel, with its painted horses, spun tales of childhood, nostalgia, and the cycles of joy.”
“On the fog-covered moors, every misty silhouette held a mystery, an allure of the unknown, and nature’s veiled beauty.”
“The keys of the old typewriter were more than letters; they were conduits of emotions, stories, and a bygone era’s charm.”
“In the quiet of the woods, every rustling leaf and chirping cricket sang a lullaby of nature’s embrace and serenades.”
“The tapestries in the old hall weren’t just decor; they were woven tales of valor, love, and historical tapestry.”
“The chessboard, in its monochrome squares, was a battlefield of strategies, patience, and life’s checkmates.”
“Amid the hustle of the train station, every departure and arrival was a chapter of hellos, goodbyes, and life’s journeys.”
“The blooming lotus in the muck was not just flora; it epitomized resilience, beauty in adversity, and nature’s wisdom.”
“The street musician, with his soulful tunes, strummed stories of dreams, hustle, and the universal language of music.”
“Gazing at the distant mountains, I saw challenges, majesty, and the alluring call of horizons yet explored.”
“The hourglass, with its fleeting sands, was a silent reminder of time’s passage, moments grasped, and the inevitability of change.”
“In the rhythm of the heartbeat, I heard life’s cadence, fragility, and the unyielding pulse of existence.
“The echoing chime of the ancient bell tower wasn’t just a sound; it was a call to remembrance, history, and moments that once were.”
“The cascade of water in the hidden waterfall narrated tales of nature’s might, hidden gems, and the music of wilderness.”
“As petals unfurled in the first bloom of spring, I saw life’s rebirth, new beginnings, and the eternal cycle of existence.”
“Amidst the ruins of a forgotten citadel, I felt the palpable presence of erstwhile grandeur, time’s passage, and stories etched in stone.”
“The winding pathways of the old garden maze weren’t just hedges; they symbolized life’s puzzles, choices, and the thrill of discovery.

Crafting narrative essay thesis statements is an art of encapsulating vast experiences, emotions, and lessons into a singular, guiding sentence. Each statement becomes the beacon, illuminating the depths of the tale, ensuring that readers are anchored and deeply engaged, from the first word to the last.

Thesis Statement Examples for Personal Narrative Essay

Narrative essays centered around personal experiences often dive deep into emotions, lessons, and realizations. A Good thesis statement acts as a snapshot of the core emotion or takeaway, allowing readers a quick glimpse into the writer’s soulful journey.

“In my quest for my family roots, I unearthed more than lineage; I discovered stories that defined generations.”
“Living in four countries in five years taught me resilience, adaptability, and the universal language of kindness.”
“Adopting Luna wasn’t just about getting a pet; it was a lesson in love, responsibility, and understanding life through feline eyes.”
“The summer of ’89 wasn’t just a season; it was my initiation into the world of rock music, rebellion, and teenage epiphanies.”
“Learning to dance was never just about the steps; it was my journey of embracing imperfections and finding rhythm in chaos.”
“As a caregiver to my grandmother, I realized that roles reverse, and sometimes, love means becoming a parent to your parent.”
“Backpacking solo taught me more about self-reliance, the beauty of fleeting encounters, and the silent revelations in solitude.”
“Battling an illness wasn’t just a physical challenge; it was an emotional odyssey of fears, hope, and rediscovering inner strength.”
“Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro wasn’t just about reaching the summit; it was a metaphorical ascent of confronting my fears and limitations.”
“Building my first robot was not just an academic project; it was a dance of creativity, failures, and the magic of invention.”

Thesis Statement Examples for Narrative Essay Writing

Narrative essay writing captures moments, stories, or experiences with a wider scope, often resonating with universal truths. The Strong thesis statement must encapsulate the essence, laying down the central theme or emotion the narrative seeks to convey.

“The city’s heartbeat at midnight is more than nightlife; it’s an orchestra of dreams, hustlers, and silent wishes under the stars.”
“The forest, with its myriad sounds, isn’t just nature’s realm; it’s a symphony of life, balance, and unspoken tales.”
“A potter’s wheel doesn’t just shape clay; it’s a dance of hands, earth, and the beautiful journey of creation.”
“Festivals in a multicultural neighborhood aren’t just about celebrations; they’re a tapestry of traditions, unity in diversity, and the magic of shared joys.”
“The old bookstore, with its musty pages, wasn’t just a shop; it was a treasure trove of histories, fantasies, and timeless conversations.”
“Watching a total solar eclipse isn’t just an astronomical event; it’s a humbling spectacle of cosmic alignments, darkness, and ethereal light.”
“A farmer’s day isn’t just about toil; it’s a testament to patience, harmony with earth, and the silent prayer for bounty.”
“Ancient monuments aren’t just stone and art; they are timekeepers, storytellers, and guardians of civilizations long gone.”
“Migratory birds, with their seasonal journeys, don’t just traverse distances; they weave a tale of instinct, survival, and the incredible navigational wonders of nature.”
“The vibrant hues of a sunset aren’t merely a visual delight; they paint the sky with the day’s adieu, promises of tomorrow, and the cyclical dance of time.

How do you write a thesis for a narrative essay? – Step by Step Guide

Identify the Central Theme or Message: Before you write your thesis, ask yourself: what is the main point or message I want to convey through my narrative essay?
Be Precise: A thesis statement should be a concise sentence or two that clearly outlines the main point or message of your essay. Avoid unnecessary words or overly complex sentences.
Position Appropriately: Although narrative essays are flexible, it’s common to place the thesis statement at the end of the introduction, setting the scene for the narrative to unfold.
Connect Emotionally: Given that narrative essays often delve into personal experiences, it’s important for your thesis to evoke emotion or a sense of anticipation in the reader.
Ensure It’s Debatable: Even though it’s a narrative essay, your thesis should still be debatable. This doesn’t mean it should be controversial, but rather it should encourage readers to think or feel a certain way.
Revise as Needed: As you develop your narrative, you might find your focus shifting slightly. Make sure to adjust your thesis accordingly to ensure it aligns with the content of your essay.
Seek Feedback: Share your thesis with peers or mentors to get their perspective. Sometimes, an outsider’s view can provide clarity.

Can a narrative essay have a thesis statement?

Absolutely! While narrative essays primarily tell a story or share an experience, a thesis statement offers readers a preview of the essay’s main theme or message. It provides direction and sets the tone for the entire narrative. Even though it’s not argumentative in nature, a thesis in a narrative essay effectively conveys the essay’s purpose or the writer’s reason for telling that particular story. It serves as an anchor, ensuring the narrative remains centered on its core message.

Tips for Writing a Personal Essay Thesis Statement

Introspect: Before you begin, spend some time introspecting. Understand the main emotion, lesson, or realization you want to convey. This will become the foundation of your thesis.
Be Authentic: Personal essays are about real experiences and feelings. Ensure your thesis genuinely represents your thoughts and isn’t something you believe readers will want to hear.
Use Active Voice: Active voice makes your statement sound assertive and clear. This clarity is essential for readers to grasp the main idea immediately.
Avoid Clichés: While it can be tempting to use commonly accepted phrases or ideas, originality will make your thesis and essay more memorable.
Stay Relevant: Ensure your thesis is directly relevant to the personal narrative you’re sharing. Every part of your essay should reflect or relate back to the thesis.
Seek Clarity: A good thesis is not about using highfalutin words. It’s about being clear and precise, ensuring readers instantly understand the essay’s central theme.
Test Your Thesis: Before finalizing, ask yourself: “If someone reads only my thesis statement, will they understand the crux of my personal essay?” If the answer is yes, you’re on the right track.

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Write a Thesis Statement for Narrative Essay on a transformative travel experience.

Create a Thesis Statement for Narrative Essay about overcoming a significant obstacle.

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How to Write a Thesis for a Narrative Essay

Last Updated: June 4, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Alicia Cook . Alicia Cook is a Professional Writer based in Newark, New Jersey. With over 12 years of experience, Alicia specializes in poetry and uses her platform to advocate for families affected by addiction and to fight for breaking the stigma against addiction and mental illness. She holds a BA in English and Journalism from Georgian Court University and an MBA from Saint Peter’s University. Alicia is a bestselling poet with Andrews McMeel Publishing and her work has been featured in numerous media outlets including the NY Post, CNN, USA Today, the HuffPost, the LA Times, American Songwriter Magazine, and Bustle. She was named by Teen Vogue as one of the 10 social media poets to know and her poetry mixtape, “Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately” was a finalist in the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 107,979 times.

In a narrative essay, your thesis will be a bit different than in an argumentative or explanatory paper. A narrative essay is basically you writing a story for the reader. The purpose of a narrative essay is to make a certain point, using personal experiences or life events to convey your main point or theme. [1] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source However, just as in a standard paper, your thesis will still appear in the introduction of your narrative essay.

Creating Your Thesis

Step 1 Write a short phrase for each major section of your essay.

For example: “In this essay, I will discuss the issue of grief by discuss my grandmother's sickness, discuss my grandmother's death, talk about what happened afterwards.”
Adjust your first attempt so it is grammatically correct: “In this essay, I will discuss the issue of grief by discussing my grandmother's sickness, my grandmother's death, and what happened afterward.”

You may want to create a thesis that is a bit more sophisticated and less stilted by removing the more formal phrase, “I will discuss”.
For example: “Grief affects everyone's life at one point or another, and it certainly has affected mine; when my grandmother became sick and passed away, I had to learn how to deal with the aftermath of her death.”

Step 5 Remember that your thesis should always cover the main topics of your essay.

Avoid packing too many ideas into one sentence. Your thesis should help ease the reader into your essay, not confuse them.

Preparing to Write the Thesis

Step 1 Brainstorm ideas to find your topic.

Come up with a topic that is important to you and that you feel you can talk about in a personal way.

Step 2 Pick an event to help convey your topic.

Another way to find a personal event is to look through your old social media posts, as they often chronicle important or meaningful events in your life.

Step 3 Write down all the details you can remember of that event.

Remembering the details of the event through your five senses will also help to trigger other details or images you may have forgotten.
For example, maybe you remember the taste of coconut after your grandmother's funeral, which will then help you remember that you all ate your grandmother's favorite coconut cake at the gathering after the funeral. You can then try to find that recipe and use it as a way to jog other memories of your grandmother.

Step 4 Create an outline for your narrative essay.

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↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/narrative_essays.html
↑ http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/thesis-statements/
↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/thesis_statement_tips.html
↑ https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/process/thesis/
↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/brainstorming/
↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/narrative-writing/
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How to write a narrative essay | Example & tips

How to Write a Narrative Essay | Example & Tips

Published on July 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

A narrative essay tells a story. In most cases, this is a story about a personal experience you had. This type of essay , along with the descriptive essay , allows you to get personal and creative, unlike most academic writing .

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What is a narrative essay for, choosing a topic, interactive example of a narrative essay, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about narrative essays.

When assigned a narrative essay, you might find yourself wondering: Why does my teacher want to hear this story? Topics for narrative essays can range from the important to the trivial. Usually the point is not so much the story itself, but the way you tell it.

A narrative essay is a way of testing your ability to tell a story in a clear and interesting way. You’re expected to think about where your story begins and ends, and how to convey it with eye-catching language and a satisfying pace.

These skills are quite different from those needed for formal academic writing. For instance, in a narrative essay the use of the first person (“I”) is encouraged, as is the use of figurative language, dialogue, and suspense.

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Narrative essay assignments vary widely in the amount of direction you’re given about your topic. You may be assigned quite a specific topic or choice of topics to work with.

Write a story about your first day of school.
Write a story about your favorite holiday destination.

You may also be given prompts that leave you a much wider choice of topic.

Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself.
Write about an achievement you are proud of. What did you accomplish, and how?

In these cases, you might have to think harder to decide what story you want to tell. The best kind of story for a narrative essay is one you can use to talk about a particular theme or lesson, or that takes a surprising turn somewhere along the way.

For example, a trip where everything went according to plan makes for a less interesting story than one where something unexpected happened that you then had to respond to. Choose an experience that might surprise the reader or teach them something.

Narrative essays in college applications

When applying for college , you might be asked to write a narrative essay that expresses something about your personal qualities.

For example, this application prompt from Common App requires you to respond with a narrative essay.

In this context, choose a story that is not only interesting but also expresses the qualities the prompt is looking for—here, resilience and the ability to learn from failure—and frame the story in a way that emphasizes these qualities.

An example of a short narrative essay, responding to the prompt “Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself,” is shown below.

Hover over different parts of the text to see how the structure works.

Since elementary school, I have always favored subjects like science and math over the humanities. My instinct was always to think of these subjects as more solid and serious than classes like English. If there was no right answer, I thought, why bother? But recently I had an experience that taught me my academic interests are more flexible than I had thought: I took my first philosophy class.

Before I entered the classroom, I was skeptical. I waited outside with the other students and wondered what exactly philosophy would involve—I really had no idea. I imagined something pretty abstract: long, stilted conversations pondering the meaning of life. But what I got was something quite different.

A young man in jeans, Mr. Jones—“but you can call me Rob”—was far from the white-haired, buttoned-up old man I had half-expected. And rather than pulling us into pedantic arguments about obscure philosophical points, Rob engaged us on our level. To talk free will, we looked at our own choices. To talk ethics, we looked at dilemmas we had faced ourselves. By the end of class, I’d discovered that questions with no right answer can turn out to be the most interesting ones.

The experience has taught me to look at things a little more “philosophically”—and not just because it was a philosophy class! I learned that if I let go of my preconceptions, I can actually get a lot out of subjects I was previously dismissive of. The class taught me—in more ways than one—to look at things with an open mind.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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If you’re not given much guidance on what your narrative essay should be about, consider the context and scope of the assignment. What kind of story is relevant, interesting, and possible to tell within the word count?

The best kind of story for a narrative essay is one you can use to reflect on a particular theme or lesson, or that takes a surprising turn somewhere along the way.

Don’t worry too much if your topic seems unoriginal. The point of a narrative essay is how you tell the story and the point you make with it, not the subject of the story itself.

Narrative essays are usually assigned as writing exercises at high school or in university composition classes. They may also form part of a university application.

When you are prompted to tell a story about your own life or experiences, a narrative essay is usually the right response.

The key difference is that a narrative essay is designed to tell a complete story, while a descriptive essay is meant to convey an intense description of a particular place, object, or concept.

Narrative and descriptive essays both allow you to write more personally and creatively than other kinds of essays , and similar writing skills can apply to both.

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How to Write a Thesis for a Narrative Essay

Amy sterling casil, 25 jun 2018.

Although narrative essays tell a story, the events of the story on their own aren't enough to compose a narrative essay. All narrative essays should have a point, a point that is often best communicated in a thesis sentence. The Santa Barbara City College Writing Center advises students to set the scene and provide a "hook" to get the reader's attention. Depending on the type of narrative you're sharing with the reader, the thesis sentence could offer a lesson learned, identify a theme or simply start the story with the first event.

