NARRATIVE
Purpose
The basic purpose of narrative is to entertain, to gain and hold a readers' interest. However narratives can also be written to teach or inform, to change attitudes / social opinions eg soap operas and television dramas that are used to raise topical issues. Narratives sequence people/characters in time and place but differ from recounts in that through the sequencing, the stories set up one or more problems, which must eventually find a way to be resolved.
Types of Narrative
There are many types of narrative. They can be imaginary, factual or a combination of both. They may include fairy stories, mysteries, science fiction, romances, horror stories, adventure stories, fables, myths and legends, historical narratives, ballads, slice of life, personal experience.
Features
• Characters with defined personalities/identities.
• Dialogue often included - tense may change to the present or the future.
• Descriptive language to create images in the reader's mind and enhance the story.
Structure
In a Traditional Narrative the focus of the text is on a series of actions:
Orientation: (introduction) in which the characters, setting and time of the story are established. Usually answers who? when? where? eg. Mr Wolf went out hunting in the forest one dark gloomy night.
Complication or problem: The complication usually involves the main character(s) (often mirroring the complications in real life).
Resolution: There needs to be a resolution of the complication. The complication may be resolved for better or worse/happily or unhappily. Sometimes there are a number of complications that have to be resolved. These add and sustain interest and suspense for the reader.
To help students plan for writing of narratives, model, focusing on:
• Plot: What is going to happen?
• Setting: Where will the story take place? When will the story take place?
• Characterisation: Who are the main characters? What do they look like?
• Structure: How will the story begin? What will be the problem? How is the problem going to be resolved?
• Theme: What is the theme / message the writer is attempting to communicate?
Language
• Action verbs: Action verbs provide interest to the writing. For example, instead of The old woman was in his way try The old woman barred his path. Instead of She laughed try She cackled.
• Written in the first person (I, we) or the third person (he, she, they).
• Usually past tense.
• Connectives,linking words to do with time.
• Specific nouns: Strong nouns have more specific meanings, eg. oak as opposed to tree.
• Active nouns: Make nouns actually do something, eg. It was raining could become Rain splashed down or There was a large cabinet in the lounge could become A large cabinet seemed to fill the lounge.
• Careful use of adjectives and adverbs: Writing needs judicious use of adjectives and adverbs to bring it alive, qualify the action and provide description and information for the reader.
• Use of the senses: Where appropriate, the senses can be used to describe and develop the experiences, setting and character:
• What does it smell like?
• What can be heard?
• What can be seen - details?
• What does it taste like?
• What does it feel like?
• Imagery
• Simile: A direct comparison, using like or as or as though, eg. The sea looked as rumpled as a blue quilted dressing gown. Or The wind wrapped me up like a cloak.
• Metaphor: An indirect or hidden comparison, eg. She has a heart of stone or He is a stubborn mule or The man barked out the instructions.
• Onomatopoeia: A suggestion of sound through words, eg. crackle, splat, ooze, squish, boom, eg. The tyres whir on the road. The pitter-patter of soft rain. The mud oozed and squished through my toes.
• Personification: Giving nonliving things (inanimate) living characteristics, eg. The steel beam clenched its muscles. Clouds limped across the sky. The pebbles on the path were grey with grief.
• Rhetorical Questions: Often the author asks the audience questions, knowing of course there will be no direct answer. This is a way of involving the reader in the story at the outset, eg. Have you ever built a tree hut?
• Variety in sentence beginnings. There are a several ways to do this eg by using:
• Participles: "Jumping with joy I ran home to tell mum my good news."
• Adverbs: "Silently the cat crept toward the bird"
• Adjectives: "Brilliant sunlight shone through the window"
• Nouns: "Thunder claps filled the air"
• Adverbial Phrases: "Along the street walked the girl as if she had not a care in the world."
• Conversations/Dialogue: these may be used as an opener. This may be done through a series of short or one-word sentences or as one long complex sentence.
• Show, Don't Tell: Students have heard the rule "show, don't tell" but this principle is often difficult for some writers to master.
• Personal Voice: It may be described as writing which is honest and convincing. The author is able to 'put the reader there'. The writer invests something of him/her self in the writing. The writing makes an impact on the reader. It reaches out and touches the reader. A connection is made.
