叙事性文章

Learning Objectives
::学习目标

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• Identify the differences in form between descriptive and narrative essays.
  ::查明描述性文章和叙述性论文在形式上的差异。
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• Know the major differences between autobiographical and biographical narratives.
  ::了解自传和履历说明之间的重大差异。
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• Recognize the structure of autobiographical and biographical narratives.
  ::承认自传和履历说明的结构。
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• Identify the importance of personal growth in a narrative essay.
  ::在叙述性论文中确定个人成长的重要性。
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• Stress the importance of personal growth within your own narrative essay.
  ::在你的叙述性论文中强调个人成长的重要性。

Introduction
::导言

Unlike the descriptive essays that strive to explain why a person, a place, an object, or an event is important, a narrative essay demonstrates the development of a person through the chronological retelling of an important event. In addition, a narrative essay should indicate how a person has changed or learned from this experience. The experience should unfold much like the plot of a novel or short story, beginning with the individual facing a problem and ending in the resolution of the problem and subsequent growth of the individual. Thus, the action of the problem should unfold as the telling of the event unfolds, much like the action of a short story builds as the plot progresses.
::与试图解释为什么一个人、一个地方、一个对象或一个事件是重要的描述性文章不同,一个叙述性论文通过按时间顺序重述一个重要事件来说明一个人的发展;此外,一个叙述性论文应该说明一个人如何改变或从这种经历中吸取教训;经验应该像一个小故事或短故事的情节,从面临问题的个人开始,到问题的解决和个人随后的成长结束;因此,问题的行动应该随着事件的发生而展开,就像一个短故事的行动随着剧情的进展而建立起来。

However, just as in descriptive essays, you must describe the event that is progressing, effectively drawing your readers into the development of the individual. Think of how invested, or perhaps uninvested, you become in the stories you read. Why do you connect with certain characters and not with others? Often, you connect with characters you feel you can relate to in some way or with events that you can imagine experiencing. Thus, it is essential to clearly and concisely indicate the action of the event being described. Your readers must be able to imagine being at and participating in the event. However, you must keep in mind that you can provide too much information to the reader. Make sure all the details you provide are relevant to the narration. For instance, when narrating an event, you do not need to include details that do not add to the feeling of an event. Otherwise, the readers will feel unconnected and disinterested in the development of the individual.
::然而,就像描述性文章一样, 您必须描述正在进展的事件, 有效地将读者引向个人的发展。 想象一下您在阅读的故事中投入了多少, 或者说没有投入了多少。 您为什么与某些字符联系, 而不是与其他人联系? 通常, 您觉得可以以某种方式或与你能想象到的事件联系起来的字符联系。 因此, 您必须清楚和简洁地指出所描述的事件的动作。 您的读者必须能够想象自己正在参与这个事件。 但是, 您必须记住, 您可以向读者提供太多的信息。 确保您提供的所有细节都与叙事相关。 例如, 当描述一个事件时, 您不需要包含不会增加事件感觉的细节 。 否则, 读者会感到与个人的发展没有关联和兴趣 。

While describing the event is crucial to the reader's understanding and interest, the person's feelings, thoughts, desires, or insights are integral to creating the sense of personal growth. Without these components, the reader will be unable to track the person's development and change. Essentially, in order for the reader to see that the individual has transformed, you must present the inner thoughts, desires, and feelings of the person before and after the alleged transformation. This way the reader can compare the thoughts and feelings from before the change with those after and ultimately evaluate the personal growth of the individual on their own.
::描述事件对于读者的理解和兴趣至关重要, 个人的感觉、 思想、 愿望或见解对于创造个人成长感是不可或缺的。 没有这些元素, 读者将无法跟踪个人的发展和变化。 从根本上说, 为了让读者看到个人已经转变, 你必须在被指称的转变之前和之后展示个人内心的想法、 愿望和感受。 这样读者就可以将改变之前的思想和感受与变化之后的思想和感受进行比较, 并最终单独评估个人的个人成长。

Since the personal growth in the narrative is the most essential component, choosing the individual and experiences is an important decision. As a writer hoping to engage the reader, you must carefully consider both the events and the individual that you choose. Not only must you choose events that share a common theme, or that point toward the same idea, eventual personal growth, but you must also choose an individual who is compelling. Generally, a narrative essay can either be autobiographical or biographical in nature. That is, the narrative can be written by you and about you or the narrative can be written by you and about someone else. Moreover, in choosing to write about yourself or about someone else, you decide the organization of your paper.
::由于个人在叙事方面的成长是最重要的组成部分,选择个人和经验是一项重要的决定。作为一个希望让读者参与的作家,你必须仔细考虑事件和您选择的个人。不仅你必须选择具有共同主题的事件,或者指向同一想法的人,最终个人成长,你还必须选择具有说服力的个人。一般而言,叙事论文可以是自传,也可以是传记性。这就是说,叙事可以由您和您撰写,也可以由您撰写,也可以由您或其他人撰写。此外,在选择撰写关于自己或他人的文章时,您可以决定您论文的组织。

Autobiographical Narrative

An autobiographical narrative is one of the most personal types of essays. Not only are you writing a paper that expresses your own views and thoughts, but autobiographical narratives are based upon your own life experiences. Thus, it follows that the organization of the paper will also be more personal in nature. Unlike a narrative essay based on another individual, an autobiographical narrative will always contain your personal thoughts, desires, and motivations. While it is hard to know the motives of other individuals when writing a biographical narrative, unless you know the individual well, you always have access to the motivations for your own personal development. Hence, when you organize your autobiographical narrative you must format your essay around the events that promote your personal growth and the feeling you experienced before, during, and after these events.
::自传叙事是最个人性的文章类型之一。 您不仅在写一篇表达自己观点和想法的论文, 而且自传叙事也基于您自己的生活经历。 因此, 由此可见, 文件的组织也将更具有个人性。 与基于他人的叙述性文章不同, 自传叙事将总是包含您的个人思想、 愿望和动机。 虽然在写自传叙事时很难知道其他人的动机, 除非您认识个人, 否则您总是有机会了解自己个人发展的动机。 因此, 当您组织自传叙事时, 您必须围绕那些促进您个人成长的事件以及您在这些事件之前、期间和之后所经历的感觉, 编成文章。

