Narrative Text

Narrative text is a the type of text that tells a chronological story in the past tense. Narrative text is a story composed in sequential past tense. It tells imaginative stories or real-life stories that have been modified and are structured through a series of events that occurred in the past.

Language Features in Narrative Text

1. Past Tense: Past tenses are definitely used in narrative texts because these texts recount events from the past. There are three types of past tenses that are characteristic of narrative texts: Simple Past Tense, Past Continuous Tense, and Past Perfect Tense. 

2. Adverb of Times: Narrative texts are usually told in a sequence of events or storyline, which we refer to as the plot. Therefore, narrative texts always contain adverbs of time. Here are some examples of adverbs of time that you might find in narrative texts. 

3. Time Conjunction: In addition to adverbs of time, you can also find time conjunctions in narrative texts. Here are some commonly used time conjunctions in narrative texts: When, Until, After, Before, etc.

4. Direct speech: Direct speech is the direct utterance spoken by someone in a story. It allows the reader to experience the atmosphere of the story as if they were present. Example: “This one look nothing like his brothers and sisters,” one of them sneered.

The aim of narrative text is to entertain the readers through the amusing story. The structure of narrative text usually uses the text structure from the Genre-Based Approach (GBA). This GBA structure has long been used in the curriculum in Indonesia. However, here the writer will explain two types of structures that can be used when studying narrative text. The first is narrative text based on GBA, and the second is the structure of narrative text based on Reading for Emotions.  For more detail you can click the buttons below!