Imagine it’s your job to tell the story of what happened in the Super Bowl football game. Naturally, the more you know about the game of football, and the more you know about the players, the better your story will be. Also, you’re going to want to choose the right...
Narrator Point of View and Mind Reading in Narratives
Mind reading is the key to understanding the types of narrators and points of view in narratives. Narrative story is the one way a person can enter the mind of another person. That’s one reason we read stories. I use the term “mind reading” to explain to students how...
The Two Types of Narrators or Speakers in Writing
As a rule, I use the term narrator for narratives, and the term speaker for most other types of writing, especially academic writing. Although the narrator is always the speaker in a narrative, the speaker is probably not narrating (i.e., telling what happened) in...
Understanding Tales, Fables, Myths, Legends and Folklore Stories
By the end of this page, you will be an expert on folklore stories! Here are the eight topics we will discuss: 1. Folklore Stories and the Oral Tradition 2. How to Classify the Story of George Washington and the Cherry Tree 3. Folklore Stories: Qualities and...
Complete Narrative Tales and Folklore Cheat Sheet for Writers
What genre of story are you reading or writing? To answer this question, you must understand the characteristics and qualities of genre. In other words, what kinds of ideas, subject matter, characters, techniques, and strategies are used in the story? Below you will...
The Five Types or Levels of Narrative and Story
What’s a narrative? What’s a story? Aren’t they the same thing? These are the questions that will be answered here. We will examine and compare five types of narrative and discover how they relate to story. We will look at narrative stories, personal narrative essays,...
Master Student Narrative Writing: Your Ultimate Checklist and Cheat Sheet
Narrative is one of the more important words in the English language. It’s how we make sense of the world; it’s also how we see and understand ourselves. Narrative story is so powerful that Plato (circa 427 BC—347 BC), one of history’s greatest minds, banned...
Awesome Descriptive Writing Checklist and Cheat Sheet for Students
What is descriptive writing? The real question is this: How do student writers use descriptive writing effectively in real writing? When teachers can answer this question, they know how to use their time wisely to teach descriptive writing. I mention this because the...