Using Narrative in Your Writing A Definition of the Narrative Mode

As mentioned above, narrative is nothing more nor less than telling a story. Telling a story in writing is not all that different from telling a story to your friends orally; in either case, when telling a story about something you are describing a chain of events. This chain of events may be strung out over days or months, or you may be telling of a single incident which occurred in a matter of minutes. But even when telling the story of a brief event, there are lots of details to describe, and these details themselves, even if they happened more or less all at once, must be told one at a time, in a sequence, in order to make sense to someone who wasn't there. So you generally tell about one thing, then about the second thing, and so forth.

The narrative mode can be found in some form within many of the other modes, but it can be used by itself as well. When you use it in this way, your entire essay consists of the story you are telling. However, even then, you normally are telling the story to make some point. In telling a story orally, your point may just be that ". . . a funny thing happened today," but generally if you go to the trouble to write a narrative of some incident you experienced, you likely have some more definite point you're trying to make. That point is called your thesis, which is defined in the Basic Three-Part Format section as your opinion about your topic. In the case of the narrative mode, your topic is the incident you're telling the story of, and your opinion is what the incident taught you, in most cases.

Features of the Narrative Mode

I have already listed several features:

The narrative mode tells a story by describing a sequence of events or actions. Used in this way, "story" doesn't mean something you have made up, but rather a retelling of events you've experienced.

Usually the story is told to make some point, often what you learned from the experience you're telling of; this point is called the story's thesis.

Here are several more features:

Editing. Especially when telling about some experience made of many events, you must edit them--for example, in the story of your Senior year of high school, even telling just what you recall might fill an entire book. So you have to pick and choose the most important things to tell. On the other hand, when telling about a brief incident like an argument with a friend that made you see that person (or yourself!) in a different way, you might tell almost every word and action. But that's still an editing decision, and it's best if you make it consciously, because

unconscious editing usually doesn't work too well. Learn to exert conscious control over your writing. Even if you choose first to freely write whatever comes into your mind--and some writers do very well to begin this way--there should be a later stage in which you consciously choose to omit some of the story or add more detail in other parts.

Summarizing. Summarizing, like editing out parts of an event, is a way of writing briefly about a long chain of actions or events. However, rather than skip parts entirely, you may instead choose to summarize them, which means to tell about those parts in few words--to compress those parts of the story into only several sentences.

Expanding. The opposite of summarizing is to expand important parts of a story by slowing down, so to speak, and instead of rushing through that part of the story in a sentence or two, you tell all the tiny details--everything you can remember. I find that this is hard for some students to do, so here's an example. Suppose that you are writing about a fight you had with your father, and the point (your thesis) to the story is that it was during this fight that you realized that it's finally time for you to move out on your own. If you write, "My dad jumped on me again about coming home late," that's really a one-sentence summarization of what probably was a fairly lengthy exchange between the two of you that took a lot of words, and maybe included shouting, slamming doors, lots of body language, and so forth. To expand that part of the story so that it's really interesting to a reader, you need to actually get down to the level of repeating, as nearly as you can, what the two of you actually said and did:

He was pretty mad this time. But he just stared at me, so I finally said "Well, what!?" He started shaking his head and said, "I don't ever want to see you coming home at four a.m. again. Is that clear?" It was clear, but it was also a Friday night, I didn't have work or school the next day, and . . .

It's that level of detail, in which you repeat actual words as closely as you can and describe actions equally closely, which stimulates a reader's interest in your experience.

Speech, actions, and feelings. As the above example shows, key parts of any story you tell are detailed accounts of what was spoken and what was done, both by yourself and other important "characters" in your story. Equally important, however, is an account of your inner feelings:

This must've been the thousandth time my dad and I had this same argument. Not really, just dozens maybe, but it feels like that many. Every time he would begin lecturing me about how and where I spend my time, I felt like a twelve-year-old. Sometimes he's right, but other times I don't think he is. And even when he is, maybe it's the situation that isn't right. What

was different about this particular fight was that I suddenly realized that what I really needed wasn't the protection of my folks anymore, but the freedom to make my own mistakes, or not.

