1. English writing has a methodology
Important things to look out for in narrative essay writing
I am assuming that the student is able to construct basic sentence and grammar
structure (past & present tense etc.). If the student is unable to do so, he/she
is in no condition to attempt essay writing. Please sign the student for basic
language/ grammar classes instead.
There is a limit to how much advice I can offer via text. So I will just offer
two key points.
ESSAY FLOW
CHARACTERS’ EMOTIONS / FEELINGS *
1. Essay Flow
Essay flow means no break in the story plot. A disjointed narrative threatens a
fiction essay, and as a side note, absolutely fatal in GP essays (Immediate
failure).
Common e.g (pri sch level):
Annie was walking back home from school. Suddenly, she saw a cat stuck in the
tree.
(Let’s just focus on the disrupted flow of plot and ignore the rest [vocab,
sentence structure variation etc] ’ it is not a great sentence for sure but I
have seen this exact same sentence in my student’s work when she was writing a
picture composition on some cat getting stuck in a tree.)
As you can see, there is a break in the story flow ’ no link between the two
sentences. The student did not apply the 5Ws 1 H technique, with ’Why’ and ’How’
being the most essential.
Why was Annie’s attention drawn to the cat? The cat was meowing loudly as it was
stuck in the tree.
Annie was walking home from school. Suddenly, she heard a loud meowing coming
from the trees. Upon closer look, Annie found a cat stuck in the tree.
2. Character's Emotions / Feelings
**Character emotions form the crux to the climax (conflict) of the essay**
The emotions:
Happy - elated
Excited ’ brimming with excitment
Sad - melancholy
Angry ’ enraged, inflamed
Anxious ’ dilated pupils, adrenaline rush
Shock ’ paralyzed with fear
1st essay lesson: Allowing your child to write her first essay
Annie was walking back home from school. Suddenly, she saw a cat stuck in the
tree.
2nd essay lesson: Teaching her essay flow, employing 5Ws and 1H technique
Annie was walking home from school. Suddenly, she heard a loud meowing coming
from the trees. Upon closer look, Annie found a cat stuck in the tree.
3rd essay lesson: Giving character more life

2. Annie was walking home from school. She was thinking about her lesson earlier
on. Suddenly, she heard a loud meowing coming from the trees. She snapped out of
her thoughts. Annie went forward to check. Upon closer look, Annie found a cat
stuck in the tree. The cat was not able to climb down the tree.
4th essay lesson: Vocab (advance level)
Annie was walking home from school. Her thoughts were preoccupied with her
lesson earlier on. Suddenly, a loud meowing from the trees snapped her out of
her stupor. Annie went forward to investigate. Upon closer look, Annie found a
cat perched precariously on a tree branch. The cat was not able to climb down
the tree.
5th essay lesson: Sentence structure variation (advance level)
Annie was walking home from school, her thoughts preoccupied with her lesson
earlier on. Suddenly, a loud meowing from the trees snapped her out of her
stupor. Upon closer examination, Annie found a cat perched precariously on a
tree branch, making futile attempts to climb down the tree.
By then, this child would have 5 similar essays to compare and boost his/her
confidence – the child–s improvement in essay writing was clearly visible on
paper. One of my tuition kids had a good laugh after comparing her third attempt
with her shoddy first. It gave her the confidence to further improve her essay
writing.
Do not change a different essay question every time your child attempts to brush
up his/her essay writing skills for your child will not be able to learn well.
They need structure and time to tame a dangerous animal called essay writing. As
newcomers to the essay writing scene, they are pretty adverse to change.
Just to demonstrate the effectiveness of essay question standardization: You
have noticed that I–ve only used one type of example throughout this entire
entry – the essay on the cat getting stuck in the tree. It gives you a clearer
understanding of the concepts forwarded. Comparing and contrasting becomes easy.
As a side note, if you do not have patience to explain a concept repeatedly, or
pace yourself to accommodate your child–s learning curve, things are going to
get ugly if you really do attempt to teach. (My mom was not cut out to be an
educator. So were my aunts, uncles, sister, cousins – the list is never-ending)
This brings me to the next section...