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Scene Setting
Lessons Learned

1 Scene Setting

Set the scene for readers by letting them know relevant details of the the who, what, where and and where of your essay. For example, if you are assigned to write a narrative about a physical challenge, an effective thesis sentence would look at your personal reason for sharing the essay's story. Looking at what is unique about the story you tell in your essay is crucial part of setting the scene. An opener might be, "My father teaching me how to swim the summer I turned 8 made me appreciate my dad's patience and willingness to spend time with me."

The best "hook" for readers is appropriate to the story you are sharing in your narrative essay. An honest "hook" is always effective as a thesis sentence. One way to start an essay is with a related quote that engages the reader or makes them laugh in some way. Relating to the father-son bicycle story, a potential quote hook could be the Desmond Tutu quote, “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring."

Include the underlying essay theme in your thesis sentence. For example, if you are writing a narrative about a great one-day trip you took with friends, the thesis could be, "Spending time with close friends gives memories that can last forever, even if the trip is just one day." Condense the main idea(s) of your narrative into a few sentences that support your theme.

4 Lessons Learned

Many narrative essay assignments ask students to write the story of an experience where they learned a valuable lesson. The thesis sentence for these types of narratives should include the lesson or moral of the story. For example, a thesis for an essay about how you responded to peer pressure could be, "I learned that I shouldn't do whatever my friends wanted me to do the night I got caught driving without a license."

1 Purdue Online Writing Lab: Tips and Examples for Writing Thesis Statements
2 New York Times: Climber Still Seeks Larger Meaning in His Epic Escape
3 WeLoveCycling Magazine: 10 Motivational Cycling Quotes From Famous People

About the Author

Amy Sterling Casil is an award-winning writer with a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Chapman University in Orange, Calif. She is a professional author and college writing teacher, and has published 20 nonfiction books for schools and libraries.

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Narrative Essay Thesis Statements: Tips and Examples

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Introduction

A narrative essay, put simply, is an essay that tells a story. Narrative essays are usually both creative and personal, which makes it difficult to know where to start and how to incorporate the traditional elements of essays that we might be more familiar with.

When we think of essays in general, one important component is the thesis statement, which tells us the main idea or argument of an overall work. In a narrative essay, however, a thesis does not follow the same rules it does in other types of writing. A narrative essay thesis statement can do one or both of the following: (1) convey a theme, lesson, or main idea, or (2) introduce the action of the story you want to tell.

How you write your thesis will depend on the purpose of your essay, any instructions or prompt you may have received, and what flows with your writing style. In most cases, when writing a narrative essay, you will be focusing on a single event or experience that was important to you. If your goal is to convey a lesson, theme, or moral from that experience, you might think about the following questions:

Why am I telling this story?
What happened or changed in my life as a result of this event?
What did I learn from this experience?
What is the most important idea/lesson that I want my reader to take away after reading my essay?
What point am I making with this, in general?

Once you have an idea of what you want to say, all that is left is to turn that thought into a thesis. Let’s take a closer look at some examples of narrative essay thesis statements to see how that works:

Over the few months I spent with those mice, I learned that unexpected instructors can often have the most to teach us.
That single failing grade was enough to shift my perspective on personal responsibility.
Overcoming grief is a slow process that never truly ends, but confiding in the people in our lives can make it less painful.

These statements tell us a main idea, lesson, or theme from their respective narrative. Still, it can be hard to understand how these sentences would fit into an essay when looking at them in isolation. Here are two examples from well-known narrative essays so you can see what thesis statements look like in actual paragraphs:

“I was less playing a particular kind of animal than enacting a form of wildness that I recognized in myself.” – From “The Wild, Sublime Body” by Melissa Febos, published in The Yale Review. The full essay can be accessed here.

“Beyond those things our culture might specialize in money, and celebrity, and natural beauty. These are not universal. You enjoy work and will love your grandchildren, and somewhere in there you die.” – From “This is the Life” by Annie Dillard, originally published in Image: A Journal of the Arts and Religio n. The full essay can be accessed here.

Both of these excerpts convey the main idea of their respective essay. They are not extremely direct, but they give us a hint at what we should be taking away from these essays nonetheless.

But what about thesis statements that simply introduce the action of a story, or do that while telling us a theme or main idea? These can also be a great, flexible option for your writing. Here is another contextual example:

“I foresaw no particular problems or difficulties. I was as strong as a bull, in the prime, the pride, the high noon of life. I looked forward to the walk with assurance and pleasure.” – From “The Bull on the Mountain” by Oliver Sacks, published in The New York Review. The full essay can be accessed here.

Not only do these sentences introduce the story’s action (the narrator will soon begin to walk), but they also hint at an underlying message. We know immediately that the narrator’s assuredness and pride will likely come before a fall, even though it is not stated.

Drafting a thesis statement is difficult, especially for a creative medium like a narrative essay. Remember that writing is a process of revision; you can always return to your “thesis” after you’ve written some or all of your essay. This may help you eliminate any awkwardness in how your thesis flows with the rest of your writing. You can also test for awkward or too-direct phrasing by reading the surrounding sentences out loud and making sure they sound natural in your voice.

Keep in mind that the examples here are not exhaustive; there are infinite ways to tell a compelling story, and it is up to you to find what works for your goals. Continuing to seek out and read other narrative essays can help you understand what makes them tick and how you can achieve similar things in your writing.

How to Write a Thesis Statement in 4 Steps

Learn what a thesis statement is, why thesis statements are important to your essay, and how to write a thesis statement in four easy steps!

It’s no secret that a solid thesis statement is an essential part of any essay. If your writing doesn’t have a defined thesis, nothing else will matter. The thesis statement is the first element of your paper that you’ll be judged on. If your thesis is not clear and straightforward, you’ll lose your reader. So, let’s talk about how to write the perfect thesis statement in four simple steps. But first, let’s start from the beginning.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement is one or two sentences at the beginning of your essay that tells your reader the main idea of your paper and maps out the supporting details of that main idea. The thesis statement will focus your writing, and it will help readers link the subtopics of your essay to your central focus.

In short, the thesis statement is one to two sentences that communicates the main idea, argument or central point of your essay. There are different types of essays, but each one will need a thesis statement. Let’s go over a few different types of essays.

Three Types of Essays

What is an analytical essay .

In an analytical essay, the author is analyzing a topic breaking it down into its component parts. In an analytical essay, you might dissect another author’s argument about a subject. You can also use an analytical essay to write about a book, movie, or other lengthy text.

The thesis statement of an analytical essay will answer a ‘how’ or ‘why’ question. For example, a while back, I wrote a blog post on how Jane Austen uses the theme of effective communication in her novel, Pride and Prejudice . If you flip that statement and form the question- How does Jane Austen demonstrate the theme of effective communication in Pride and Prejudice ? That’s the question I answered with my essay by analyzing the novel, its characters, and plot.

What is an expository essay?

In an expository essay, the author will explain their topic. They will elaborate on a subject or investigate an issue. You’ll also see the term expository essay used as a blanket term to describe all types of essays. Another name for an expository essay is an explanatory essay.

So, expository can be a general term and may describe an analytical or argumentative essay. A thesis statement for an expository essay will be much like an analytical essay. You could answer a question and lay out the reasons for an outcome with a ‘because’ statement.

For example:

You shouldn’t drink and drive because alcohol impairs your judgment and motor skills which could cause harm to you or others and damage to property.

What is an argumentative essay?

In an argumentative essay, the writer is taking a stance and defending their opinion. They are making an argument about the topic of the essay. In an argumentative essay, you’ll be evaluating and presenting data that reinforces your opinion.

In these essays, the term position statement is sometimes used to mean the thesis statement. If you hear a person use the term position statement, they’re talking about the thesis statement. To write your thesis or position statement, you’ll state your opinion and preview the details you will use to back it up.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about the four steps you can use to write a perfect thesis statement that will fit the needs of any of these essay types.

4 Steps to Writing the Perfect Thesis Statement

Step 1: ask a question about your research subject. .

This question will guide your research and will lead you to a central idea for your essay.

The first step in writing a thesis statement is investigating the subject of your essay. Whether that’s a text, like a book or a movie, or science topic like volcanos. The point of an essay is to relay some information to your reader. You need to decide what this information will be. The best place to start is with a question about your topic, something that genuinely interests you. Having a research question will make your research a lot easier and your writing clearer.

Let’s go back to the example of volcanos. You don’t want to write an essay that focuses on just volcanoes because that’s too broad a subject. In writing, broad means boring. You’ll want to start drilling down on the topic and asking more specific questions.

Maybe you want to know why volcanoes erupt. But, that question is still too broad a topic for most essays. You’ll need to ask narrower questions like why do people build cities close to volcanoes? Or, what is the chance of another eruption on the scale of Mt. Saint Helens, in the US? These questions will narrow the scope of your research and ease the writing process.

Step 2: Formulate the Main Idea of your essay.

The answer to your research question is your main idea or thesis.

Once you’ve asked your question, you need to find the answer to it through research. Depending on the scope of your essay, this could take a few hours or a few years. The point of research is to come to some conclusions that answer your initial questions.

You may find that your original research question changes as you look into your topic, and that’s fine. Nothing is set in stone until you start the writing process. Once you start writing, though, you don’t want to change the direction of your paper.

When you have an answer to your research question, you can formulate a central idea. Your main idea is the main point of your essay, and it’s also called a thesis.

Write out this thesis, and you’re half done with your thesis statement!

Step 3: Develop your Supporting Details

Identify the facts that support, or prove, your main idea.

This isn’t to say, decide on your main idea and go out looking for data to prove it. This is working backward and will lead you to make a false assumption through confirmation bias. The concept of confirmation bias is that if you start with an idea you want to prove, then you’ll only look for information that confirms your view. When you do find data that disproves it, you’ll likely ignore it.

You should already have supporting details once you develop your main idea. The supporting details are the data that led you to your main idea. You should also look for information that disproves your main idea. Be honest, and let your research guide you to a conclusion. Never start with your conclusion in mind.

Once you’ve reached your conclusion, collect the most substantial data points that led you to that main idea, the answer to your research question.

Step 4: Combine your Main Idea with your Supporting Details into one statement

Clearly state your main idea and preview your supporting details in one or two sentences.

The job of your thesis statement is to layout, for the reader, your thesis or main idea early in your essay. You need to state your main idea as clearly as possible. You also need to preview the supporting details that will make up the body of your essay. Depending on the length and complexity of your article and main idea, you may need more than one sentence to accomplish this.

We can take the above example of my analytical essay on Pride and Prejudice to examine how to formulate a thesis statement. Through reading the book, I decided there was a theme of communication. By drilling down on that topic, I discovered that each character had possessed a flawed way of communicating, which led to most of the conflict in the novel.

The following sentence is a thesis statement developed from that conclusion:

In her work, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen explores the theme of effective communication. ⇠ Main Idea Through various characters’ means of expression, she demonstrates how the lack of communication skills can lead to a breakdown of romantic, friendly, and familial bonds. ⇠ Supporting Details

In the above thesis statement, the first sentence states the main idea. In the second sentence, I preview my supporting details- the data that proves my main idea.

Thesis Statement Checklist

A thesis statement should…

Be clear and concise
In the intro paragraph(s) of your essay
Not be too broad
Be An opinion not a fact
Preview your supporting details
Answer your research question

A Formula for Thesis Statements

While there’s no single way to write a thesis statement, here’s a simplified way to help guide your thinking:

State your Main Idea + Preview your Supporting Details = Thesis Statement

Examples of Thesis Statements

The following are examples of thesis statements pulled from the article 25 Thesis Statement Examples That Will Make Writing A Breeze by J.Birdwell Branson. You can read the full list here. As you read each of these examples, identify the main idea and the supporting details in each one.

“Because many children are unable to vaccinate due to illness, we must require that all healthy and able children be vaccinated in order to have herd immunity.”

“Educational Resources for Low-Income Students Schools should provide educational resources for low-income students during the summers so that they don’t forget what they’ve learned throughout the school year.”

“School uniforms may be an upfront cost for families, but they eradicate the visual differences in income between students and provide a more egalitarian atmosphere at school.”

“The rise in populism on the 2016 political stage was in reaction to increasing globalization, the decline of manufacturing jobs, and the Syrian refugee crisis.”

Check out the twenty-one more great examples at Servicescape.com

Write your own Thesis Statement using our Controlling Idea Writing Exercise

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How to Write a Strong Thesis Statement: 4 Steps + Examples

What’s Covered:

What is the purpose of a thesis statement, writing a good thesis statement: 4 steps, common pitfalls to avoid, where to get your essay edited for free.

When you set out to write an essay, there has to be some kind of point to it, right? Otherwise, your essay would just be a big jumble of word salad that makes absolutely no sense. An essay needs a central point that ties into everything else. That main point is called a thesis statement, and it’s the core of any essay or research paper.

You may hear about Master degree candidates writing a thesis, and that is an entire paper–not to be confused with the thesis statement, which is typically one sentence that contains your paper’s focus.

Read on to learn more about thesis statements and how to write them. We’ve also included some solid examples for you to reference.

Typically the last sentence of your introductory paragraph, the thesis statement serves as the roadmap for your essay. When your reader gets to the thesis statement, they should have a clear outline of your main point, as well as the information you’ll be presenting in order to either prove or support your point.

The thesis statement should not be confused for a topic sentence , which is the first sentence of every paragraph in your essay. If you need help writing topic sentences, numerous resources are available. Topic sentences should go along with your thesis statement, though.

Since the thesis statement is the most important sentence of your entire essay or paper, it’s imperative that you get this part right. Otherwise, your paper will not have a good flow and will seem disjointed. That’s why it’s vital not to rush through developing one. It’s a methodical process with steps that you need to follow in order to create the best thesis statement possible.

Step 1: Decide what kind of paper you’re writing

When you’re assigned an essay, there are several different types you may get. Argumentative essays are designed to get the reader to agree with you on a topic. Informative or expository essays present information to the reader. Analytical essays offer up a point and then expand on it by analyzing relevant information. Thesis statements can look and sound different based on the type of paper you’re writing. For example:

Argumentative: The United States needs a viable third political party to decrease bipartisanship, increase options, and help reduce corruption in government.
Informative: The Libertarian party has thrown off elections before by gaining enough support in states to get on the ballot and by taking away crucial votes from candidates.
Analytical: An analysis of past presidential elections shows that while third party votes may have been the minority, they did affect the outcome of the elections in 2020, 2016, and beyond.

Step 2: Figure out what point you want to make

Once you know what type of paper you’re writing, you then need to figure out the point you want to make with your thesis statement, and subsequently, your paper. In other words, you need to decide to answer a question about something, such as:

What impact did reality TV have on American society?
How has the musical Hamilton affected perception of American history?
Why do I want to major in [chosen major here]?

If you have an argumentative essay, then you will be writing about an opinion. To make it easier, you may want to choose an opinion that you feel passionate about so that you’re writing about something that interests you. For example, if you have an interest in preserving the environment, you may want to choose a topic that relates to that.