You can perhaps see that not only does the telling of the writer's feelings add interest to a story, but that is also a good way to get at the thesis, the main point of the story. In the above example, the writer uses the telling of his feelings to reveal the story's point, which is how this argument made him realize it was time to move out on his own.

The Narrative Mode and the Three-Part Format

To understand the Three-Part Format structure well, it's best if you read the Basic Format section, but here is perhaps enough for the needs of the narrative mode. The three-part format consists of an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion. The main business of the Introduction is to tell what your topic is and to tell your thesis. The Main Body explains and supports that thesis by focusing on key aspects of the topic, and the Conclusion simply functions to remind the reader what your main point was.

In the narrative mode, then, this Introduction could begin by saying something like,

This is a story about a fight I had recently with my dad which was a real turning point for me.

There are plenty of other ways to say that; what is crucial is that the first few sentences, perhaps a short paragraph, serve to announce the story. Notice that the event gets a brief description--it's about a fight the writer had with his dad. The event is also placed roughly in time--it happened "recently." And the sentence even goes a little ways toward announcing the thesis--the fight "was a real turning point for me." The writer might want to go on to define that turning point better, like this:

This is a story about a fight I had recently with my dad which was a real turning point for me. We'd had the same basic fight a hundred times, but for some reason this time I finally realized that what I needed was freedom to be on my own, even though that means I may have to learn some things the hard way.

Or, the writer might prefer to hold off on completely defining the main point; it might be enough to say at first simply that the fight was a turning point. Either way, the reader's interest can be caught. If the writer does hold off on completely clarifying the thesis to begin with then at the essay's conclusion, he (or she) can perhaps use the second sentence above as the last sentence in the document, the one which nails down the thesis most firmly.

In summary, then, the narrative mode uses an Introduction to announce roughly what the story is about and when it took place, and to either imply the thesis or state it outright. The Main Body is where the story itself is told, perhaps alternating between paragraphs which summarize parts of the story and other paragraphs which slow down and linger over important details. In the Conclusion, the thesis (that is, the main point) is either repeated in slightly different wording or stated in a more precise, clearer way than in the Introduction, depending on what the writer chose to do with the thesis to start with.

An Outline for the Narrative Mode

In the narrative mode, the three-part format might look like this:

I. Introduction

Briefly describe the story and tell when it occurred. Then either clearly state the main point taught by the story, or at least point out that it does have a point.

II. Main Body

Should be multiple paragraphs, but how many, where to break them, and what they contain must all depend on the particular story being told. Use editing, summarizing, and expanding of detail. Especially in your expansion of detail, tell about what was actually spoken, what actions took place (who did what to whom), and what emotions were felt.

III. Conclusion

Very brief in this mode, probably one or two sentences--simply either restate or more clearly state the thesis.

Basic Three-Part FormatWhat follows are the basics of the simplest, most helpful essay format you can find: the three-part essay. After talking about the three basic parts and what they do, I'll break these three parts down into smaller parts until we have an entire outline -- a road map for every part of an essay. This road map, or outline, can be used to help you write on almost any topic imaginable and in many different types of situations, from English class assignments to essay tests to the TASP exam to business reports. Once learned, it can give you a big advantage in any writing situation you find yourself in.

An Overview

While speaking and writing are similar in many ways, one major difference between them is that when you write, you have no feedback from your audience to let you know if they have stopped understanding you. A good strategy to avoid this is to repeat yourself within your writing -- and that is the purpose of the three parts of an essay. The three parts are the beginning, the middle, and the end. That way of naming them is not as obvious and silly as it might seem; the first line of an essay is not necessarily a good beginning, and the last line is not necessarily a good end. Instead, these three parts each play similar but different roles: each, in fact, says about the same thing, but repeats it in different ways. A catchy way of explaining this is to say that the beginning of my essay tells you what I'm going to tell you; the middle goes ahead and tells you (in detail!); and the end tells you what I told you. In a way, when I write like this I've repeated myself three times, so that you, the reader of my essay, won't get lost; but really, I haven't repeated myself word-for-word, but instead I've done this: I've introduced what I want to say, then I've explained it in detail, then I've summed up what my main points were. You can get some idea of these roles by knowing the proper names we call the three sections:

I. Introduction (beginning)

II. Main Body (middle)

III. Conclusion (end)

What Happens In An Introduction

The main business of an introduction is to make sure the reader knows what you're going to talk about. That's all you should do in the introduction; a common mistake is to launch right away into details, but this confuses your reader, who doesn't yet understand the main point you're trying to make, or what all those details refer to. In order to best introduce your essay, the Introduction itself is divided into three parts:

I. Introduction

A. Background Information

B. Thesis Sentence

C. Preview of Main Supporting Points

Background Info serves merely to get the reader's mind in the same groove yours is in; to briefly name the topic you're talking about. If I'm writing about golf, and I want to say that golf is a good way to spend time, as background info I might say that until I actually tried golf I thought it was a real joke, but now I feel differently. If I wanted to, I could lengthen this by giving some details of when and why I thought golf was a poor way to spend time.

The Thesis Sentence works well following right behind the background info. You can spot a thesis sentence (or write one) by making sure it does one thing: It should state your opinion about the topic--for instance, that "Golf is beneficial."

I could make my thesis dovetail into my background info by saying that after finally trying golf for myself, I surprised myself by discovering that golf is beneficial in many ways. Another helpful point to note about the thesis sentence is that the topic statement is always pretty concrete and definite -- that is, you name some thing or person or activity, etc. The opinion statement, on the other hand, is very vague. How is golf beneficial? Well, you haven't said yet exactly how it's beneficial; that very job is your business throughout the rest of the essay. Little by little, you will remove that vagueness from your opinion. Talking about anything else besides your opinion on the topic is outside the scope of your essay.

The thesis is the most important part of the introduction, and in fact of the whole essay, but there is still more to the introduction. After stating your opinion on your topic in the thesis sentence, it is very helpful to just briefly list the various reasons why you hold this opinion (three is usually a good number of reasons). This list is called the Preview of Supports and it's most helpful if done as briefly as possible, in either one sentence listing all three reasons, or giving each reason no more than one sentence of its own (so three reasons = three preview sentences) following the thesis sentence. It is also possible to simply incorporate a preview into the thesis sentence itself. To come up with a preview, pretend you are in a conversation about your subject with a friend of yours. For example,

You: After finally getting around to trying golf for myself, I decided it's a wonderful way to spend my spare time.

Your Friend: What's wonderful about it?

You: Three things that stand out are the walking, the swing itself, and the mental high I get from a well-played shot.

By listing these three reasons that support your thesis, you are taking the first step to explain away the vagueness of the thesis. An important point to note is that these three elements (Background Info, Thesis, and Preview) form one paragraph in the body of your essay--the Introduction. You don't usually need to break them into separate paragraphs, unless for instance you have told a long story as your background info. When you have made sure you have these three elements, it's time to move on to the Main Body.

The Main Body: The Bulk of the Essay

Compared to the introduction and conclusion, the main body should occupy more of the essay's space (about 60-70%) because here is where you explain

those three reasons in detail. Accordingly, the outline itself shows signs of this greater detail:

II. Main Body

A. First Main Support (1st reason for your opinion)

1. Topic Sentence

2. Explanation of topic sentence (may be called the General Explanation)

3. Specific Example

4. Concluding Sentence

B. Second Main Support (2nd reason)

1. Topic Sentence

2. Explanation of topic sentence

3. Specific Example

4. Concluding Sentence

C. Third Main Support (3rd reason)

1. Topic Sentence

2. Explanation of topic sentence

3. Specific Example

4. Concluding Sentence

The very first thing to note is that each support should have its own paragraph, for a total of three paragraphs in the main body (A, B, and C)--assuming you have three supporting reasons, which is not always the case. Another point to note is that the three elements of each paragraph resemble, in miniature, the structure of the essay as a whole. That is, the topic sentence resembles the thesis sentence (but is more limited); the supporting detail of the single paragraph resembles the main body of the overall essay; and the concluding sentence resembles, for the paragraph, the overall conclusion of the essay. It's like boxes within boxes. Having noticed the overall structure of the main body paragraph, and that three such paragraphs make up the entire main body, it's useful to talk about each ingredient in its turn. Nothing need be vague about these elements; each one does something specific, and the sooner you understand exactly what