Example of Narrative Text:
Narrative Text – Rush Hour 2
Write a Narrative Text which The Story is taken from a Movie
RUSH HOUR 2
It began when Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) and Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) were taking a vacation to Hong Kong. Unfortunately when they just arrived, a bomb exploded in the American Embassy. Then, Lee was assigned to the case by China Police Department. But U. S. Secret Service didn’t want Lee to be involved this case, because the victims were Americans. So Lee investigated this case personally with James Carter. Then, they knew that the man behind the bomb exploding is Ricky Tan, Lee’s father partner. Then Tan was known as the leader of Triads, the most dangerous gang in China. They discovered that Ricky Tan would be attending a party on his boat.
Finally, they went to that boat at night and found Tan. But when they found Tan, he said “There’s a internal conflict in Triad, I’ll need your help, Lee,”. But when Tan still talking, he was being shot by Hu Li, a sexy women who always accompany Tan in Triad. In the chaos, Hu Li escaped from Lee and Carter. After that, China and U. S. Police Department kicked out them from that case and Carter has been commanded to go back to U. S. But Lee and Carter wanted to solve this case personally. Then they went to L. A. to continue the investigation. On the plane, Carter told Lee that in every big case had a rich white man behind it. And that man was Steven Reign, a man they have met in Tan’s boat when Ricky Tan had been murdered. He has been so suspicious because he has been so calm when Ricky Tan murdered.
Then they went to Reign’s tower and spied Reign’s girlfriend, Molina. Then they saw that Hu Li deliver a pack to Molina’s room. They suggested it was a bomb. Then they saved Molina. But when the pack opened, it was fake money. Then Molina told them that she’s a secret service agent and she gave information that Tan was still alive, he had cheated Lee and Carter. Tan has produced fake money. Molina asked them to find where was Tan produced that money.
Then the investigation brought them to Las Vegas. They realized that the fake money laundered at Steven Reign’s casino, Red Dragon Casino. Lee and Carter bought ‘casino style’ clothes and went to Red Dragon Casino to find the place where Tan used it for producing fake money.
Unfortunately, there, Hu Li captured Lee and placed a little bomb in Lee’s mouth and gagged him. Hu Li took him to Ricky Tan. After Tan had said few words, he left Hu Li with Lee. In the chaos, Hu Li shot Molina on her arm. Lee spitted the bomb from his mouth just before Li detonated it. After Lee had spitted the bomb, he chased Tan and Carter faced Hu Li one on one.
After Carter had beaten Hu Li, he followed Lee and in the ensuring chaos Lee and Carter found Tan and accidentally kicked Tan out the window. Tan fell to his death outside.
Hu Li then entered the room with a bomb on her hand. Lee and Carter leaped out the window just as the bomb went off, sliding on decoration wires with their jacket. It was amazing they were still alive.
This film ended at the airport. U. S. Secret Service Agent (Molina cs.) thanked Lee and Carter for their amazing investigation in this case. Then Lee, Carter and Molina went to the separate ways; Carter to L. A., Lee to Hong Kong, Molina to New York. Before Lee and Carter went to their separate ways, Lee had given the most important thing in his live, his father badge. Then, Carter gave Lee $10,000 that he has won at the Red Dragon Casino. Thinking about that money, they changed their plan and took a vacation again to another place, Big Apple.
DESCRIFTIVE
Descriptive Text
A descriptive text is a text which lists the characteristics of something. Take an example, the following is one of the text belongs to the descriptive text.
Text. 1 Prambanan Temple
Prambanan is the largest Hindu temple compound in Central Java in Indonesia, located approximately 18 km east of Yogyakarta.
The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the largest Hindu temples in south-east Asia. It is characterised by its tall and pointed architecture, typical of Hindu temple architecture, and by the 47m high central building inside a large complex of individual temples.
It was built around 850 CE by either Rakai Pikatan, king of the second Mataram dynasty, or Balitung Maha Sambu, during the Sanjaya Dynasty. Not long after its construction, the temple was abandoned and began to deteriorate. Reconstruction of the compound began in 1918. The main building was completed in around 1953. Much of the original stonework has been stolen and reused at remote construction sites. A temple will only be rebuilt if at least 75% of the original stones are available, and therefore only the foundation walls of most of the smaller shrines are now visible and with no plans for their reconstruction.
The temple was damaged during the earthquake in Java in 2006. Early photos suggest that although the complex appears to be structurally intact, damage is significant. Large pieces of debris, including carvings, were scattered over the ground. The temple has been closed to the public until damage can be fully assessed. The head of Yogyakarta Archaeological Conservation Agency stated that: “it will take months to identify the precise damage”. However, some weeks later in 2006 the site re-opened for visitors. The immediate surroundings of the Hindu temples remain off-limits for safety reasons.