If you’re writing your college essay and they ask why you want to attend that school, you may want to have a main point and back it up with information, something along the lines of:

“Attending Harvard University would benefit me both academically and professionally, as it would give me a strong knowledge base upon which to build my career, develop my network, and hopefully give me an advantage in my chosen field.”

Step 3: Determine what information you’ll use to back up your point

Once you have the point you want to make, you need to figure out how you plan to back it up throughout the rest of your essay. Without this information, it will be hard to either prove or argue the main point of your thesis statement. If you decide to write about the Hamilton example, you may decide to address any falsehoods that the writer put into the musical, such as:

“The musical Hamilton, while accurate in many ways, leaves out key parts of American history, presents a nationalist view of founding fathers, and downplays the racism of the times.”

Once you’ve written your initial working thesis statement, you’ll then need to get information to back that up. For example, the musical completely leaves out Benjamin Franklin, portrays the founding fathers in a nationalist way that is too complimentary, and shows Hamilton as a staunch abolitionist despite the fact that his family likely did own slaves.

Step 4: Revise and refine your thesis statement before you start writing

Read through your thesis statement several times before you begin to compose your full essay. You need to make sure the statement is ironclad, since it is the foundation of the entire paper. Edit it or have a peer review it for you to make sure everything makes sense and that you feel like you can truly write a paper on the topic. Once you’ve done that, you can then begin writing your paper.

When writing a thesis statement, there are some common pitfalls you should avoid so that your paper can be as solid as possible. Make sure you always edit the thesis statement before you do anything else. You also want to ensure that the thesis statement is clear and concise. Don’t make your reader hunt for your point. Finally, put your thesis statement at the end of the first paragraph and have your introduction flow toward that statement. Your reader will expect to find your statement in its traditional spot.

If you’re having trouble getting started, or need some guidance on your essay, there are tools available that can help you. CollegeVine offers a free peer essay review tool where one of your peers can read through your essay and provide you with valuable feedback. Getting essay feedback from a peer can help you wow your instructor or college admissions officer with an impactful essay that effectively illustrates your point.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement . . .

Makes an argumentative assertion about a topic; it states the conclusions that you have reached about your topic.
Makes a promise to the reader about the scope, purpose, and direction of your paper.
Is focused and specific enough to be “proven” within the boundaries of your paper.
Is generally located near the end of the introduction ; sometimes, in a long paper, the thesis will be expressed in several sentences or in an entire paragraph.
Identifies the relationships between the pieces of evidence that you are using to support your argument.

Not all papers require thesis statements! Ask your instructor if you’re in doubt whether you need one.

Identify a topic

Your topic is the subject about which you will write. Your assignment may suggest several ways of looking at a topic; or it may name a fairly general concept that you will explore or analyze in your paper.

Consider what your assignment asks you to do

Inform yourself about your topic, focus on one aspect of your topic, ask yourself whether your topic is worthy of your efforts, generate a topic from an assignment.

Below are some possible topics based on sample assignments.

Sample assignment 1

Analyze Spain’s neutrality in World War II.

Identified topic

Franco’s role in the diplomatic relationships between the Allies and the Axis

This topic avoids generalities such as “Spain” and “World War II,” addressing instead on Franco’s role (a specific aspect of “Spain”) and the diplomatic relations between the Allies and Axis (a specific aspect of World War II).

Sample assignment 2

Analyze one of Homer’s epic similes in the Iliad.

The relationship between the portrayal of warfare and the epic simile about Simoisius at 4.547-64.

This topic focuses on a single simile and relates it to a single aspect of the Iliad ( warfare being a major theme in that work).

Developing a Thesis Statement–Additional information

Your assignment may suggest several ways of looking at a topic, or it may name a fairly general concept that you will explore or analyze in your paper. You’ll want to read your assignment carefully, looking for key terms that you can use to focus your topic.

Sample assignment: Analyze Spain’s neutrality in World War II Key terms: analyze, Spain’s neutrality, World War II

After you’ve identified the key words in your topic, the next step is to read about them in several sources, or generate as much information as possible through an analysis of your topic. Obviously, the more material or knowledge you have, the more possibilities will be available for a strong argument. For the sample assignment above, you’ll want to look at books and articles on World War II in general, and Spain’s neutrality in particular.

As you consider your options, you must decide to focus on one aspect of your topic. This means that you cannot include everything you’ve learned about your topic, nor should you go off in several directions. If you end up covering too many different aspects of a topic, your paper will sprawl and be unconvincing in its argument, and it most likely will not fulfull the assignment requirements.

For the sample assignment above, both Spain’s neutrality and World War II are topics far too broad to explore in a paper. You may instead decide to focus on Franco’s role in the diplomatic relationships between the Allies and the Axis , which narrows down what aspects of Spain’s neutrality and World War II you want to discuss, as well as establishes a specific link between those two aspects.

Before you go too far, however, ask yourself whether your topic is worthy of your efforts. Try to avoid topics that already have too much written about them (i.e., “eating disorders and body image among adolescent women”) or that simply are not important (i.e. “why I like ice cream”). These topics may lead to a thesis that is either dry fact or a weird claim that cannot be supported. A good thesis falls somewhere between the two extremes. To arrive at this point, ask yourself what is new, interesting, contestable, or controversial about your topic.

As you work on your thesis, remember to keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times . Sometimes your thesis needs to evolve as you develop new insights, find new evidence, or take a different approach to your topic.

Derive a main point from topic

Once you have a topic, you will have to decide what the main point of your paper will be. This point, the “controlling idea,” becomes the core of your argument (thesis statement) and it is the unifying idea to which you will relate all your sub-theses. You can then turn this “controlling idea” into a purpose statement about what you intend to do in your paper.

Look for patterns in your evidence

Compose a purpose statement.

Consult the examples below for suggestions on how to look for patterns in your evidence and construct a purpose statement.

Franco first tried to negotiate with the Axis
Franco turned to the Allies when he couldn’t get some concessions that he wanted from the Axis

Possible conclusion:

Spain’s neutrality in WWII occurred for an entirely personal reason: Franco’s desire to preserve his own (and Spain’s) power.

Purpose statement

This paper will analyze Franco’s diplomacy during World War II to see how it contributed to Spain’s neutrality.

The simile compares Simoisius to a tree, which is a peaceful, natural image.
The tree in the simile is chopped down to make wheels for a chariot, which is an object used in warfare.

At first, the simile seems to take the reader away from the world of warfare, but we end up back in that world by the end.

This paper will analyze the way the simile about Simoisius at 4.547-64 moves in and out of the world of warfare.

Derive purpose statement from topic

To find out what your “controlling idea” is, you have to examine and evaluate your evidence . As you consider your evidence, you may notice patterns emerging, data repeated in more than one source, or facts that favor one view more than another. These patterns or data may then lead you to some conclusions about your topic and suggest that you can successfully argue for one idea better than another.

For instance, you might find out that Franco first tried to negotiate with the Axis, but when he couldn’t get some concessions that he wanted from them, he turned to the Allies. As you read more about Franco’s decisions, you may conclude that Spain’s neutrality in WWII occurred for an entirely personal reason: his desire to preserve his own (and Spain’s) power. Based on this conclusion, you can then write a trial thesis statement to help you decide what material belongs in your paper.

Sometimes you won’t be able to find a focus or identify your “spin” or specific argument immediately. Like some writers, you might begin with a purpose statement just to get yourself going. A purpose statement is one or more sentences that announce your topic and indicate the structure of the paper but do not state the conclusions you have drawn . Thus, you might begin with something like this:

This paper will look at modern language to see if it reflects male dominance or female oppression.
I plan to analyze anger and derision in offensive language to see if they represent a challenge of society’s authority.

At some point, you can turn a purpose statement into a thesis statement. As you think and write about your topic, you can restrict, clarify, and refine your argument, crafting your thesis statement to reflect your thinking.

As you work on your thesis, remember to keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times. Sometimes your thesis needs to evolve as you develop new insights, find new evidence, or take a different approach to your topic.

Compose a draft thesis statement

If you are writing a paper that will have an argumentative thesis and are having trouble getting started, the techniques in the table below may help you develop a temporary or “working” thesis statement.

Begin with a purpose statement that you will later turn into a thesis statement.

Assignment: Discuss the history of the Reform Party and explain its influence on the 1990 presidential and Congressional election.

Purpose Statement: This paper briefly sketches the history of the grassroots, conservative, Perot-led Reform Party and analyzes how it influenced the economic and social ideologies of the two mainstream parties.

Question-to-Assertion

If your assignment asks a specific question(s), turn the question(s) into an assertion and give reasons why it is true or reasons for your opinion.

Assignment : What do Aylmer and Rappaccini have to be proud of? Why aren’t they satisfied with these things? How does pride, as demonstrated in “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” lead to unexpected problems?

Beginning thesis statement: Alymer and Rappaccinni are proud of their great knowledge; however, they are also very greedy and are driven to use their knowledge to alter some aspect of nature as a test of their ability. Evil results when they try to “play God.”

Write a sentence that summarizes the main idea of the essay you plan to write.

Main idea: The reason some toys succeed in the market is that they appeal to the consumers’ sense of the ridiculous and their basic desire to laugh at themselves.

Make a list of the ideas that you want to include; consider the ideas and try to group them.

nature = peaceful
war matériel = violent (competes with 1?)
need for time and space to mourn the dead
war is inescapable (competes with 3?)

Use a formula to arrive at a working thesis statement (you will revise this later).

although most readers of _______ have argued that _______, closer examination shows that _______.
_______ uses _______ and _____ to prove that ________.
phenomenon x is a result of the combination of __________, __________, and _________.

What to keep in mind as you draft an initial thesis statement

Beginning statements obtained through the methods illustrated above can serve as a framework for planning or drafting your paper, but remember they’re not yet the specific, argumentative thesis you want for the final version of your paper. In fact, in its first stages, a thesis statement usually is ill-formed or rough and serves only as a planning tool.

As you write, you may discover evidence that does not fit your temporary or “working” thesis. Or you may reach deeper insights about your topic as you do more research, and you will find that your thesis statement has to be more complicated to match the evidence that you want to use.

You must be willing to reject or omit some evidence in order to keep your paper cohesive and your reader focused. Or you may have to revise your thesis to match the evidence and insights that you want to discuss. Read your draft carefully, noting the conclusions you have drawn and the major ideas which support or prove those conclusions. These will be the elements of your final thesis statement.

Sometimes you will not be able to identify these elements in your early drafts, but as you consider how your argument is developing and how your evidence supports your main idea, ask yourself, “ What is the main point that I want to prove/discuss? ” and “ How will I convince the reader that this is true? ” When you can answer these questions, then you can begin to refine the thesis statement.

Refine and polish the thesis statement

To get to your final thesis, you’ll need to refine your draft thesis so that it’s specific and arguable.

Ask if your draft thesis addresses the assignment
Question each part of your draft thesis
Clarify vague phrases and assertions
Investigate alternatives to your draft thesis

Consult the example below for suggestions on how to refine your draft thesis statement.

Sample Assignment

Choose an activity and define it as a symbol of American culture. Your essay should cause the reader to think critically about the society which produces and enjoys that activity.

Ask The phenomenon of drive-in facilities is an interesting symbol of american culture, and these facilities demonstrate significant characteristics of our society.This statement does not fulfill the assignment because it does not require the reader to think critically about society.

Drive-ins are an interesting symbol of American culture because they represent Americans’ significant creativity and business ingenuity.

Among the types of drive-in facilities familiar during the twentieth century, drive-in movie theaters best represent American creativity, not merely because they were the forerunner of later drive-ins and drive-throughs, but because of their impact on our culture: they changed our relationship to the automobile, changed the way people experienced movies, and changed movie-going into a family activity.

While drive-in facilities such as those at fast-food establishments, banks, pharmacies, and dry cleaners symbolize America’s economic ingenuity, they also have affected our personal standards.

While drive-in facilities such as those at fast- food restaurants, banks, pharmacies, and dry cleaners symbolize (1) Americans’ business ingenuity, they also have contributed (2) to an increasing homogenization of our culture, (3) a willingness to depersonalize relationships with others, and (4) a tendency to sacrifice quality for convenience.

This statement is now specific and fulfills all parts of the assignment. This version, like any good thesis, is not self-evident; its points, 1-4, will have to be proven with evidence in the body of the paper. The numbers in this statement indicate the order in which the points will be presented. Depending on the length of the paper, there could be one paragraph for each numbered item or there could be blocks of paragraph for even pages for each one.

Complete the final thesis statement

The bottom line.

As you move through the process of crafting a thesis, you’ll need to remember four things:

Context matters! Think about your course materials and lectures. Try to relate your thesis to the ideas your instructor is discussing.
As you go through the process described in this section, always keep your assignment in mind . You will be more successful when your thesis (and paper) responds to the assignment than if it argues a semi-related idea.
Your thesis statement should be precise, focused, and contestable ; it should predict the sub-theses or blocks of information that you will use to prove your argument.
Make sure that you keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times. Change your thesis as your paper evolves, because you do not want your thesis to promise more than your paper actually delivers.

In the beginning, the thesis statement was a tool to help you sharpen your focus, limit material and establish the paper’s purpose. When your paper is finished, however, the thesis statement becomes a tool for your reader. It tells the reader what you have learned about your topic and what evidence led you to your conclusion. It keeps the reader on track–well able to understand and appreciate your argument.

Writing Process and Structure

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Getting Started with Your Paper

Interpreting Writing Assignments from Your Courses

Generating Ideas for

Creating an Argument

Thesis vs. Purpose Statements

Architecture of Arguments

Working with Sources

Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources

Using Literary Quotations

Citing Sources in Your Paper

Drafting Your Paper

Generating Ideas for Your Paper

Introductions

Paragraphing

Developing Strategic Transitions

Conclusions

Revising Your Paper

Peer Reviews

Reverse Outlines

Revising an Argumentative Paper

Revision Strategies for Longer Projects

Finishing Your Paper

Twelve Common Errors: An Editing Checklist

How to Proofread your Paper

Writing Collaboratively

Collaborative and Group Writing

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The Thesis Sentence

The thesis sentence is arguably the most important sentence in an academic paper. Without a good, clear thesis that presents an intriguing arguable point, a paper risks becoming unfocused, aimless, not worth the reader's time.

The Challenge of the Thesis Sentence

Because the thesis sentence is the most important sentence of a paper, it is also the most difficult to write. Readers expect a great deal of a thesis sentence: they want it to powerfully and clearly indicate what the writer is going to say, why she is going to say it, and even how it is that she is going to go about getting it said. In other words, the job of the thesis sentence is to organize, predict, control, and define the paper's argument.

In many cases, a thesis sentence will not only present the paper's argument, it will also point to and direct the course that the argument is going to take. In other words, it may also include an "essay map" - i.e., phrases or clauses that map out for the reader (and the writer) the argument that is to come. In some cases, then, the thesis sentence not only promises an argument, it promises the structure of that argument as well.

The promises that a thesis sentence makes to a reader are important ones and must be kept. It's helpful sometimes to explain the thesis as a kind of contract between reader and writer: if this contract is broken, the reader will feel frustrated and betrayed. Accordingly, the writer must be very careful in the development of the thesis.