each one should do, the sooner you can begin writing clear, persuasive essays. The first and most important ingredient is the Topic Sentence. Like a good thesis sentence, a good topic sentence does three things: it begins with some transition word or phrase such as "The first reason...", it names the topic (the supporting reason, what the paragraph is going to talk about), and it links back to the thesis--that is, to your opinion which that reason supports. Normally, this link back to the thesis is done simply by a repetition of some key words from the thesis sentence. A good tip is that if you have previewed each supporting reason with one sentence each in the introduction, then you only need to slightly revise that wording, and you have a good topic sentence. The topic sentence normally appears as the first sentence in your paragraph, or certainly within the first couple of sentences of your paragraph. For instance, in that essay on golf, my first reason why golf is beneficial (from my preview) was the walking involved in playing eighteen holes. So my first main body paragraph needs to explain just how this walking is beneficial, and my topic sentence for this paragraph might read,

One of the benefits of golf is the walking that takes place in a game.

My transition phrase is "One of the benefits..." My supporting reason--the topic for this paragraph-- is "the walking." My opinion is that this is one of the benefits of the game -- an assertion which ties this supporting reason back to what it is meant to support: my thesis.

Note, though, that the topic sentence alone can't remove the vagueness that hangs around your thesis like a fog. No; that's where the second element, Explaining the Topic Sentence comes in. Go back to the imaginary conversation with your friend. Having heard the preview of your reasons why golf is a beneficial game, she wants to know more about each reason. When you explain the topic sentence, you take the opinion in the topic sentence and ask yourself, Why? The answers become the explanation of the topic sentence. So, here's the first part of your first body paragraph imagined as part of a conversation:

You: One of the benefits of golf is the walking that takes place in a game. (topic sentence)

Your Friend: What's beneficial about walking? (the question you ask yourself to come up with the Explaining the Topic Sentence part of your paragraph)

You: First, if you walk, rather than ride a cart, you'll get two or three miles of exercise, which gets you in better shape. Second, walking gives you a chance to slow down and either think about things if you're alone or enjoy conversation if you're playing with friends. Third, because walking does slow you down, it puts you in touch with nature on the course, such as the weather, the scenery, and the birds, and this is relaxing too.

So, the point I just made about how to explain your topic sentence is to simply ask the question, "Why is this so?" But now I want to break this explanation down further. Another way to think of it is like a container. You can pour different things into it, just like you can fill a pitcher with juice or water or beer, or just like you can use cotton or polyester or gingham to "fill" a dress pattern. The same holds true for the pattern I'm calling the explanation of the topic sentence. In the above paragraph, I've "poured" some "stuff" into this pattern like water into a pitcher; and the "stuff" I poured into the pattern has a name, or names.

There are at least three sorts of "stuff" that you should know about: information, description, and logical reasoning. They are different, though they tend to blend into one another in the example above, and often in your own writing. That's okay, but it's useful to be aware of the different kinds of explanation. That way, if you get stuck in your paragraph, you can consciously shift gears and try out a different way to fill the explanation part of the paragraph.

One way to explain a topic sentence is by supplying items of information. Information is normally numbers or statistics. An example of using information to flesh out a paragraph is where I noted that the average golfer walks about two or three miles during eighteen holes.

Description is like information in that you're supplying facts, but instead of giving numbers or statistics, you're usually describing the facts about some situation that involves people. In above explanation, the description is of what one does while walking a golf course: enjoying the outdoors, thinking, or conversing.