We get the purpose from the text above that description is used in all forms of writing to create a vivid impression of a person, place, object or event e.g. to: •
• Describe a special place and explain why it is special.
• Describe the most important person in your live.
• Describe the animal’s habit in your report.
Descriptive writing or text is usually also used to help writer develop an aspect of their work, e.g. to create a particular mood, atmosphere or describe a place so that the reader can create vivid pictures of characters, places, objects etc. To complete our intention to, here are the characteristics based on descriptive writing or text, below;
As a feature, description is a style of writing which can be useful for other variety of purposes as:
• To engage a reader’s attention
• To create characters
• To set a mood or create an atmosphere
• To being writing to life
While in language function, descriptive writing;
• Aims to show rather than tell the reader what something/someone is like
• Relies on precisely chosen vocabulary with carefully chosen adjectives and adverbs.
• Is focused and concentrates only on the aspects that add something to the main purpose of the description.
• Sensory description-what is heard, seen, smelt, felt, tasted.Precise use of adjectives, similes, metaphors to create images/pictures in the mind e.g. their noses were met with the acrid smell of rotting flesh.
• Strong development of the experience that “put the reader there” focuses on key details, powerful verbs and precise nouns.
Beyond the characteristics stated on, descriptive writing also consists of generic structure in range as:
1. General statement
2. Explanation
3. Closing
The description text has dominant language features as follows:
1. Using Simple Present Tense
2. Using action verbs
3. Using passive voice
4. Using noun phrase
5. Using adverbial phrase
6. Using technical terms
7. Using general and abstract noun
8. Using conjunction of time and cause-effect.
ANECDOTE
Anecdote Text
Definition and Social Function of Anecdote
Anecdote is a text which retells funny and unusual incidents in fact or imagination. Its
purpose is to entertain the readers.
Generic Structure of Anecdote
1. Abstract
2. Orientation
3. Crisis
4. Incident.
Language Feature of Anecdote
1. Using exclamation words; it’s awful!, it’s wonderful!, etc
2. Using imperative; listen to this
3. Using rhetoric question; do you know what?
4. Using action verb; go, write, etc
5. Using conjunction of time; then, afterward
6. Using simple past tense
Example of Anecdote :
1. Blessing behind the accident.
There was a black family in Scotland years ago. They were Clark family with nine children. They had a dream to go to America. The family worked and saved. They were making plan to travel with their children to America. It had taken several years but finally they had saved enough money. They had gotten passport. They had booked seats for the whole family member in a new liner to America.
The entire family was full of anticipation and excitement with their new life in America. However few days before their departure, the youngest son was bitten by a dog. The doctor sewed up the boy. Because of the possibility of getting rabies, there were being quarantined for long days. They were in quarantine when the departure time came. The family dreams were dashed. They could not make the trip to America as they had planned.The father was full of disappointed and anger. He stomped the dock to watch the ship leaved without him and his family. He shed tears of disappointment. He cursed both his son and God for the misfortune.
Five days latter, the tragic news spread throughout Scotland. The ship, the mighty Titanic, had shank. It took hundreds of passenger and crew with it. Titanic which had been called the unsinkable ship had sunk. It was unbelievable but it was.
The Clak family should have been on that ship, but because of the bitten son by a dog, they were left behind. When the father heard the news, he hugged the son and thanked him for saving the family. He thanked God for saving their lives. It was a blessing behind a tragedy. (Adapted from Look Ahead 2)
2. From Bankrupt Candle to Best Seller Soap
In 1879, William Procter and James Gamble's best seller was candles. They had begun business together in Cincinnati. While they were in peak of popularity, the candle company was in trouble as Thomas Edison had invented the light bulb. It looked as if their candle product would become obsolete. People would like to use light bulb and would not use candle anymore. The fears became reality when the market for candles plummeted since the candle product were now sold only for special occasions. The outlook of candle company appeared to be bleak and depressing for Procter and Gamble. The situation was more miserable. Several months later the accident occurred. Without thinking one of the employee left to go to lunch and forgot to turn off the machine. Since the machinery was left in operation, air would work its way into the mixture. However after discussing with his supervisor, the employee decided not to discard the mixture. Instead, he poured the mixture into frames and the soap hardened. Thus, the floating soap was born. Harley Procter decided to give the soap a name that people could remember. Then the soap was named IVORY. This ivory soap became the mainstay of the Procter and Gamble Company. Amazingly, Procter and Gamble began to receive letters from buyers of this "accidental" soap. They wanted more of the soap that floats. Ivory soap was introduced to the marketplace. Even though this interesting formula was one of their best products, they were perplexed as to how this happened. The mysterious formula for the floating soap was resolved when the lunchtime accident was revealed.