Working on the Thesis Sentence

Chances are if you've had trouble following or deciphering the argument of a paper, there's a problem with the thesis. If a tutor's first response to a paper is that he doesn't know what the paper is about, then the thesis sentence is either absent from the paper, or it's hiding. The first thing you might wish to do is to ask the writer what his thesis is. He may point to a particular sentence that he thinks is his thesis, giving you a very good place to start.

Let's say that you've read a paper in which you've encountered this thesis:

Although heterosexuality has long been regarded as the only natural expression of sexuality, this view has been recently and strongly challenged by the gay rights movement.

What's wrong with this sentence? Many things, the most troublesome of which is that it argues nothing. Who is going to deny that the heteronormative view has been challenged by the gay rights movement? At this point, you need to ask the writer some questions. In what specific ways has the gay rights movement challenged heterosexuality? Do these ways seem reasonable to the writer? Why or why not? What argument does he intend to make about this topic? Why does he want to make it? To whom does he want to make it?

After giving the writer some time to think about and talk about these questions, you'll probably want to bring up another problem that is certain to arise out of a thesis like this one: the matter of structure. Any paper that follows a thesis like this one is likely to ramble. How can the reader figure out what all the supporting paragraphs are doing when the argument itself is so ill-defined? You'll want to show the writer that a strong thesis suggests - even helps to create - strong topic sentences. (More on this when we consider matters of structure, below).

But before we move on to other matters, let's consider the problem of this thesis from another angle: its style. We can see without difficulty that the sentence presents us with at least two stylistic problems: 1) this thesis, which should be the most powerful sentence of the paper, employs the passive voice, and 2) the introductory clause functions as a dangling modifier (who regards heterosexuality as the only natural way to express sexuality?).

Both stylistic problems point to something at work in the sentence: the writer obliterates the actors - heterosexuals and homosexuals alike - by using the dangling modifier and the passive voice. Why does he do that? Is he avoiding naming the actors in these sentences because he's not comfortable with the positions they take? Is he unable to declare himself because he feels paralyzed by the sense that he must write a paper that is politically correct? Or does he obliterate the actors with the passive voice because he himself wishes to remain passive on this topic?

These are questions to pose to the writer, though they must be posed gently. In fact, you might gently pose these questions via a discussion of style. For instance, you might also suggest that the writer rewrite the sentence in the active voice:

Although our society has long regarded heterosexuality as the only natural expression of sexuality, members of the gay rights movement have challenged this view strongly.

This active construction helps us to see clearly what's missing:

Although our society has long regarded heterosexuality as the only natural expression of sexuality, members of the gay rights movement have challenged this view strongly, arguing XYZ.

This more active construction also makes it clear that merely enumerating the points the author wants to make is not the same thing as creating an argument. The writer should now be able to see that he needs to go one step further - he needs to reveal his own position on the gay rights movement. The rest of the paper will develop this position.

In short, there are many ways to begin work on a writer's thesis sentences. Almost all of them will lead you to other matters important to the paper's success: its structure, its language, its style. Try to make any conversation you have about thesis sentences point to other problems with the writing. Not only is this strategy efficient, but it also encourages a writer to see how important a thesis is to the overall success of his essay.

Talking Your Way to a Workable Thesis

For the sake of making (we hope) a somewhat humorous illustration of the matter at hand, we offer the following scenario, which shows how tutor and tutee can talk their way to a workable thesis - and, indeed, to a good essay. So sit back, and enjoy this "break" in your training.

Imagine (though it is indeed quite a stretch) that a freshman composition teacher has the audacity to assign a paper on cats (the animals, not the play). The students may write any kind of paper they like - narration, description, compare/contrast, etc. - as long as their essays contain a thesis (that is, that they argue some point) concerning cats. A writer comes to you for help in developing her thesis. You read the assignment, and then you tell the writer that she first must choose the kind of paper she would like to do. She decides to do a narrative because she thinks she has more freedom in the narrative form. Then you ask her what she has to say about cats. "I don't like them," is her reply.

"OK," you say, "that's a start. Why don't you like them?" The writer has lots of reasons: they smell, they're aloof, they shed, they keep you up nights when they're in heat, they're very middle class, they steal food off of the table, they don't get along with dogs (the writer loves dogs), and on, and on. After brainstorming for a while, you tell the writer to choose a few points on which she'd like to focus - preferably those points that she feels strongly about or those which seem unusual. She picks three: cats smell, they steal food, and they are middle class. She offers her thesis: "I don't like cats because they are smelly, thieving, and middle class."

"O.K.," you say, "It's not a very sophisticated thesis but we can use it for now. After all, it defines your stance, it controls your subject, it organizes your argument, and it predicts your strategy - all the things that a thesis ought to do. Now let's consider how to develop the thesis, point by point."

You begin to ask questions about cats and their smell. "What do they smell like?" you say. The writer thinks awhile, and then says, "They smell like dirty gym shorts, like old hamburgers, like my eighth-grade math teacher's breath." The writer laughs, particularly fond of the final simile. Then she adds, "My boyfriend has a cat. A Tom. When he moved into his first apartment, that cat sprayed all over the place, you know, marking his territory. The place stunk so bad that I couldn't even go there for a week. Can you imagine? Your boyfriend gets his first apartment, and you can't even go in the place for a week?"

The writer has sparked your imagination; you think that she can spark her teacher's imagination as well. "Why don't you do your narrative about your boyfriend's cat? You could tell the story - or you could make up a story - about going over there for dinner, hoping for a romantic evening, and being put off by the cat." The writer likes this idea and goes off to write her draft. She returns with the following story about her boyfriend and his cat.

She was hoping for a romantic dinner; he was making her favorite meal. She could smell the T-bone and the apple pie before she even got to his door. But when she opened the door, her appetite was obliterated: the smell of cat spray smelled worse than her eighth-grade math teacher's breath. Of course, because she remained hopeful for a romantic evening, she put on her best face, tried not to grimace, and gave her boyfriend the flowers she'd picked up on the way. They chat; everything is going fine; he goes to the kitchen to check on dinner; she hears his shriek. The cat has stolen all of the food! Upon searching, they find the cat under the sofa, not only with their dinner, but with the writer's wallet, her favorite picture of her mom torn in half, her new leather jacket now full of cat hairs. This cat not only stinks, he's a thief as well. Still, the evening need not be a total waste. They order pizza, have some wine. She and her man talk; their moods improve, and she decides that it might be a nice time to kiss. She pulls the old yawn trick to get her arm around him, and just as she's ready to kiss him the cat jumps into his lap. "Oh, Pookie, Pookie, Pookie," her boyfriend says, giving himself over to the purring cat. "Damn lap cat," the writer says to herself, and leaves it at that. She has written a paper illustrating that cats are smelly, thieving, and middle class. She has fulfilled her thesis.

Now, you like this paper. It's got a great voice, and it's got humor. You feel, however, that the writer should refine the thesis. It has served the writer well in helping her to organize, control, predict, and define her essay; however, she needs now to consider how to choose words and a tone which will hook the reader and reel him in. You explain to the writer that her thesis can be humorous, that she can feel free to be extreme, because a funny, exaggerated thesis would suit this funny, exaggerated paper.

After some doodling and some dialogue, the writer comes up with the following thesis: "All cats should be exterminated because they are the stinking, kleptomaniacal darlings of the bourgeoisie." You laugh; you like it. Moreover, the thesis has given the writer an ending for her essay: she exterminates the cat in her boyfriend's microwave, convinces him to get a goldfish instead, and the two of them live happily ever after. The writer is happy. The tutor is happy. The paper works.

While you will likely not encounter a "cat" assignment at Dartmouth, this sort of experience with writing a thesis is a common one. Even when papers are more sophisticated than this one - even when the subject is Hitler's rise to power, or Freud's treatment of taboo - writers will often write a working thesis, one that guides them through the writing process. Then they will return to the thesis, sometimes several times before their paper is finished, revising it to better fit their paper's increasingly refined argument and tone.

Polishing the Thesis Sentence

Look at the sentence's structure. Is the main idea of the paper placed appropriately in the main clause? If there are parallel points made in the paper, does the thesis sentence signal this to the reader via some parallel structure? If the paper makes an interesting but necessary aside, is that aside predicted - perhaps in a parenthetical element? Remember: the structure of the thesis sentence also signals much to the reader about the structure of the argument. Be sure that the thesis reflects, reliably, what the paper itself is going to say.

As to the style of the sentence: hold the thesis sentence to the highest stylistic standards. Help a writer to make sure that it is as clear and concise as it can be, and that its language and phrasing reflect confidence, eloquence, and grace.

How To Write A Narrative Essay Thesis

The purpose of writing is a guide for writers to compose something moving or at least true to its title. For the most part in academic and commercial writing, the rationale behind researching and coming up with unique ideas is to educate and entertain readers.

Narrative writing is very much different from other academic writing because it relies on emotions and personal experiences rather than empirical data and information extracted from reliable sources. One of the key elements of a narrative essay is its thesis statement.

Narrative Essay Thesis 101

A thesis statement or a thesis is often a bold and brief statement regarding the central idea or theme of the essay . In other terms, the whole narrative revolves around this statement, and other elements of a narrative essay, such as characters, setting, POV, and conflict, all serve the sole purpose of justifying this statement.

In a typical narrative essay, the thesis statement comes in the introduction section, almost at the end. Sometimes, it is the last sentence of the introduction or opening for the added effect.

Without a thesis statement, the essay is not complete so students who skip through this essential element cannot secure ideal marks in their school or college assignments.

Importance of Narrative Essay Writing

Narrative essay writing is widely used in academic institutions to help students think and put their thoughts into their own words. Teachers gauge the depth of knowledge and ideas and help students rear the art of coming up with ideas and turning those ideas into sentences and paragraphs.

Many professional fiction and non-fiction writers attribute their initial training in schools as the most influential element behind their success. Since a narrative essay is not complete without a thesis statement, students learn to understand the gravity of short and brief sentences by composing riveting thesis statements.

Practical Tips For Narrative Essay Thesis

In this section, we will go through some of the best and most practical tips to write a solid narrative essay thesis and improve the quality of the essay.

Clear Purpose & Intentions

A thesis or thesis statement shows the intentions and inner thinking of the writer. It should have the ability to wrap the underlying theme and central part of the essay into a small sentence.

If writers are having a hard time coming up with a compelling thesis statement, it is best to focus on the title and draw parallels from it. Also, the theme and central part of the point of the essay is a great places to start or augment the thesis statement.

First Person Narrative

A first-person narrative or point of view is the best for a personal narrative essay because it shows a direct line of connection between a writer and their story. Also, it helps the writer in summarizing all the details and central ideas behind the essay in a punchy and bold statement.

Many writers opt for alternative POVs to either experiment with the narrative or to convey a message in a better way. That’s why you will always find different forms and types of thesis statements in essays.

Probing Tone & Voice

Apart from the placement and structure of a thesis statement, it should have a probing tone and voice for the readers. Many students make the mistake of merely writing the central idea of the essay.

This is not right. Instead, they should explore further actions including highlighting the struggle of the characters or the conflicts baked into the essay.

The idea here is to have a thesis statement that implies action and provokes readers to move and care about the whole narrative.

Putting “Show, Don’t Tell” Into Practice

There is an adage in writing that advises writers to show the details instead of telling them. This is a great way to stress important things without telling the readers that they are important.

For instance, if you want to show that a character was angry at some point in the narrative, it is best to describe his facial features, his actions, or his dialogue that shows that anger. This is will help readers understand the complex psychology of the characters.

Balancing The Structure With Elements

Many students believe that they can wing the process of structuring and formatting a narrative essay because it is based on their personal experiences and incidents. There is no denying the source and inspiration behind a narrative essay, but the standard structure is almost universal across the globe.

The idea here is to balance the various elements of the narrative essay through structural constraints. This section is dedicated to helping students see the big picture by laying out the small pieces one by one.

Opening With A Hook & Thesis Statement

The introduction is where the writer sets the stage for the characters to play and the plot to unfold. It starts with a hook which is a literary device to interest and lure the readers in. It could be a bold, shocking statement, a question asked from the readers or an anecdote that shares some similarities with the narrative essay.

At the end of the introduction, the writers drop the thesis statement. It is a brief and bold sentence that highlights the underlying theme and subjective leanings of the writer.

Main Body – Interplay of Characters, Setting, Conflict, Theme

In a standard structure of the essay where the introduction and conclusion are only a paragraph long, the main body has the lion’s share of three paragraphs. It is because it has to cover all the other elements of the narrative to support the thesis statement.

The goal of the writers is to balance all the variables, including the characters at each stage of the narrative, and the setting of the narrative in terms of conflict and action.

At the end of the main body, the theme should be highlighted and bridged with the conclusion.

Concluding With The Lessons Learned

There is no denying that the conclusion of a narrative essay is one of the most important sections. That’s why professionals spend a lot of time and effort in getting it just right. Another reason why it should be as perfectly composed as possible is that it is the last thing that readers will read and probably keep in their minds about that narrative essay.

Ideally, it should summarize the finer points of the main body and highlight the lessons learned in the narrative. Keep in mind that the conclusion of a narrative essay differs a lot from its counterparts.

How To Write A Narrative Essay Thesis In College

Brainstorming & picking the right topic.

Since the topic of a narrative essay and its thesis statement are directly linked, it is necessary to brainstorm different ideas and come up with the right topic. For the narrative essays, the topics dealing with change, loss, and tragedy gain a lot of traction with readers and instructors. So, it pays to put them into your title consideration.

Creating A Functional Outline

By creating an outline after due research, writers set themselves up for success as it helps them predict their next step. There are many instances in writing when moving from one edge to another can cost a lot of time and effort. Instead, a thorough yet flexible outline can help writers progress with ease. It also helps them to stay true to the narrative.

Using Snowflake Method To Start Writing

The snowflake method is about starting with the bare minimum and then adding or omitting details as you go with the writing process. This is great for writing a narrative essay after outlining because writers often forget the most important or riveting things that can come later in the narrative. For starters, you can commence writing by opting for a sentence for a paragraph to set the tone.

Beefing The Narrative Up As You Go

Once you have set the board through the snowflake method, you can work on the nuances of the narrative. This includes giving a unique voice to each character, finding the subtle and direct messages in the narrative, as well as connecting with the reader at a deeper level. If at the first attempt, you cannot nail this step, you can always get to the brass tacks to strengthen the story.

Proofreading & Editing

This is the most important part of writing the essay that many students either ignore or go through it half-heartedly. The best way to proofread and edit a narrative essay is to set some SOPs based on different aspects of writing. During the editing phase, you can go through each one of them and fine-tune them to your advantage. If students can find that they can balance all the elements and cover all the bases by any other method, they are always free to try them.

Finalizing The Process

In the finalization phase, students must look at the essay from a reader’s perspective and improve it accordingly. They can ask friends and family to read the essay and provide feedback. Some online communities and tools can help them further augment the narrative. Once it is finished and everything is checked and accounted for, in terms of elements and their interplay, students should turn their essays in for evaluation and hope for the best.