I mentioned logical reasoning as a third "thing" that can be poured into the various patterns of supporting detail. Just as with information and description, it can be used by itself or together with information, description, or both. Logical reasoning often has a certain "look" about it; there are even certain key words that tip you off that you are reading a piece of logical reasoning: words like because, since, if, then, thus, and so forth. Often, these words are used together so that one thought may be placed on top of another established point, like a child builds with blocks. When this is done, what we often see is a pattern that resembles this: "If such-and-such is true, then this second thing will probably also be so; and if that second thing is so, then this third thing is likely to happen." Or, "Because the New York Giants controlled the ball for forty minutes of the Super Bowl, the dangerous no-huddle offense of the Bills was then not a factor." One point builds on another.

These are the nuts and bolts of supporting explanation, then, three kinds of "stuff': information, description, and logical reasoning. The next time you are stuck for something to say in your explanation of the topic sentence, refer to these patterns of explanatory material, and get unstuck.

What happens after you Explain the Topic Sentence? You write a Specific Illustrating Example. But how does such an example differ from the explanation of the topic sentence? A specific illustrating example always deals with a specific incident that happened to a specific person at a specific place and time. It should be obvious how such a thing differs from both information and logical reasoning. However, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between an example and description. Here's the difference: Description talks about people in general, while an example talks about some one thing that happened to an individual person. It is a story about someone. The more essential difference is that a story, because of its intimate detail, is much more powerful emotionally than mere general description--although such description is an excellent way to lead into such a story.

So, how do you write such an example? A good question -- and how you deal with it means everything to your essay. Like with the topic sentence explanation, there is a simple method, and then there is a more complex breakdown. The simple method is to use your memory to think of some incident which illustrates whatever your paragraph topic is about. The more complex breakdown involves a "pecking order" of such memories, and it looks like this:

1st-hand examples involve things that happened to you yourself. These are best simply because you know more details and feel the emotions more powerfully.

2nd-hand examples are about people you know personally. These are the next best examples, though not as powerful as 1st-hand examples.

3rd-hand examples are about individuals you have heard about, read about, seen on the news, etc. They are weaker than the first two types simply because you know less to tell.

Hypothetical examples are the poorest, but still useful if you can't think of any of the other kinds. For these you use your imagination rather than your memory. They usually begin by saying, "A person might..." do such-and-such. Frankly, these are almost identical to explanatory description; the only difference is that they are worded in terms of a person rather than in terms of people in general. Use these only as a last resort.

When it comes time to put your examples into your paragraph, there are three ways to write this Illustrating Example, and they look like this in outline form:

II. Main Body

A. First Main Support

1. Topic Sentence

2. Explanation of Topic Sentence

2. Specific illustrating Example

a. A Series of Brief Examples

OR

b. A Single Extended Example

OR

c. A Combination of These Two Patterns

This has been a lengthy section. We've gone much more into detail concerning the main body because you, when you write your essay, need to go further into detail in the main body. So I've tried to break it down for you, showing in detail some of the major options before you in the main body. An easy summary of all this so far looks like this: In any one body paragraph, you name your reason, then you explain it, then you illustrate it with a specific example.

But we're still not through. Before we move on to the third overall section of an essay, there is one last ingredient which should be found in a good main body support paragraph, and this is the Concluding Sentence.

As with a topic sentence, a good concluding sentence does two very specific things: It summarizes the supporting detail, especially the specific example, and links that detail back to the topic sentence by mentioning some key words from that topic sentence, though probably rephrasing them. The reason to use a concluding sentence is to make certain that the reader does in fact see the point you're trying to make with your supporting details. The reader may see the point on his or her own, but you as the writer can't take this for granted. To make sure, you summarize both the supporting detail and the opinion of the topic sentence in one sentence.

