TYPES OF PARAGRAPH - EXAMPLES

NARRATIVE PARAGRAPH

 

Important synonyms :In the beginning: First, at first; initially;Later: after; next; then; afterward; after a while; after that; soon; later on; soon after; just then; right after;As soon as just when; once; when;Suddenly: immediately;Finally: lastly; at last; at the end;

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I remember when I first arrived in the United States. Even before the plane landed, the little windows in the airplane revealed snow and ice-covered houses and buildings. As I walked off the plane, cold air crept through the corrugated ramp that led to the airport terminal. Some people inside the airport were wearing big coats and hats, which I had seen on television, but never up close. I felt a little dizzy and needed to sit down, and then my cell phone rang. It was my Aunt Sophia. She was waiting for me outside in the passenger pick-up area, so I walked quickly to the exit, forgetting all about my luggage. When the sliding glass door opened to the outside, there was my aunt–a woman I hadn't seen in over ten years–wearing a parka and waving her arms frantically in my direction.

The topic sentence in this paragraph is the first sentence, I remember when I first arrived in the United States. The supporting sentences that follow should be about this experience and how it is still remembered. The concluding sentence in this kind of paragraph would lead to the action in the next paragraph–if there is one.

The sequence of activity can be implied or reassembled by the reader as demonstrated in this paragraph:

Those of us who found out early that our teacher would be Mr. Fine shuddered to think of having to spend an entire year in his classroom, trapped and subjected to months of unending terror. We'd heard stories. We knew. Then a month before school was to begin, a list mysteriously surfaced showing the names of all the sixth-grade students at Fairmont Elementary, their teachers, and their classrooms. Normally such information wasn't known until the first week of classes, but John Patrick's mother was a secretary at the school, and somehow this list appeared. It didn't matter how it was found, or who exactly leaked the information. It was that cold list of names that would cause a couple of dozen eleven-year-olds to panic. But as it turns out, we were all wrong about Mr. Fine.

Or the activity can be clearly sequenced so that there's no mistake about what happens first, second, third, and so on:

Theo's day began with a shock. As soon as he arrived at the office that morning, he learned that his best friend was dead. Wasn't it just twelve hours ago that they were eating chicken wings and tipping back beer in front of a baseball game at the Cooper's Bar and Grill? After a long day of crunching numbers at the office, they stopped at a bar for a Thursday afternoon happy hour. They saw a few coworkers there, and before they knew it, it was closing time. Bill got in a car with someone he met just that evening and that was the last time Theo saw him.

When you do the prewriting for a narrative paragraph, list the sequence of activity. When you are ready to write, you can use this information in plotting out the events. It is not necessary to always go directly in order. An event that happens last can appear first in the paragraph. In fact, this is a good way to arouse interest in the reader. As long as the paragraph seems fairly logical, you have a lot of creative freedom in writing this kind of paragraph.

My Seashell Surprise

My first seashell hunt had a surprise ending. Early one morning my dad and I walked to the beach with a red bucket. The sand was soft and cool. We collected orange, white, and brown shells of all different shapes and sizes. When our bucket was almost filled, I spotted something black and shiny pointing out of the sand. I reached down and grabbed the object right before a wave crashed against my legs. The object felt sharp and curvy. Finally, I opened my hand. "What is this?" I asked my dad. He said, "It's your lucky day. That's a shark's tooth!"