What can be a thesis in a narrative essay example?

A thesis or a thesis statement is a sentence in a narrative essay that compounds the central idea or theme of the essay. It is a bold and brief statement that also shows the subjective version of the story based on the writer’s perspective.

Usually, you will find a thesis statement at the end of the introduction.

Is a narrative essay complete without a thesis statement?

A narrative essay has around five elements, including conflict, theme, setting, characters, and so on. A thesis statement is an integral part of the essay as it encapsulates the main theme of the essay while foreshadowing the events from the main body and conclusion.

What is the perfect place to state the thesis statement?

Most experts suggest that the best place to state the thesis statement is at the end of the introduction. It is where the main body of the essay is about to start and the other elements are about to be introduced into the narrative.

How can I write the best thesis statement for my narrative essay?

Here are some tips that will help you write the thesis statement:

Understand the purpose behind writing
Connect thematic reference with the title
Balance out other elements based on the theme

What is the ideal length of a narrative essay thesis?

There is no set word limit for the thesis statement because the topic and the scope of the title demands different from different essays. Still, it is best to keep it laconic and punchy so that readers can learn it and remember it throughout the essay.

What are three important points of a thesis in a narrative essay?

Here are the three main points of a thesis in a narrative essay:

Drawing parallels from the writer’s subjective perspective and central theme
Connecting theme and title with the statement for the intended effect
Getting readers invested in the narrative

A thesis statement is the summary of the underlying theme or central idea behind the narrative. Many students struggle with coming up with a subtle yet solid thesis for their narrative essays resulting in poor delivery.

This article was dedicated to helping students understand its importance and how to compose one for any type of narrative essay.

Before setting out to write a long essay, it is worth their time to research and understand all the concepts. This will help them save time down the road.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 3 great narrative essay examples + tips for writing.

General Education

A narrative essay is one of the most intimidating assignments you can be handed at any level of your education. Where you've previously written argumentative essays that make a point or analytic essays that dissect meaning, a narrative essay asks you to write what is effectively a story .

But unlike a simple work of creative fiction, your narrative essay must have a clear and concrete motif —a recurring theme or idea that you’ll explore throughout. Narrative essays are less rigid, more creative in expression, and therefore pretty different from most other essays you’ll be writing.

But not to fear—in this article, we’ll be covering what a narrative essay is, how to write a good one, and also analyzing some personal narrative essay examples to show you what a great one looks like.

What Is a Narrative Essay?

At first glance, a narrative essay might sound like you’re just writing a story. Like the stories you're used to reading, a narrative essay is generally (but not always) chronological, following a clear throughline from beginning to end. Even if the story jumps around in time, all the details will come back to one specific theme, demonstrated through your choice in motifs.

Unlike many creative stories, however, your narrative essay should be based in fact. That doesn’t mean that every detail needs to be pure and untainted by imagination, but rather that you shouldn’t wholly invent the events of your narrative essay. There’s nothing wrong with inventing a person’s words if you can’t remember them exactly, but you shouldn’t say they said something they weren’t even close to saying.

Another big difference between narrative essays and creative fiction—as well as other kinds of essays—is that narrative essays are based on motifs. A motif is a dominant idea or theme, one that you establish before writing the essay. As you’re crafting the narrative, it’ll feed back into your motif to create a comprehensive picture of whatever that motif is.

For example, say you want to write a narrative essay about how your first day in high school helped you establish your identity. You might discuss events like trying to figure out where to sit in the cafeteria, having to describe yourself in five words as an icebreaker in your math class, or being unsure what to do during your lunch break because it’s no longer acceptable to go outside and play during lunch. All of those ideas feed back into the central motif of establishing your identity.

The important thing to remember is that while a narrative essay is typically told chronologically and intended to read like a story, it is not purely for entertainment value. A narrative essay delivers its theme by deliberately weaving the motifs through the events, scenes, and details. While a narrative essay may be entertaining, its primary purpose is to tell a complete story based on a central meaning.

Unlike other essay forms, it is totally okay—even expected—to use first-person narration in narrative essays. If you’re writing a story about yourself, it’s natural to refer to yourself within the essay. It’s also okay to use other perspectives, such as third- or even second-person, but that should only be done if it better serves your motif. Generally speaking, your narrative essay should be in first-person perspective.

Though your motif choices may feel at times like you’re making a point the way you would in an argumentative essay, a narrative essay’s goal is to tell a story, not convince the reader of anything. Your reader should be able to tell what your motif is from reading, but you don’t have to change their mind about anything. If they don’t understand the point you are making, you should consider strengthening the delivery of the events and descriptions that support your motif.

Narrative essays also share some features with analytical essays, in which you derive meaning from a book, film, or other media. But narrative essays work differently—you’re not trying to draw meaning from an existing text, but rather using an event you’ve experienced to convey meaning. In an analytical essay, you examine narrative, whereas in a narrative essay you create narrative.

The structure of a narrative essay is also a bit different than other essays. You’ll generally be getting your point across chronologically as opposed to grouping together specific arguments in paragraphs or sections. To return to the example of an essay discussing your first day of high school and how it impacted the shaping of your identity, it would be weird to put the events out of order, even if not knowing what to do after lunch feels like a stronger idea than choosing where to sit. Instead of organizing to deliver your information based on maximum impact, you’ll be telling your story as it happened, using concrete details to reinforce your theme.

3 Great Narrative Essay Examples

One of the best ways to learn how to write a narrative essay is to look at a great narrative essay sample. Let’s take a look at some truly stellar narrative essay examples and dive into what exactly makes them work so well.

A Ticket to the Fair by David Foster Wallace

Today is Press Day at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, and I’m supposed to be at the fairgrounds by 9:00 A.M. to get my credentials. I imagine credentials to be a small white card in the band of a fedora. I’ve never been considered press before. My real interest in credentials is getting into rides and shows for free. I’m fresh in from the East Coast, for an East Coast magazine. Why exactly they’re interested in the Illinois State Fair remains unclear to me. I suspect that every so often editors at East Coast magazines slap their foreheads and remember that about 90 percent of the United States lies between the coasts, and figure they’ll engage somebody to do pith-helmeted anthropological reporting on something rural and heartlandish. I think they asked me to do this because I grew up here, just a couple hours’ drive from downstate Springfield. I never did go to the state fair, though—I pretty much topped out at the county fair level. Actually, I haven’t been back to Illinois for a long time, and I can’t say I’ve missed it.

Throughout this essay, David Foster Wallace recounts his experience as press at the Illinois State Fair. But it’s clear from this opening that he’s not just reporting on the events exactly as they happened—though that’s also true— but rather making a point about how the East Coast, where he lives and works, thinks about the Midwest.

In his opening paragraph, Wallace states that outright: “Why exactly they’re interested in the Illinois State Fair remains unclear to me. I suspect that every so often editors at East Coast magazines slap their foreheads and remember that about 90 percent of the United States lies between the coasts, and figure they’ll engage somebody to do pith-helmeted anthropological reporting on something rural and heartlandish.”

Not every motif needs to be stated this clearly , but in an essay as long as Wallace’s, particularly since the audience for such a piece may feel similarly and forget that such a large portion of the country exists, it’s important to make that point clear.

But Wallace doesn’t just rest on introducing his motif and telling the events exactly as they occurred from there. It’s clear that he selects events that remind us of that idea of East Coast cynicism , such as when he realizes that the Help Me Grow tent is standing on top of fake grass that is killing the real grass beneath, when he realizes the hypocrisy of craving a corn dog when faced with a real, suffering pig, when he’s upset for his friend even though he’s not the one being sexually harassed, and when he witnesses another East Coast person doing something he wouldn’t dare to do.

Wallace is literally telling the audience exactly what happened, complete with dates and timestamps for when each event occurred. But he’s also choosing those events with a purpose—he doesn’t focus on details that don’t serve his motif. That’s why he discusses the experiences of people, how the smells are unappealing to him, and how all the people he meets, in cowboy hats, overalls, or “black spandex that looks like cheesecake leotards,” feel almost alien to him.

All of these details feed back into the throughline of East Coast thinking that Wallace introduces in the first paragraph. He also refers back to it in the essay’s final paragraph, stating:

At last, an overarching theory blooms inside my head: megalopolitan East Coasters’ summer treats and breaks and literally ‘getaways,’ flights-from—from crowds, noise, heat, dirt, the stress of too many sensory choices….The East Coast existential treat is escape from confines and stimuli—quiet, rustic vistas that hold still, turn inward, turn away. Not so in the rural Midwest. Here you’re pretty much away all the time….Something in a Midwesterner sort of actuates , deep down, at a public event….The real spectacle that draws us here is us.

Throughout this journey, Wallace has tried to demonstrate how the East Coast thinks about the Midwest, ultimately concluding that they are captivated by the Midwest’s less stimuli-filled life, but that the real reason they are interested in events like the Illinois State Fair is that they are, in some ways, a means of looking at the East Coast in a new, estranging way.

The reason this works so well is that Wallace has carefully chosen his examples, outlined his motif and themes in the first paragraph, and eventually circled back to the original motif with a clearer understanding of his original point.

When outlining your own narrative essay, try to do the same. Start with a theme, build upon it with examples, and return to it in the end with an even deeper understanding of the original issue. You don’t need this much space to explore a theme, either—as we’ll see in the next example, a strong narrative essay can also be very short.

Death of a Moth by Virginia Woolf

After a time, tired by his dancing apparently, he settled on the window ledge in the sun, and, the queer spectacle being at an end, I forgot about him. Then, looking up, my eye was caught by him. He was trying to resume his dancing, but seemed either so stiff or so awkward that he could only flutter to the bottom of the window-pane; and when he tried to fly across it he failed. Being intent on other matters I watched these futile attempts for a time without thinking, unconsciously waiting for him to resume his flight, as one waits for a machine, that has stopped momentarily, to start again without considering the reason of its failure. After perhaps a seventh attempt he slipped from the wooden ledge and fell, fluttering his wings, on to his back on the window sill. The helplessness of his attitude roused me. It flashed upon me that he was in difficulties; he could no longer raise himself; his legs struggled vainly. But, as I stretched out a pencil, meaning to help him to right himself, it came over me that the failure and awkwardness were the approach of death. I laid the pencil down again.

In this essay, Virginia Woolf explains her encounter with a dying moth. On surface level, this essay is just a recounting of an afternoon in which she watched a moth die—it’s even established in the title. But there’s more to it than that. Though Woolf does not begin her essay with as clear a motif as Wallace, it’s not hard to pick out the evidence she uses to support her point, which is that the experience of this moth is also the human experience.

In the title, Woolf tells us this essay is about death. But in the first paragraph, she seems to mostly be discussing life—the moth is “content with life,” people are working in the fields, and birds are flying. However, she mentions that it is mid-September and that the fields were being plowed. It’s autumn and it’s time for the harvest; the time of year in which many things die.

In this short essay, she chronicles the experience of watching a moth seemingly embody life, then die. Though this essay is literally about a moth, it’s also about a whole lot more than that. After all, moths aren’t the only things that die—Woolf is also reflecting on her own mortality, as well as the mortality of everything around her.

At its core, the essay discusses the push and pull of life and death, not in a way that’s necessarily sad, but in a way that is accepting of both. Woolf begins by setting up the transitional fall season, often associated with things coming to an end, and raises the ideas of pleasure, vitality, and pity.

At one point, Woolf tries to help the dying moth, but reconsiders, as it would interfere with the natural order of the world. The moth’s death is part of the natural order of the world, just like fall, just like her own eventual death.

All these themes are set up in the beginning and explored throughout the essay’s narrative. Though Woolf doesn’t directly state her theme, she reinforces it by choosing a small, isolated event—watching a moth die—and illustrating her point through details.

With this essay, we can see that you don’t need a big, weird, exciting event to discuss an important meaning. Woolf is able to explore complicated ideas in a short essay by being deliberate about what details she includes, just as you can be in your own essays.

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

On the twenty-ninth of July, in 1943, my father died. On the same day, a few hours later, his last child was born. Over a month before this, while all our energies were concentrated in waiting for these events, there had been, in Detroit, one of the bloodiest race riots of the century. A few hours after my father’s funeral, while he lay in state in the undertaker’s chapel, a race riot broke out in Harlem. On the morning of the third of August, we drove my father to the graveyard through a wilderness of smashed plate glass.

Like Woolf, Baldwin does not lay out his themes in concrete terms—unlike Wallace, there’s no clear sentence that explains what he’ll be talking about. However, you can see the motifs quite clearly: death, fatherhood, struggle, and race.

Throughout the narrative essay, Baldwin discusses the circumstances of his father’s death, including his complicated relationship with his father. By introducing those motifs in the first paragraph, the reader understands that everything discussed in the essay will come back to those core ideas. When Baldwin talks about his experience with a white teacher taking an interest in him and his father’s resistance to that, he is also talking about race and his father’s death. When he talks about his father’s death, he is also talking about his views on race. When he talks about his encounters with segregation and racism, he is talking, in part, about his father.

Because his father was a hard, uncompromising man, Baldwin struggles to reconcile the knowledge that his father was right about many things with his desire to not let that hardness consume him, as well.

Baldwin doesn’t explicitly state any of this, but his writing so often touches on the same motifs that it becomes clear he wants us to think about all these ideas in conversation with one another.

At the end of the essay, Baldwin makes it more clear:

This fight begins, however, in the heart and it had now been laid to my charge to keep my own heart free of hatred and despair. This intimation made my heart heavy and, now that my father was irrecoverable, I wished that he had been beside me so that I could have searched his face for the answers which only the future would give me now.

Here, Baldwin ties together the themes and motifs into one clear statement: that he must continue to fight and recognize injustice, especially racial injustice, just as his father did. But unlike his father, he must do it beginning with himself—he must not let himself be closed off to the world as his father was. And yet, he still wishes he had his father for guidance, even as he establishes that he hopes to be a different man than his father.

In this essay, Baldwin loads the front of the essay with his motifs, and, through his narrative, weaves them together into a theme. In the end, he comes to a conclusion that connects all of those things together and leaves the reader with a lasting impression of completion—though the elements may have been initially disparate, in the end everything makes sense.

You can replicate this tactic of introducing seemingly unattached ideas and weaving them together in your own essays. By introducing those motifs, developing them throughout, and bringing them together in the end, you can demonstrate to your reader how all of them are related. However, it’s especially important to be sure that your motifs and clear and consistent throughout your essay so that the conclusion feels earned and consistent—if not, readers may feel mislead.

5 Key Tips for Writing Narrative Essays

Narrative essays can be a lot of fun to write since they’re so heavily based on creativity. But that can also feel intimidating—sometimes it’s easier to have strict guidelines than to have to make it all up yourself. Here are a few tips to keep your narrative essay feeling strong and fresh.

Develop Strong Motifs

Motifs are the foundation of a narrative essay . What are you trying to say? How can you say that using specific symbols or events? Those are your motifs.