For example, suppose I were trying to finish up that paragraph on the mental high I get from golf. The opinion stated in the topic sentence was that this mental high was one of the prime benefits of golf. The supporting explanation dealt with a more detailed description of this feeling. The feeling was then illustrated with examples from my personal experience -- how I felt when I made a good drive, a great chip, an unbelievable putt, and so forth. In a concluding sentence, I want to (1) summarize these examples and (2) stress that the feeling I get from them is one of the main reasons I play golf. My concluding sentence, then, might look like this: "It's shots like these, shots that give me that mental high of a challenge well met, which together amount to the single most important benefit I get from golf." The key phrases are "shots like these," which links to the supporting examples, along

with "mental high" and "most important benefit," which link to the topic sentence. With such a concluding sentence, very few readers will fail to get the point I am trying to make with my paragraph.

On the other hand, if I as writer have a very hard time composing a concluding sentence which can link supporting detail to topic, it could be because I have wandered off topic -- my supporting detail, in fact, has little or nothing to do with my topic in that paragraph! So besides being "insurance" that the reader gets my point, the concluding sentence can also act as insurance that I myself stay on topic while writing the paragraph.

Altogether, each body paragraph contains the four elements described above: topic sentence, explanation of topic sentence, illustrating example, and concluding sentence. Note two important points: (1) the Explanation of Topic Sentence and the Specific Illustrating Example should be the biggest parts of your paragraph and (2) the body paragraphs should be fairly long to ensure adequate development of your ideas--perhaps half-a-dozen sentences each in the explanation and in the specific example. Or, when you can't think of much to write for one of those, then balance that by writing more on the other. If you can't think of much on either, then maybe you need to come up with a different supporting reason! Also note that you go through this above four-part body paragraph pattern as many times as you have reasons listed in the preview in your introduction--probably three.

The Conclusion: Making Sure the Reader Understands

What You Want Him or Her to Understand

It is appropriate to discuss the Overall Conclusion right after talking about the concluding sentence in a main body paragraph, because the two work in much the same way. Like a concluding sentence in a main body paragraph, the conclusion needs to tie your detailed explanation to the central point you're trying to explain. Unlike such a concluding sentence, the overall conclusion concentrates on the thesis and all the main body, not just on a particular topic sentence and its supporting detail. So for the overall conclusion, the central point is the thesis itself, and the supporting detail is the entire main body -- all three reasons, each of which got a paragraph of its own. And the main business of a conclusion is to summarize these three reasons and to restate your thesis being explained by the reasons. You can see these two functions in the outline of the conclusion below. So you will have a complete model of the outline in one place, I will include the other two main sections as well.

Complete Outline for the Three-Part Essay

I. Introduction

A. Background Information

B. Thesis Sentence

C. Preview of Three Main Supports

II. Main Body

A. First Main Support

1. Topic Sentence

2. Explanation of the Topic Sentence

3. Specific Illustrating Example

4. Concluding Sentence

B. Second Main Support

1. Topic Sentence

2. Explanation of the Topic Sentence

3. Specific Iillustrating Example

4. Concluding Sentence

C. Third Main Support

1. Topic Sentence

2. Explanation of the Topic Sentence

3. Specific Iillustrating Example

4. Concluding Sentence

III. Conclusion

A. Summarize Main Supports

B. Restate Thesis

Now, before we paused to look at this outline, we were talking about the overall conclusion. Summarizing your main supports means to literally list or briefly mention, close together, all three supporting reasons for your thesis. The key thing happening here is that all reasons are put shoulder to shoulder, so to speak. The reason for doing this is because your reader's thoughts are probably "spread out" after having worked through the details

of your main body. Ironically, the more detailed you make your main body, the more likely it is that the reader will have a hard time summarizing all this detail in his head at one time. So you do it for him. Some writers prefer to reduce the main supports to several words each, so that they will fit together in one sentence and not look awkward. Other writers choose to devote one sentence apiece to each main support. This is sort of like rephrasing each topic sentence and writing them one after another. Either way can be effective.

For example, I might summarize my supports in the essay on golf by saying,

There are lots of reasons why people like to play golf, but the three that really speak to me are the physical benefit of the walking, and of the swing itself, and the mental benefit of the emotional "high" I get from a pro-caliber shot.