Note: this example of anecdote text is arranged from liraz.com and essortment.com. Anecdote text is similar to narrative and also spoof and recount. What make different is the generic structure. Anecdote text is not only a matter of funny story like we often hear. Anecdote text, in term of text type is an inspirational story, a story which a bring a CODA which is included in the end of the text.
NEWS ITEM
NEWS ITEM TEXT
1. Definition of News Item:
News item is a text which informs readers about events of the day. The events are considered newsworthy or important.
2. Generic Structure of News Item:
1. Newsworthy event
2. Background Events
3. Source
3. Language Feature of News Item
1. Using Action Verbs
2. Using Saying Verbs
3. Using Passive Sentence
4. Examples and structures of the text:
Town Contaminated
Newsworthy events:
Moscow – A Russian journalist has uncovered evidence of another Soviet nuclear catastrophe, which killed 10 sailors and contaminated an entire town.
Background Events:
Yelena Vazrshavskya is the first journalist to speak to people who witnessed the explosion of a nuclear submarine at the naval base of shkotovo – 22 near Vladivostock.
The accident, which occurred 13 months before the Chernobyl disaster, spread radioactive fall-out over the base and nearby town, but was covered up by officials of the Soviet Union. Residents were told the explosion in the reactor of the Victor-class submarine during a refit had been a ‘thermal’ and not a nuclear explosion. And those involved in the clean up operation to remove more than 600 tones of contaminated material were sworn to secrecy
.Source:
Sources A board of investigators was later to describe it as the worst accident in the history of the Soviet Navy.
Examples :
1.Growing Number of High School Student Smoking
A survey has found about 13 percent of first-time smokers in the country are junior high school students. It also revealed 89 percent of young female employees were smokers.
The survey was conducted in five major cities across the country, including Surakarta in Central Java.
Muhammad Syahril Mansyur, the Surakarta Health Agency’s respiratory illness division, said that the finding of the survey showed an alarming growth rate of Indonesian smokers. "This situation is a cause for concern,” he said. “It appears the country’s younger generation is uneducated about the health risks of smoking.”
The Indonesian anti-tobacco campaign has reportedly been deemed as ineffective as the government refuses to sign the international convention on tobacco control. It said that cigarette producers contributed to a large amount to state revenue and gave jobs to thousands of workers.
2.Indonesian Migrant Worker dies in Malaysia.
An Indonesian migrant worker Munti Binti Bani has died on Monday after being hospitalized for several days due to alleged torture by her employees in Selangor, Malaysia.
Antara state news agency has reported that Munti had been treated at Tengku Ampuan Rahimah hospital since last Tuesday and died on Monday at 10 a.m, local time. Munti was found unconscious with her hands and feet were tied in a bathroom in Taman Sentosa housing complex last Tuesday. She was suffering from major wounds on her body and had apparently been beaten with iron.
Munti's body will be sent tomorrow to her hometown in Pondok Jeruk Barat village of Jombang, East Java after undergoing autopsy at the hospital. “We express our deep condolences as there is yet another worker who was tortured and passed away at the hospital,” Indonesia's Ambassador for Malaysia, Da'i Bachtiar said in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. “The Embassy will arrange for all compensation, including insurance, she deserves to receive,” Da'i said.
He added that Munti's employees Vanitha and Murugan had been detained and were undergoing questioning at the local police office. “We hope the police can uphold justice and punish them should they be proven to be involved in the case,” he said.
3.Winning Award for Airport Toilet.
Surabaya's Juanda International Airport has won the Culture and Tourism Ministry's 2009 toilet award, beating out 2007 winner Denpasar's Ngurah Rai Airport, which now drops to fourth. Indonesia's main gateway, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, just outside Jakarta, moves up from fourth in 2007 to second, in the biennial "Sapta Pesona Clean Public Toilet Award".
The award was first handed out in 2007, and has so far involved only international airports. Acting Culture and Tourism Minister Muhammad Nuh said he expected the award in future to also cover public toilets at tourist sites across the country.
"Granting the award to those running public toilets at tourist sites is expected to improve the quality of products and services, particularly in term of cleanliness . as part of efforts to enhance the image of national culture," Nuh said during the award presentation ceremony.
Composed from: www.thejakartapost.com/news