In the same way that an argumentative essay’s body should support its thesis, the body of your narrative essay should include motifs that support your theme.

Try to avoid cliches, as these will feel tired to your readers. Instead of roses to symbolize love, try succulents. Instead of the ocean representing some vast, unknowable truth, try the depths of your brother’s bedroom. Keep your language and motifs fresh and your essay will be even stronger!

Use First-Person Perspective

In many essays, you’re expected to remove yourself so that your points stand on their own. Not so in a narrative essay—in this case, you want to make use of your own perspective.

Sometimes a different perspective can make your point even stronger. If you want someone to identify with your point of view, it may be tempting to choose a second-person perspective. However, be sure you really understand the function of second-person; it’s very easy to put a reader off if the narration isn’t expertly deployed.

If you want a little bit of distance, third-person perspective may be okay. But be careful—too much distance and your reader may feel like the narrative lacks truth.

That’s why first-person perspective is the standard. It keeps you, the writer, close to the narrative, reminding the reader that it really happened. And because you really know what happened and how, you’re free to inject your own opinion into the story without it detracting from your point, as it would in a different type of essay.

Stick to the Truth

Your essay should be true. However, this is a creative essay, and it’s okay to embellish a little. Rarely in life do we experience anything with a clear, concrete meaning the way somebody in a book might. If you flub the details a little, it’s okay—just don’t make them up entirely.

Also, nobody expects you to perfectly recall details that may have happened years ago. You may have to reconstruct dialog from your memory and your imagination. That’s okay, again, as long as you aren’t making it up entirely and assigning made-up statements to somebody.

Dialog is a powerful tool. A good conversation can add flavor and interest to a story, as we saw demonstrated in David Foster Wallace’s essay. As previously mentioned, it’s okay to flub it a little, especially because you’re likely writing about an experience you had without knowing that you’d be writing about it later.

However, don’t rely too much on it. Your narrative essay shouldn’t be told through people explaining things to one another; the motif comes through in the details. Dialog can be one of those details, but it shouldn’t be the only one.

Use Sensory Descriptions

Because a narrative essay is a story, you can use sensory details to make your writing more interesting. If you’re describing a particular experience, you can go into detail about things like taste, smell, and hearing in a way that you probably wouldn’t do in any other essay style.

These details can tie into your overall motifs and further your point. Woolf describes in great detail what she sees while watching the moth, giving us the sense that we, too, are watching the moth. In Wallace’s essay, he discusses the sights, sounds, and smells of the Illinois State Fair to help emphasize his point about its strangeness. And in Baldwin’s essay, he describes shattered glass as a “wilderness,” and uses the feelings of his body to describe his mental state.

All these descriptions anchor us not only in the story, but in the motifs and themes as well. One of the tools of a writer is making the reader feel as you felt, and sensory details help you achieve that.

What’s Next?

Looking to brush up on your essay-writing capabilities before the ACT? This guide to ACT English will walk you through some of the best strategies and practice questions to get you prepared!

Part of practicing for the ACT is ensuring your word choice and diction are on point. Check out this guide to some of the most common errors on the ACT English section to be sure that you're not making these common mistakes!

A solid understanding of English principles will help you make an effective point in a narrative essay, and you can get that understanding through taking a rigorous assortment of high school English classes !

Melissa Brinks graduated from the University of Washington in 2014 with a Bachelor's in English with a creative writing emphasis. She has spent several years tutoring K-12 students in many subjects, including in SAT prep, to help them prepare for their college education.

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The Morrison family, as one of the most respected in their town, showed a great example to the citizens of how harmonious an attitude to Native Americans can be. People learned from them and were grateful to decrease to amount of racist persecutions. You help your students to spread their outlook, make it wide and therefore unusual, which will make their personalities mature and interesting. She also has the ability to feel the location of the people who are in despair and sometimes can read the thoughts of other people. Procrastination “hides” in almost every aspect of our everyday life and it is so hard to overcome it. I do not think I would be able to realize that I had this problem and cope with it until one situation happened to me. For a girl it is the age of LOVE, it is the period when most of the young girls want to get married and start up a new family. I miss you, my love and I count the day we have to spend apart. You are a half of me: a half of my heart, a half of my soul, a half of my mind.

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Crafting Compelling Sentences: 21 Narrative Sentence Examples from Stories, Poems, and Novels

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As writers and teachers of writing, we’re well acquainted with the four types of sentences: declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory. But what about narrative sentences? Where do they fit into this catalog of options? In this post, we’ll look at the definition of narrative sentences and discuss the many places you’ll find them. We’ll also dig into some epic narrative poems, short stories and novels to highlight 21 narrative sentence examples.

21 narrative sentence examples from literature

Please note: This article contains spoilers for the following books and stories:

Lessons in Chemistry , Bonnie Garmus
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader , C.S. Lewis
Jane Eyre , Charlotte Brontë
A Rose for Emily , William Faulkner
Don Quixote , Miguel de Cervantes
The Story of an Hour , Kate Chopin
The Destructors , Graham Greene
The Maltese Falcon , Dashiell Hammett
The Last Thing He Told Me , Laura Dave

Definition of Narrative Sentences

Importance of narrative sentences in storytelling, types of narratives, narrative structure, descriptive narrative sentence examples, examples of action-oriented narrative sentences, examples of dialogue-based narrative sentences.

The word narrative comes from the French narratif/narrative, which in turn is derived from the late Latin word narrativus: telling a story . Fittingly, a narrative is an account of a connected series of events, that is, what we typically think of as a story. Whether the account is documented in prose or poetry or passed down through oral storytelling, it is still a narrative.

Narrative writing is any writing that tells a story, whether it’s fictional or true. Unlike expository and argumentative writing, which aim to explain and persuade, narrative writing seeks to entertain, engage, and inspire readers (among other objectives). While descriptive writing stands on its own as a rhetorical mode, it is also usually included in narrative writing as a way of helping readers visualize the people, places, and events of the narrative.

A narrative sentence, then, is broadly defined as any sentence that makes up part of a story.

In particular, we will focus in this post on narrative sentences that contribute to the development of the basic narrative elements such as plot, characters, conflict, theme, and setting through description, action, and dialogue.

How authors form their narrative sentences has a substantial impact on the overall effect of the story. Engagement, tension, organization, and interest all depend on the narrative choices writers make. Here are a few ways in which narrative sentences improve storytelling.

Plot: The flow and quality of a story’s sentences are instrumental in capturing the readers’ interest in the story’s plot and maintaining a high engagement level. Across all the different genres, tenses, and perspectives, writers depend on the efficacy of their sentences to develop emotional connections and attract the audience’s investment in the story. The structure of the plot also helps readers buy into the story and keep track of what’s happening. Well-crafted sentences propel tension, suspense, and excitement.

Characters: Authors reveal characters through their words, thoughts, and actions as well as through the eyes of other characters. In a first-person narrative, readers primarily rely on the narrator to make themselves known, but we can also learn about the first-person narrator through the reactions and dialogue of the people they encounter. Thoughtful writers use creative strategies to paint detailed pictures of well-rounded characters rather than simply laying out a list of character traits.

Conflict: Obstacles and challenges standing between a main character and their goal make for great storytelling. If it were easy for people to get what they wanted, books would be quite boring indeed. Authors include internal and external obstacles that elevate conflict and tension, driving readers to root for their favorite characters and see the story through to the end.

Theme: Powerful storytelling succeeds not only in entertaining readers but also in imparting universal themes or moral lessons that make us think more deeply, help us make sense of the world, or increase our capacity for empathy.

Setting: Descriptive narrative sentences transport readers to different worlds, periods, and settings. Whether we’re exploring Middle Earth or delving into the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, a story’s setting comes alive through sparkling descriptive sentences.

Understanding Narrative Types and Structures

Narrative sentences exist in all types of narratives. They are not limited to novels and short stories , even though that’s often what we think of when we hear the word narrative. Not only are they prevalent in fiction, but they’re also used widely in non-fiction writing such as essays and biographies. Stories are memorable and meaningful and are therefore incorporated into most types of creative writing.

A narrative story can take many forms. Some types of narratives include:

Memoirs: True stories narrated by the people who experienced them. Memoirists describe a personal experience in their lives, holding as much to the truth as possible, but they also have creative license to fill in minor details as needed for the sake of the story. Some level of reflection and/or universal truth is usually included. (Example: Henry David Thoreau’s Walden ).
Novels: Fictional, book-length, prose narratives. As Britannica defines them, novels possess “a certain complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience.” (Example: Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women ) .
Short fiction: A fictional narrative work that is of shorter length and lesser complexity than the novel. Fairy tales would fall into this category. (Example: Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour ) .
Poems: Narrative poems relate stories. They usually have a narrator and may contain other characters. Narrative poetry can be of any length and does not necessarily need to rhyme. (Example: Beowulf ).
Songs: Songs are simply poems set to music. Like all narratives, a narrative song tells a story. (Example: Harry Chapin’s Cat in the Cradle ).
Plays: A dramatic work created for the stage, in which the narrative is usually conveyed through dialogue, actions, props, and sets. There may also be a narrator who helps fill in the important details of the narrative. In a musical, songs are instrumental in moving the plot forward. (Examples: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet ; Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton ).
Folklore: The traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of a community, perpetuated through oral narration. (Example: King Arthur).
History: The stories of the past, written in either entirely factual formats (such as biographies) or with fictionalized elements that render it historical fiction. Historical narratives can also include diaries, letters, and journals . (Example: Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief ).
Biography/autobiography: Biographies and autobiographies tell the stories of people’s lives as factually as possible. Details are ideally verified. Unlike memoirs, which recount specific events or circumstances, biographies focus on the whole life. (Example: Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ).
Allegories: Symbolic fictional narratives that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically moral, political, ethical, or philosophical in nature. (Example: Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree ).

The examples of narrative sentences offered in this post primarily come from novels and short stories, though we’ve included some from other sources as well.

Narrative structure refers to how the story is organized and how the narrative elements mentioned earlier are conveyed. It determines, among other things, the order in which the events of the story unfold. While chronological order (following a chronological sequence of events) is typical for many narratives, some writers prefer to change the sequence by jumping back and forth in time, especially through flashbacks or multiple timelines. When done well, this nonlinear narrative style makes for a compelling read.

Although there are many ways to organize a narrative structure, certain narrative milestones are essentially universal. In a linear narrative, we generally expect to see sections dedicated to exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. The percentage of space dedicated to each of these will differ greatly from story to story, but ultimately we should be able to identify these narrative shifts regardless of the narrative technique used.

(This structure, known as Freytag’s pyramid, was inspired by classic Greek tragedies and is often what we teach in school to beginning writers . Other popular narrative structures include more, fewer, or different structural elements. For example, the Save the Cat beat sheet method uses 15 plot points or sections a narrative must hit while the Hero’s Journey structure contains 12 stages.)

At a minimum, a complete story structure should have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Authors carefully select each narrative sentence—and, by extension, each narrative paragraph—to best develop the elements of their particular narrative within the structure they’ve chosen. In a series of often grueling decisions, writers shape and reshape sentences within a piece of writing until each one sits perfectly in its place, contributing to an ultimately enjoyable—or thought-provoking, inspiring, or otherwise meaningful—experience for the reader.

Narrative Sentence Examples

Choosing narrative sentence examples is a bit of an overwhelming task. Any novel or memoir one opens is likely to contain thousands of narrative sentences to choose from. The problem is not that there aren’t enough examples or that few worthy examples exist. Rather, the challenge lies in figuring out what makes a good example. How does one present a useful and varied selection of sentences that won’t take years to read?

For this post, I selected a cross-section of examples that attempt to represent a variety of sentence types, genres, time periods, and story elements. Specifically, I looked for examples that include:

Both classical and contemporary literature
A selection of sentence types including descriptive, action-oriented, and dialogue
Development of story elements including plot, character, conflict, theme, and setting
Diverse points in the overall story structure (e.g. expository sentences, inciting incidents, rising action, etc.)
Diverse types of narratives (novels, short stories, essays, poems, fairy tales)

A final note: though the title of this post promises 21 sentence examples, you will notice that almost all of the excerpts contain more than one sentence. This is because many great sentences don’t stand on their own but benefit from the structure of the surrounding sentences.

This is particularly true in modern writing, in which the trend toward shorter sentences is prevailing. The marvelously long, winding sentences of Austen and Tolkien have been replaced with short, quick phrases and sentence fragments. While these can also be effective and are better suited to today’s shorter attention spans, they do require more sentences in order to convey the same amount of information.

1. The Fellowship of the Ring

J.R.R. Tolkien does not dedicate much space to describing settings in his second Middle-Earth Book, The Fellowship of the Ring. He is much more inclined toward action and dialogue, pausing only briefly to describe the physical surroundings. He leaves much of the visual filling-in to readers’ imaginations but ensures we know the essential information about each new setting. Here he shows us Frodo’s introduction to Rivendell.

Frodo was now safe in the Last Homely House east of the Sea. That house was, as Bilbo had long ago reported, ‘a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all’. Merely to be there was a cure for weariness, fear, and sadness… Sam led him along several passages and down many steps and out into a high garden above the steep bank of the river. He found his friends sitting in a porch on the side of the house looking east. Shadows had fallen in the valey below, but there was still a light on the faces of the mountains far above. The air was warm. The sound of running and falling water was loud, and the evening was filled with a faint scent of trees and flowers, as if summer still lingered in Elrond’s gardens.”

2. The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison, too, wastes no time in her exposition in The Bluest Eye . The first two descriptive sentences manage to allude to the plot, setting, characters, and conflict of the novel while also immediately hooking the reader with their jarring statement.

Quiet as it’s kept, there were no marigolds in the fall of 1941. We thought, at the time, that it was because Pecola was having her father’s baby that the marigolds did not grow.

3. Moby Dick

Herman Melville paints a clear and vivid picture of his narrator’s state of mind and motivation to join an impending sea expedition in the opening sentences of Moby Dick .

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

4. Fish Cheeks

In her first published essay , Amy Tan wrote of being a fourteen-year-old desperate for two things: the love of Robert, her non-Chinese minister’s son, and a slim, American nose. This vignette from her teenage life as the American-born daughter of Chinese immigrants depicts her horror at the visually unappealing meal her mother serves after inviting the minister’s family for Christmas Eve dinner. It’s not until years later that Tan realizes the symbolism of the meal: her mother’s desire for her to remain true to herself and her heritage.

On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A bowl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.

5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Not all literary characters need go to such extreme lengths as Eustace Scrubb in C.S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader to experience their requisite growth. However, the impurity of Eustace’s heart prompted the author to give him special treatment, which, while uncomfortable for Eustace, is extremely entertaining for readers.

He had turned into a dragon while he was asleep. Sleeping on a dragon’s hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon himself…In spite of the pain, his first feeling was one of relief. There was nothing to be afraid of any more. He was a terror himself now and nothing in the world but a knight (and not all of those) would dare to attack him. He could get even with Caspian and Edmund now. But the moment he thought this he realized that he didn’t want to. He wanted to be friends. He wanted to get back among humans and talk and laugh and share things. He realized that he was a monster cut off from the whole human race. An appalling loneliness came over him. He began to see that the others had not really been friends at all. He began to wonder if he himself had been such a nice person as he had always supposed. He longed for their voices.