Or I may choose to stretch out a little more, like this:

Although there are lots of reasons why people like to play golf, the one I noticed first, myself, was the walking. Then after spending a Saturday morning or two on the driving range, I realized that the swing itself is also equally beneficial physically. But for me, the most valuable benefit of all is the emotional "high" I get when I play a pro-caliber shot.

One way or the other may work better for you, but for your reader's sake, it's important that somehow or other you collect all your supporting reasons and present them at the same time. By doing this, you ensure that your reader's perspective moves back to the big picture you're painting rather than staying zeroed in on one of your points but missing that big picture.

On the other hand, this summarization is also important for you as a writer, because if you find that it makes no sense to present your main supports together, it may mean that they do not all actually support the thesis you began with. One or more may have wandered off topic. You can catch this in your summarization. Another problem you can catch is a serious lack of any organization in your main body. The symptom which might reveal this is if you have a hard time going back and spotting just what your main supports were. That's probably because you didn't systematically devote one main body paragraph to each main support. Again, you can catch this in your summarization.

The other crucial element of the conclusion is to restate your thesis. One reason to do this is to test whether you ever got around to stating a thesis in the first place. If you haven't, it will be hard to go back and identify it, let alone rephrase it in the conclusion. Thinking of the reader, this rephrasing is just one last assurance that your central point is coming through loud and clear. For example, to restate my thesis in the golf essay, I might add the following sentence to the summarization of main supports:

These are the things that golf does for me, and when I talk about them, I'm more convinced than ever that golf isn't a joke at all; it's a truly enjoyable and beneficial activity.

The key thought here is that I have reemphasized that golf (my essay topic) is beneficial (my overall opinion on my topic).

With that, this discussion of the basic three-part essay is complete. With a reasonable amount of practice at it, you will almost certainly start to see some improvement in your writing. With mastery of it, very few writing projects will be beyond your reach. But just in case your head is swirling with details, let me do as I have preached, and summarize my main points. Remember, above all else, that this three-part essay can be divided in its most basic form into five paragraphs, with the introduction getting one paragraph, the main body three, and the overall conclusion one. Remember too, however, that this number of paragraphs is not carved in stone; for instance, more or fewer reasons will change the paragraph total to perhaps six or four. And even with three supporting reasons, if you have a lot to say in a body paragraph, it's a good idea to look for a likely place to split the paragraph--my suggestion is between the explanation and the specific example.

The most crucial ingredient in the introduction is the thesis sentence, which should name your topic and state your opinion on it as well. The other main part of the introductory paragraph is the preview, which simply lists the three supports. The three paragraphs of the main body should each deal with one support, or reason, for the opinion in your thesis. Each of these paragraphs will contain a topic sentence, preferably as the first sentence each time. Each topic sentence will in turn be supported first by your general explanation of it, and then by your specific illustrating example(s), which in turn are connected to the topic sentence by the paragraph's concluding sentence. In your overall conclusion, you should summarize your three main supports from the main body and restate your thesis.

To summarize all this even more briefly, you will have done three things: You've told the reader what you're going to tell him or her; then you've told him; then you've told him what you've told him.

These are the crucial points. Get these firmly in your head, and the details will become clearer as you go along. Remember that writing, just like baking, basketball, or bringing up children, takes practice. If you take time for that practice, not only will your writing improve, but it might become something you find yourself doing just because you want to. Stranger things have happened.

Here is a sample student essay to help you prepare for an essay assignment using the three-part format:

NOTE: The following essay was written by a student like yourself. The assignment was to write about some of the typical things the writer's own gender does in a relationship to make it difficult. The essay contains most, but not all, of the elements of the outline in theThree-Part Essay. By studying how it follows the outline and how it doesn't follow it, you can do a better job on your own essay, which should also follow that same 3-part outline. Here is the student essay:

Gender Differences

Men and women always seem to blame one another for the problems that occur in a relationship. When a man gets around his friends you never hear him say, "It was my fault we broke up." You always hear, "It was her fault." Although we would like to think that only men act in such a manner, we can't be so shallow we don't see that women do it too. Women seem to see themselves as the sensitive and caring one in a relationship. Men always seem to cover up their true feelings, as women seem to think. What women do not understand is that men are just different and show their feelings in a different way. That is why they are called "men" and we are called "women." Women cause just as many problems in a relationship as men.

