always impress one who reads it due to its interesting content, like description of characters, plot, setting, or ending. To put it more simply, a narrative text
can be defined as a text which tells series of connected past events chronologically and has interesting characters, plot, setting, and story ending
to make readers satisfied with it. Moreover, narration has to accomplish some purposes such as the
followings:
4
1 Series of events in narration should develop a main idea. 2 Plot in narration should give readers good impression, for instance, they
feel like listening and seeing all connected events in the story. 3 Narration should vividly describe who characters are, what story is about,
where story takes place, and when story begins and ends. 4 Narration should have clear transitions which shows changes in place,
time, and characters. 5 Narration should tell series of events which starts and ends
chronologically. 6 Narration should have climax which indicates that a story ends.
2. The General Structure and Language Feature of Narrative Text
A narrative text must have general structure which consists of orientation, sequence of events, resolution, and coda which is explained as
follow:
5
1 Orientation should include an introduction of when a story took place, where and when a story began, and who characters are.
2 Sequence of events should give clear description of series of past events which indicates beginning of problem and the most important or exciting
4
Ibid
5
Drs. Pardiyono, Pasti Bisa Teaching Genre-Based Writing, Yogyakarta: Penerbit Andi, 2007, p. 94
part in event climax. In addition, the sequence of events aims to amuse readers and give moral value.
3 Resolution should describe how problems were solved. 4 Coda should present a moral value of story.
Because a narrative text is a kind of story which is told and happened in the past, this text always uses past tense as its language feature. The
followings are the language feature or grammar structure of a narrative text:
6
a. Using verb which describes an action in each event in narration must use past tense whether it is simple past, past continuous, or past perfect tense.
b. Using verb which shows doing an activity or action such as released, took, saw, etc.
c. Using adjective which describes personal appearance or attitude, for instance: sad, special, beautiful, ugly, colorful, and happy, etc.
d. Using pronoun or a word used to refer to a noun. The following is the example of pronouns used in an narrative text:
“One day, there was a raven named Crawford who wanted to be special and different with the other ravens. He did not want to be like
the other ravens because their feathers were all black. He thought that the color of black was boring and not pretty.
”
7
e. Use conjunctions and transitional words. The following is the examples of conjunctions and transitional words in an narrative text:
“Finally, he had an idea to escape. He took all his colorful feathers. When the princess saw Crawford changed to be an ugly bird, she
released Crawford from the cage. After that, Crawford went home and met his friends.
”
8
6
Ibid, p. 97
7
Hans Wilhelm, Royal Raven, New York: Scholastic, 1996, p. 1-30
8
Ibid