When Eustace reunites with his friends, they are quick to note the change in his personality:

It was, however, clear to everyone that Eustace’s character had been rather improved by becoming a dragon.

6. The Lottery

Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery is rife with irony. From the misleading title to the villagers’ festive attitudes, very little of the story’s exposition prepares the reader for the gruesome outcome of the titular event. One such example is the description of the man who runs the affair, whose very name—Mr. Summers—is in contrast to the dark and barbaric tradition he intends to uphold.

The lottery was conducted—as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program—by Mr. Summers. who had time and energy to devote to civic activities. He was a round-faced, jovial man and he ran the coal business, and people were sorry for him. because he had no children and his wife was a scold.

7. The Last Thing He Told Me

In Laura Dave’s novel, The Last Thing He Told Me , Hannah Hall and her stepdaughter Bailey Michaels are on a manhunt for Hannah’s husband Owen after he disappears amidst the news of a financial scandal within his company. Their search takes them to Texas where they try to track down information based on fragments of memories Bailey has from a childhood visit to Austin. Dave shows us the setting through Hannah’s eyes as she glances around a church administrator’s office, searching for clues that will help her convince the woman to help them with their unusual request.

I look around the office, for clues about her—clues that may help me win her over. Christmas cards and bumper stickers cover her desk; photographs of Elenor’s family are lined up on the fireplace mantel; a large bulletin board is brimming over with photographs and notes from parishioners. The office reveals forty years of building relationships right in this room, in this church. She knows everything about this place. We just need to know one small piece of it.

8. A Rose for Emily

When Emily Grierson, the protagonist in William Faulkner’s 1930 short story, A Rose for Emily , passes away, the townspeople can’t wait to get inside the house she has refused to let anyone enter in over a decade. Upon entering an upper room that has been blocked off for more than forty years, they discover a startling scene: the perfectly preserved preparations for a wedding day, covered in dust and pungent with an acrid smell; it’s a sight reminiscent of Mrs. Havisham’s house in Great Expectations. The poignant description of the setting likens it to a tomb, which turns out to be a little too on the nose.

A thin, acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere upon this room decked and furnished as for a bridal: upon the valance curtains of faded rose color, upon the rose-shaded lights, upon the dressing table, upon the delicate array of crystal and the man’s toilet things backed with tarnished silver, silver so tarnished that the monogram was obscured. Among them lay a collar and tie, as if they had just been removed, which, lifted, left upon the surface a pale crescent in the dust. Upon a chair hung the suit, carefully folded; beneath it the two mute shoes and the discarded socks.

9. The Waste Land

T.S. Eliot’s poem, The Waste Land , written in the aftermath of World War I, contains themes of brokenness, loss, death, decay, and post-war disillusionment, among others. Eliot was also struggling, at the time of the poem’s writing, with a failing marriage and mental health issues. He jumps directly into these themes from the opening stanza with a depiction of spring, not as the restorative, live-giving season it is normally thought to be but as a cruel month making vain attempts to resuscitate a desolate landscape.

April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.

10. Don Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote is infamous for taking action. Not satisfied to sit around reading books from his extensive library, he’s anxious to experience the adventurous lives of the knights of which he’s read. His foolhardy choices constantly get him in trouble and invoke people to attempt stoning him. Such is the outcome when he impulsively decides to free a hang of galley slaves he encounters

“’Tis you that are the cat, rat, and rascal,” replied Don Quixote, and acting on the word he fell upon him so suddenly that without giving him time to defend himself he brought him to the ground sorely wounded with a lance-thrust; and lucky it was for him that it was the one that had the musket. The other guards stood thunderstruck and amazed at this unexpected event, but recovering presence of mind, those on horseback seized their swords, and those on foot their javelins, and attacked Don Quixote, who was waiting for them with great calmness; and no doubt it would have gone badly with him if the galley slaves, seeing the chance before them of liberating themselves, had not effected it by contriving to break the chain on which they were strung. Such was the confusion, that the guards, now rushing at the galley slaves who were breaking loose, now to attack Don Quixote who was waiting for them, did nothing at all that was of any use. Sancho, on his part, gave a helping hand to release Gines de Pasamonte, who was the first to leap forth upon the plain free and unfettered, and who, attacking the prostrate commissary, took from him his sword and the musket, with which, aiming at one and levelling at another, he, without ever discharging it, drove every one of the guards off the field, for they took to flight, as well to escape Pasamonte’s musket, as the showers of stones the now released galley slaves were raining upon them.

11. The Story of an Hour

Kate Chopin’s brief short story, The Story of an Hour , published in 1894, tells the story of a woman who—upon hearing the news of her husband’s sudden death—locks herself in her room while her mind runs wild with the thoughts of freedom this news has provoked. Although the ‘actions’ in this story are hardly active (they mostly consist of mental sprinting and leaping), there is a frenzied, energetic quality to the scene. The action here—a simple prayer followed by an ironic realization—speaks deeply to the state of her character as well as to the central theme of marital captivity.

Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.

12. The Emperor’s New Clothes

In the beloved fairy tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes, Hans Christen Andersen explores themes of vanity and pride. The emperor, who is obsessed with having a fashionable wardrobe, falls prey to two swindlers well aware of his vulnerability. They come up with a ruse certain to ensnare him by making it inconceivable for anyone to tell him the truth. Their deceptive action sets up both the plot and the conflict of the story.

One day, two rogues, calling themselves weavers, made their appearance. They gave out that they knew how to weave stuffs of the most beautiful colors and elaborate patterns, the clothes manufactured from which should have the wonderful property of remaining invisible to everyone who was unfit for the office he held, or who was extraordinarily simple in character.

13. The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini is a masterful developer of all aspects of story: plot, characters, setting, theme, conflict. His emotion-wrenching novels capture the deep complexities of relationships set against historical events, political upheaval, and the realities of class hierarchies. In The Kite Runner , he foreshadows the principal conflict through an action-oriented paragraph that also touches on some of the themes of the book such as Hassan and Amir’s friendship, Hassan’s bravery, and the shifting power dynamics in Afghanistan in the wake of the 1973 Afghan coup led by Daoud Khan.

Hassan was trying to tuck the slingshot in his waist with a pair of trembling hands. His mouth curled up into something that was supposed to be a reassuring smile. It took him five tries to tie the string of his trousers. Neither one of us said much of anything as we walked home in trepidation, certain that Assef and his friends would ambush us every time we turned a corner. They didn’t and that should have comforted us a little. But it didn’t. Not at all.

14. The Forest of Vanishing Stars

Literary works with third-person narratives revealing more than one character’s perspective allow us, as readers, to know things that the protagonist does not (yet) know. The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel tells the story of a Rapunzel-esque young lady named Yona, raised in the wilderness of Eastern Europe by an elderly recluse named Jerusza who believes Yona has a higher purpose. Just before she passes, Jerusza shares Yona’s origin story with her, though the significance of it is not known until much later.

However, because the story is written in the third person and the initial narrative voice is that of Jerusza, we have already gotten a glimpse into this seemingly tragic event. Harmel writes,

The old woman knew, too, that the baby conceived on that autumn-scented Bavarian night, a girl the Jüttners had named Inge, had a birthmark in the shape of a dove on the inside of her left wrist. She also knew that the girl’s second birthday was the following day, the sixth of July, 1922. And she knew, as surely as she knew that the bell-shaped buds of lily of the valley and the twilight petals of aconite could kill a man, that the girl must not be allowed to remain with the Jüttners…That was why she had come…The old woman, who was called Jerusza, had always known things other people didn’t… “ Ikh bin gekimen dir tzu nemen,” Jerusza whispered in Yiddish, a language the girl would not yet know. I have come for you. She said something soft, something that a lesser person would have dismissed as the meaningless babble of a little girl, but to Jerusza, it was unmistakeable. “ Dus zent ir, “ said the girl in Yiddish. It is you.

Whether or not Jerusza is a deranged and unreliable narrator or an altruistic clairvoyant, we do not yet know. But this early insight shows us that Yona’s life in the forest is more than just happenstance. It was planned, deliberate, and perhaps even prophetic.

15. Pride and Prejudice

In opening scenes, we often find one or more narrative sentences that touch on the overall theme or takeaway of the story. This is what the Save The Cat method refers to as the Theme Stated. It’s typically written as dialogue spoken by someone the protagonist is unlikely to give much heed to. In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice , Lizzy’s younger sister Mary responds to the discussion of Mr. Darcy’s pride by pointing out the difference between pride and vanity to suggest that pride is human nature and not necessarily a bad thing.

“Pride,” observed Mary, who piqued herself upon the solidity of her reflections, “is a very common failing, I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves; vanity to what we would have others think of us.”

16. Lessons in Chemistry

In Bonnie Garmus’ Lessons in Chemistry , it’s 1955 and protagonist Elizabeth Zott is mourning the sudden, tragic loss of her common-law partner Calvin Evans, who, like her, was a brilliant chemist employed by Hastings Research Institute. The key difference between the two is that he, as a man, was revered for his contributions to science while she, as a woman, was denigrated. While alive, Evans was able—against Zott’s wishes—to use his influence to protect her research’s funding.

After his death, her employers and colleagues are chomping at the bit to not only defund her work but to get rid of her as quickly as possible, especially once they find out that she’s carrying Evans’ child. In her debilitating grief, she struggles to make sense of the inequity between the rules for women and those for men. Her boss, Donatti—who has unsuccessfully tried for months to demoralize Zott so he could seduce her—becomes characteristically irate when he presents her with the termination letter that catalyzes her toward the career change that forms the premise of the story. Garmus uses an omniscient narrator to flesh out the private thoughts of each character and succinctly develop her characters, conflict, and plot.

“This pregnancy is a failure of contraception, not morality. It’s also none of your business.” “You’ve made it our business!” Donatti suddenly shouted. “And in case you weren’t aware, there is a surefire way not to get pregnant and it starts with an ‘A’! We have rules, Miss Zott! Rules!” “Not on this you don’t,” Elizabeth said calmly. “I’ve read the employee manual front to back.” “It’s an unwritten rule!” “And thus not legally binding.” Donatti glowered at her. “Evans would be very, very ashamed of you.” “No,” Elizabeth said simply, her voice empty but calm. “He would not.” The room fell silent. It was the way she kept disagreeing—without embarrassment, without melodrama—as if she would have the last say, as if she knew she’d win in the end. This is exactly the kind of attitude her coworkers had complained of. And the way she implied that hers and Calvin’s relationship was at some higher level—as if it had been crafted from nondissolvable material that survived everything, even his death. Annoying.

17. The Bluest Eye

Through snippets of dialogue, Toni Morrison masterfully paints a heartbreaking and ominous picture of the children in The Bluest Eye who, through no fault of their own, do not yet know what it means to be loved.

“After a long while she spoke very softly. “Is it true that I can have a baby now?” “Sure,” said Frieda drowsily. “Sure you can.” “But…how?” Her voice was hollow with wonder. “Oh,” said Frieda, “somebody has to love you.” “Oh.” There was a long pause in which Pecola and I thought this over. It would involve, I supposed, “my man,” who, before leaving me, would love me. But there weren’t any babies in the songs my mother sang. Maybe that’s why the women were sad: the men left before they could make a baby. Then Pecola asked a question that had never entered my mind. “How do you do that? I mean, how do you get somebody to love you?” But Frieda was asleep. And I didn’t know.

18. Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre’s passionate, confident personality is on full display when she reacts to Mr. Rochester’s news that he intends to marry Blanche Ingram. To convey Jane’s fiery state, Charlotte Brontë uses shorter sentences and sentence fragments to give the sense that Jane’s rapid-fire speech is spewing forth in a vain attempt to keep pace with her racing thoughts.

“I tell you I must go!” I retorted, roused to something like passion. “Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton?—a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!—I have as much soul as you,—and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;—it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal,—as we are!”

19. The Spider and the Fly

In the 1829 narrative poem, The Spider and the Fly , poet Mary Howitt uses a dialogue between the titular characters to relate a high-tension scene in which the spider tries to lure the fly into its web while the fly does its best to resist. Each of the first four stanzas is comprised almost exclusively of dialogue and follows this back-and-forth pattern between the spider’s entreaties and the fly’s retorts. As the poem progresses, the tension rises as the spider’s tactics become increasingly cunning.

“I’m sure you must be weary, dear, with soaring up so high; Will you rest upon my little bed?” said the Spider to the Fly. “There are pretty curtains drawn around; the sheets are fine and thin, And if you like to rest awhile, I’ll snugly tuck you in!” “Oh no, no,” said the little Fly, “for I’ve often heard it said, They never, never wake again, who sleep upon your bed!”

20. The Destructors

Though not common, setting can sometimes be articulated through dialogue. One benefit of an author relying on characters to describe a setting is that the reader sees it through their ideas and perspective; only the details that matter most to the speaker are conveyed. In Graham Greene’s The Destructors, T., the new unofficial leader of the Wormsley Common gang, relays pertinent details of the history and architecture of a home belonging to Mr. Thomas (Old Misery) to the rest of the gang.

The specific details he shares not only help us picture the setting for the story’s main action, but they are also pivotal to the central plot: the children’s decision to destroy Old Misery’s house.

The gang had gathered round: It was as though an impromptu court were about to form and to try some case of deviation. T. said, “It’s a beautiful house,” and still watching the ground, meeting no one’s eyes, he licked his lips first one way, then the other. “What do you mean, a beautiful house?” Blackie asked with scorn. “It’s got a staircase two hundred years old like a corkscrew. Nothing holds it up.” “What do you mean, nothing holds it up. Does it float?” “It’s to do with opposite forces, Old Misery said.” “What else?” “There’s paneling.” “Like in the Blue Boar?” “Two hundred years old.” “Is Old Misery two hundred years old?” Mike laughed suddenly and then was quiet again.

21. The Maltese Falcon

Dashiell Hammett’s detective novels are full of snappy dialogue rich with slang words informed by his time working for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. His fast-paced mysteries, such as The Maltese Falcon , move at a break-neck speed, partially because so much of the plot is progressed through dialogue. In the following exchange, having just learned that everything Ms. Wonderbly has told him is a lie, Detective Sam Spade presses her for more information while hinting at his suspicion of her involvement in two murders and decides to continue working with her anyway.