Women tend to be much more sensitive and emotional in a relationship than men. A woman feels that it is all right for her to yell and scream during a fight. If the man decides to yell back, it usually hurts the woman's feelings. A woman feels that she should be the only one who should be able to let off steam during an argument. We complain when a man doesn't show emotion, but if that emotion is anger we would rather not see it. We feel that they do not have feelings like we do. We do not think that we are hurting their feelings when we fight, because they don't break down in tears the way we do. What we need to realize is that they do have feelings. They just have a different way of showing them. One example of this is myself. I tend to lose my temper during an argument more than my boyfriend does. I begin to yell when I'm angry. When he begins to yell at me, I usually start to cry. One night we got into a big argument. I screamed at him all the way home. When we pulled up at my house, he began to tell me how he felt. Once he started yelling back at me, I told him to quit yelling. Then, I began to cry. He never has been able to understand that. He always says, "Why can you yell at me when you're mad, but I can't yell at you?" I never really could answer that question well. I just knew that I was mad and I wanted him to know it. What I need to realize is that he was just as mad, and he should be able to express himself without me crying. That is one of the problems that women tend to overlook--my feelings first, your feelings later.

Another problem that men and women face differently is friends. A woman seems to think that she needs another girl to tell her problems to. She feels that another woman will understand more than a man. A man does not feel that way. They are happy to tell their problems and worries to us. They feel that if they can give up their friends for us then we should be able to do it too. Women need to realize that men may understand more than we seem to

give them credit for. Although men do not show that this hurts their feelings, we know that it does. They think we should be able to talk to them the way they talk to us. An example of this also deals with myself. I have a couple of girls that I consider to be my very best friends. I tell them just about everything that happens with my life. I tell my boyfriend about things in my life too, but I do not go into as much detail as I do with my friends. Whenever he comes over to my house and one of my friends calls, he usually doesn't like me talking a long time. Sometimes he will be sitting there listening to me talk and he will say, "Why didn't you tell me that?" He claims that the reason he doesn't want me on the phone while he is over is because he doesn't want to just sit there by himself. I feel that he thinks I'm able to confide more in my friends than I do with him. I don't mean to do this. I just find it easier to talk to my friends than with him, because I feel they understand more. That is just one of the other ways that women cause problems differently than men--friends.

Women also tend to feel that men should be the ones spending the money in a relationship--as long as it's on us. Women, even though we would like to deny it, like to have money spent on us. We feel that they are showing us how much they care about us when the pocket book is pulled out and money is being spent. This is not always the case, but on the most part it is. Some men feel obligated at the beginning to take the woman out on nice dates and buy her nice things. This is another problem that women seem to bring into a relationship--MONEY. Money should not be a big issue, but in dating relationships it usually is. An example of this is myself again. At the beginning of my two year relationship with my boyfriend, we went out on formal dates just about every weekend. Now that the relationship has continued, we usually do not go out and do as much. We just can't afford to blow our money the way we could back in high school. There are more bills and finances now that we are in college. Sometimes I'll admit, I get frustrated staying at home. I enjoy going out to eat and to the movies. He always tells me, "I'm always spending my money on you." I know this is true, and I do appreciate the things he has done for me. It's just hard giving up something you have gotten used to. Women just like to be pampered and shown affection in a relationship. Although I do like to go out, I am satisfied staying at home and watching TV. Women need to realize when you care for someone, you should be content just being in that person's company.

All in all, I feel that men and women both put in their fair share of problems in a relationship. Although we seem to look more at the problems the other is causing, we need to stop and look at the things we do. Both men and women have feelings. We need to each stop and think if we are being understanding enough about these feelings. If we all do a little more of that, then we all stand to benefit, because our relationships will work better for us.

Resource:

-Dr. Mark Jordan, http://www.odessa.edu/dept/en glish/mjordan/narration.htm