“Out there a flock of policemen and assistant district attorneys and reporters are running around with their noses to the ground. What do you want to do?” “I want you to save me from—from it all,” she replied in a thin tremulous voice. She put a timid hand on his sleeve. “Mr. Spade, do they know about me?” “Not yet. I wanted to see you first.” “What—what would they think if they knew about the way I came to you—with those lies?” “It would make them suspicious. That’s why I’ve been stalling them till I could see you. I thought maybe we wouldn’t have to let them know all of it. We ought to be able to fake a story that will rock them to sleep, if necessary.” “You don’t think I had anything to do with the—the murders—do you?” Spade grinned at her and said: “I forgot to ask you that. Did you?” “No.” “That’s good. Now what are we going to tell the police?” She squirmed on her end of the settee and her eyes wavered between heavy lashes, as if trying and failing to free their gaze from his. She seemed smaller, and very young and oppressed. “Must they know about me at all?” she asked. “I think I’d rather die than that, Mr. Spade. I can’t explain now, but can’t you somehow manage so that you can shield me from them, so I won’t have to answer their questions? I don’t think I could stand being questioned now. I think I would rather die. Can’t you, Mr. Spade?” “Maybe,” he said, “but I’ll have to know what it’s all about.”

Whether through dialogue, action, or description, narrative sentences have the power to propel a story to more satisfying plots, develop more interesting characters and settings, and spur readers to deeper levels of thinking, enjoyment, and inspiration. Which of these narrative sentence examples did you enjoy the most? Do you have other favorites that you would add? Let us know in the comments.

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No matter the document you're composing—whether it's an essay, a dissertation, or a speech—captivating your audience right from the beginning is crucial. And what could be more effective than starting with a meticulously crafted topic sentence? In this comprehensive guide, we will explore everything about topic sentences, we’ll delve into effective writing strategies, provide you with examples, and offer valuable tips on seamlessly integrating them into your writing.

What is a Topic Sentence?

At its core, a topic sentence serves as the foundation of a paragraph , encapsulating the main idea or point that the paragraph will discuss. It acts as a roadmap for both the writer and the reader, guiding them through the paragraph’s content and providing cohesion within the text. Think of it as the hook that draws your readers in and sets the tone for what lies ahead.

How to Write a Topic Sentence

Crafting a compelling topic sentence requires careful consideration and planning. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it effectively:

Identify the Main Idea : Before you can write a topic sentence, you need to have a clear understanding of the main point you want to convey in the paragraph.
Be Clear and Concise : Your topic sentence should be straightforward and succinct, conveying the essence of the paragraph without unnecessary fluff.
Focus on the Reader : Consider your audience and what they need to know. Your topic sentence should address their interests and provide them with a reason to continue reading.
Use Strong Language : Choose your words wisely to create impact. Strong verbs and vivid imagery can make your topic sentence more engaging.
Avoid Ambiguity : Make sure your topic sentence is specific and avoids vague language. It should clearly indicate what the paragraph will discuss.

Examples of Topic Sentences

To better illustrate how to write an effective topic sentence, let’s look at some examples across different contexts:

Example : "The sun-kissed shores of the Mediterranean beckoned to me, promising a summer of adventure and self-discovery."

Example : "Universal healthcare is not only a basic human right but also a practical solution to alleviate the burden of medical expenses on society."

Example : "The ancient oak tree stood majestically in the heart of the forest, its gnarled branches reaching towards the heavens."

Example : "The process of photosynthesis is essential for the survival of all living organisms, as it converts sunlight into energy for plants to thrive."

How to Start a Topic Sentence

Starting a topic sentence can sometimes be the most challenging part. Here are some techniques to kickstart your writing process:

Pose a Question : Engage your readers by posing a thought-provoking question that sets the stage for the paragraph’s discussion.
Use a Quotation : Incorporate a relevant quotation that encapsulates the theme or topic of the paragraph.
Provide a Statistic : Start with a startling statistic or fact to grab the reader’s attention and highlight the importance of the topic.
Paint a Picture : Use descriptive language to paint a vivid picture that immerses the reader in the setting or subject matter of the paragraph.

How to Write a Good Topic Sentence

To ensure that your topic sentences are effective, keep the following tips in mind:

Stay On Topic : Make sure your topic sentence directly relates to the main idea of the paragraph and the overall thesis of your essay.
Link to the Previous Paragraph : Use transitional phrases or reference the previous paragraph to maintain coherence and flow in your writing.
Vary Your Sentence Structure : Consider your audience and what they need to know. Your topic sentence should address their interests and provide them with a reason to continue reading.
Use Strong Language : Experiment with different sentence structures to keep your writing dynamic and engaging.

How to Write a Topic Sentence for an Essay

When writing topic sentences for essays, it’s essential to consider the overarching thesis statement and how each paragraph contributes to its support or development. Here’s how to approach it:

1. Align with the Thesis:

Your essay's thesis statement serves as the central argument or main idea that you aim to convey to your readers. Each topic sentence within your essay should directly support or relate to this thesis. Before crafting your topic sentences, revisit your thesis statement and identify the key points or arguments that you will address in your essay. Then, ensure that each topic sentence reflects one of these main points, providing a clear link between the paragraph's content and the overall argument of your essay.

Example : If your thesis statement argues that renewable energy is crucial for mitigating climate change, your topic sentences should address different aspects of this argument, such as the environmental benefits of solar power, the economic feasibility of wind energy, or the social implications of transitioning to renewable sources.

2. Provide Direction:

In addition to aligning with the thesis, each topic sentence should serve as a guidepost for the reader, indicating what the paragraph will discuss and how it contributes to the overall argument of the essay. Think of your topic sentence as a mini-thesis for the paragraph, succinctly summarising the main point or argument that you will explore in more detail.

Example : If your topic sentence introduces a paragraph discussing the environmental benefits of solar power, it should clearly state this focus and provide a preview of the evidence or examples you will use to support this claim.

3. Offer Evidence:

A strong topic sentence not only introduces the main point of the paragraph but also previews the evidence or examples that you will present to support your argument. This helps to establish the relevance and significance of the paragraph's content within the context of your essay, providing a roadmap for the reader to follow as they navigate through your argument.

Example : Following the topic sentence on the environmental benefits of solar power, you might include evidence such as statistics on reduced carbon emissions, examples of successful solar energy projects, or quotes from environmental experts advocating for solar as a sustainable solution.

4. Contribute to Coherence:

Finally, each topic sentence should contribute to the overall coherence and cohesion of your essay, linking back to the main argument and advancing the narrative in a logical and structured manner. As you write your topic sentences, consider how they flow from one to the next, building upon each other to form a cohesive and compelling argument.

Example : After discussing the environmental benefits of solar power, your next topic sentence might transition to the economic advantages, highlighting how solar energy can create jobs, reduce energy costs, and stimulate economic growth.

Make Your Topic Sentence Impactful

Mastering the art of writing compelling topic sentences is essential for captivating your readers and guiding them through your writing. By following the strategies outlined in this guide and incorporating examples into your own writing, you can hook your readers from the very first sentence and keep them engaged until the very end. So, go ahead, unleash your creativity, and craft topic sentences that leave a lasting impression.

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Thesis Statement Generator

Thesis statement generator helps students to write explanatory, argumentative, or analytical thesis statements for their research papers.

Our AI thesis generator allows you to generate plagiarism free thesis statements in seconds by simply typing the topic or subject details in the input box.

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Cormac McCarthy Did Not Talk Craft, With One Surprising Exception

Notoriously reluctant to give advice, the author offered his views, and meticulous edits, to a lifelong friend: Roger Payne, the marine biologist who introduced the world to whale song.

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A graphic illustration of a black-and-white photograph of Roger Payne, left, and Cormac McCarthy overlaid with handwritten notes.

By Walker Mimms

By the time the marine biologist Roger Payne won the MacArthur genius grant in 1984, his fame was well-established: Credited with helping discover the song structure of humpback whales, he had popularized their mysterious groans and creaks with a series of field-recorded LPs that fueled the marine conservation movement.

By the 1990s, as part of a pop-science turn that would deliver to millions of viewers an infectious sense of awe for sea mammals, Payne was giving interviews, directing an IMAX film and narrating television documentaries in a patrician New England accent that made clear “whale” is spelled with an “h.”

He had also begun drafting a book. Part memoir, history and activism, “Among Whales” was designed to maximize concern for increasingly polluted oceans and reverence for their endangered giants. It was his first, and as he wrote, he sought editing help from a new friend, a writer he had met at a reunion for the MacArthur Fellowship: Cormac McCarthy.

McCarthy had won the inaugural MacArthur in 1981, when he was an obscure but revered writer at work on “Blood Meridian.” After that, he said , he went to every MacArthur reunion. He studiously avoided other writers at these events, but when he met Payne, the two became “joined at the hip,” Payne’s widow, Lisa Harrow, recalled after his death. By 1986, they were traveling to Argentina to watch whales together.

Payne died on June 10, 2023, leaving boxes of uncataloged papers that document his combative, creative, decades-long friendship with McCarthy, who survived him by three days.

During his long career, McCarthy sat for very few interviews and kept notoriously silent about his creative process and his approach to craft. In early drafts of “Among Whales,” which are among the documents left by Payne now being prepared for accession by a research institution, he revealed his views.

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Thesis Statement for Narrative Essay
Crafting narrative essay thesis statements is an art of encapsulating vast experiences, emotions, and lessons into a singular, guiding sentence. Each statement becomes the beacon, illuminating the depths of the tale, ensuring that readers are anchored and deeply engaged, from the first word to the last.
How to Write a Thesis for a Narrative Essay: 9 Steps
2. Begin your thesis with the main idea or theme you are trying to convey in the essay. [3] A possible beginning may be: "In this essay, I will discuss the issue of grief.". 3. Add examples to support your main theme or idea. Start by composing the simplest, most direct thesis and then edit it.
How to Write a Thesis Statement
A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay. ... The key points of your argument or narrative; The final thesis statement doesn't just state your position, but summarizes your overall argument or the entire topic you're going to explain. To strengthen a weak thesis statement, it can help to ...
How to Write a Narrative Essay
Interactive example of a narrative essay. An example of a short narrative essay, responding to the prompt "Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself," is shown below. Hover over different parts of the text to see how the structure works. Narrative essay example.
How to Write a Thesis for a Narrative Essay
While narrative essays tell a story, the events don't compose the entire essay. Narrative essays should also have a point communicated in a thesis sentence. Setting the essay setting and beginning with a hook is important. The thesis may offer a learned lesson, identify the theme or open the story.
Narrative Essay Thesis Statements: Tips and Examples
A narrative thesis statement can do one or both of the following: (1) convey a theme, lesson, or main idea, or (2) introduce the action of the story you want to tell. ... Still, it can be hard to understand how these sentences would fit into an essay when looking at them in isolation. Here are two examples from well-known narrative essays so ...
How to Write a Thesis Statement in 4 Steps
Step 1: Ask a question about your research subject. This question will guide your research and will lead you to a central idea for your essay. The first step in writing a thesis statement is investigating the subject of your essay. Whether that's a text, like a book or a movie, or science topic like volcanos.
How to Write a Strong Thesis Statement: 4 Steps + Examples
Step 4: Revise and refine your thesis statement before you start writing. Read through your thesis statement several times before you begin to compose your full essay. You need to make sure the statement is ironclad, since it is the foundation of the entire paper. Edit it or have a peer review it for you to make sure everything makes sense and ...
Developing a Thesis Statement
A thesis statement . . . Makes an argumentative assertion about a topic; it states the conclusions that you have reached about your topic. Makes a promise to the reader about the scope, purpose, and direction of your paper. Is focused and specific enough to be "proven" within the boundaries of your paper. Is generally located near the end ...
The Thesis Sentence
The promises that a thesis sentence makes to a reader are important ones and must be kept. It's helpful sometimes to explain the thesis as a kind of contract between reader and writer: if this contract is broken, the reader will feel frustrated and betrayed. Accordingly, the writer must be very careful in the development of the thesis.
How To Write A Narrative Essay Thesis
A thesis or a thesis statement is a sentence in a narrative essay that compounds the central idea or theme of the essay. It is a bold and brief statement that also shows the subjective version of the story based on the writer's perspective. Usually, you will find a thesis statement at the end of the introduction.
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A thesis statement for a five paragraph essay contains a general statement that is divided into three opinions which will be supported in the three body paragraphs of the essay. For a narrative ...
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• The thesis may be implied or explicitly stated, but it should always be evident to the reader. • The thesis may differ in form depending on the type of writing (argumentative, persuasive, informative, narrative, etc.). • The thesis should be restated in a new and interesting way in the conclusion. Explicit vs. Implied • An
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Tips for Writing Your Thesis Statement. 1. Determine what kind of paper you are writing: An analytical paper breaks down an issue or an idea into its component parts, evaluates the issue or idea, and presents this breakdown and evaluation to the audience.; An expository (explanatory) paper explains something to the audience.; An argumentative paper makes a claim about a topic and justifies ...
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A narrative essay delivers its theme by deliberately weaving the motifs through the events, scenes, and details. While a narrative essay may be entertaining, its primary purpose is to tell a complete story based on a central meaning. Unlike other essay forms, it is totally okay—even expected—to use first-person narration in narrative essays.
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When writing a narrative essay, one might think of it as telling a story. These essays are often anecdotal, experiential, and personal—allowing students to express themselves in a creative and, quite often, moving ways. Here are some guidelines for writing a narrative essay. If written as a story, the essay should include all the parts of a ...
Narrative Essay Thesis Statement Examples
A good thesis statement of a narrative essay should focus on the lesson that the author has learned from some kind of experiences that influenced him in the past. In other words, the thesis statement should contain a message which needs to be delivered to the reader with the goal of teaching him something important. The thesis statement of a ...
Thesis Generator
After the topic sentence, include any evidence in this body paragraph, such as a quotation, statistic, or data point, that supports this first point. Explain what the evidence means. Show the reader how this entire paragraph connects back to the thesis statement. Paragraph #2. Possible topic sentence for Paragraph #2:
Welcome to the Purdue Online Writing Lab
The Online Writing Lab (the Purdue OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service at Purdue.
25 Narrative Sentence Examples in Poems, Essays & Stories
9. The Waste Land. T.S. Eliot's poem, The Waste Land, written in the aftermath of World War I, contains themes of brokenness, loss, death, decay, and post-war disillusionment, among others. Eliot was also struggling, at the time of the poem's writing, with a failing marriage and mental health issues.
How to Hook Your Readers with a Compelling Topic Sentence
Finally, each topic sentence should contribute to the overall coherence and cohesion of your essay, linking back to the main argument and advancing the narrative in a logical and structured manner. As you write your topic sentences, consider how they flow from one to the next, building upon each other to form a cohesive and compelling argument.
Thesis Statement Generator (Free)
Thesis Statement Generator. Thesis statement generator helps students to write explanatory, argumentative, or analytical thesis statements for their research papers. Our AI thesis generator allows you to generate plagiarism free thesis statements in seconds by simply typing the topic or subject details in the input box.
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Notoriously reluctant to give advice, the author offered his views, and meticulous edits, to a lifelong friend: Roger Payne, the marine biologist who introduced the world to whale song.

Thesis Statement for Narrative Essay

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How to Write a Thesis Statement in 4 Steps

What is a thesis statement?

Three Types of Essays

What is an expository essay?

What is an argumentative essay?

4 Steps to Writing the Perfect Thesis Statement

Step 2: Formulate the Main Idea of your essay.

Step 3: Develop your Supporting Details

Step 4: Combine your Main Idea with your Supporting Details into one statement

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