There are several ways to incorporate your thoughts, feelings, and motivations into the organization of your paper. First, you can consider integrating your description of certain events with your motives and thoughts for the events. This way, you present the events and your motivations both in chronological order and simultaneously. This means that you are describing the events and your feelings as they occurred, or at the same time. Second, you can consider blocking your description of your events and your feelings, providing a paragraph describing the event followed by a paragraph describing your motivations. Also, you could also reverse this blocking format to first provide your motivations and then the description of the event.
::将您的想法、感觉和动机纳入您的论文的组织之中有几种方式。 首先,您可以考虑将您对某些事件的描述与您对事件的动机和想法结合起来。 这样您可以同时按时间顺序介绍事件和动机。 这意味着您正在描述发生的事件和发生时的感情,或者同时描述发生时的情况和感受。 其次,您可以考虑屏蔽您对事件和感受的描述,提供一个段落描述事件,然后有一个段落描述您的动机。 另外,您还可以颠倒这种阻碍形式,以便首先提供您的动机,然后描述事件。

How do these two examples compare? Although they both narrate the same event, is one more effective than the other? Generally, the first organizational scheme (when you integrate description and motivations together) is the most seamless. By incorporating the two together, you provide the reader with a more complete picture of the event – as if the reader is experiencing the event as it unfolds in your narration. However, sometimes this formatting does not work, specifically with complicated events. If you feel that the event you are narrating is too difficult to explain or clarify, then you should consider breaking your description and thoughts into two separate paragraphs. Although, you need to be aware of how this affects the story you are telling. Do you want the importance of the event to be at the end? In doing so, you make the event seem more suspenseful, and you can make the reader more compelled to finish your narrative. Nevertheless, organizing your paper in this way places more of a burden on you as a writer because you must clearly connect the separate ideas in the paragraphs.
::这两个例子是如何比较的?虽然它们都讲述同一个事件,但有一个比另一个更有效?一般地说,第一个组织计划(当你将描述和动机结合在一起时)是最无缝的。如果将两者结合在一起,你就能向读者提供更完整的事件图片,就像读者在叙述中看到事件一样。然而,有时这种格式格式工作不起作用,具体地说,与复杂事件无关。如果你觉得你讲述的事件很难解释或澄清,那么你应该考虑将描述和想法分成两个单独的段落。尽管你需要知道这如何影响你所讲述的故事。你希望事件的重要性在结尾处得到体现吗?这样,你就能让事件显得更加紧张,使读者更有必要完成你的叙述。然而,用这种方式整理你的论文会给作为作家带来更多的负担,因为你必须清楚地将段落中的不同想法联系起来。

Regardless of the organizational scheme you choose, you must properly describe your personal growth. In order to do so, you must organize your essay around one significant event or a collection of interrelated specific events. Generally, the number of events you include defines the amount of detail you put into describing your events. If your paper centers around one main event that helped shape your personal growth, the majority of the body would describe the one event while the introduction and conclusion would include your thoughts and feelings from before and after the event to help clarify how the occurrence helped shape you. However, if your paper details a succession of events that culminate in your personal growth, the description of each event, including the insights and feelings associated with it, would be limited to a single body paragraph. In this case, the introduction and conclusion would still indicate how you felt and thought both before and after the transformation.
::不论您选择何种组织计划, 您都必须正确描述您的个人成长。 为此, 您必须围绕一个重大事件或一系列相互关联的具体事件组织您的文章。 一般来说, 您包含的事件数量可以定义您在描述您的事件时所花费的细节。 如果您的纸张围绕一个有助于您个人成长的主要事件, 大部分机构将描述一个事件, 而介绍和结论将包括您在活动前后的想法和感受, 以便帮助澄清事件发生之前和之后的想法和感受如何影响您。 但是, 如果您的文件详细描述一系列导致您个人成长的事件, 每项事件的描述, 包括与它相关的洞察力和感受, 将限于一个单独的主体段落。 在这种情况下, 介绍和结论将仍然显示您在转变之前和之后的感受和思想。

Biographical Narrative

Unlike the much more personal autobiographical narrative, biographical narratives tend to be more formal and less personal. While you can easily include how you felt or what you thought during events in your own life, it is harder to indicate how others thought or felt during action in their own lives. Sometimes, if you are writing a biographical narrative about a close friend or relative, or if you have interviewed the individual you are writing about, you can include specific insights and motivations. If you do have access to the person's thoughts and feelings, you can easily organize your biographical narrative as you would an autobiographical one. However, usually, you will have to infer how a person felt or what they thought from their actions in certain events.
::与更多个人自传叙事不同,个人履历叙事往往更正式,更不具有个人性。虽然您可以轻松地包括您在自己生活中的感受或想法,但更难以说明他人在自己生活中的想法或感受。有时,如果您正在撰写关于亲密朋友或亲属的履历,或者您已经采访了您所写的个人,您可以包括具体的见解和动机。如果您能够了解个人的想法和感受,您可以很容易地组织您的个人履历叙事,就像您在自我传记时一样。然而,通常,您必须推断一个人在特定事件中对自身行为的感受或想法。

If you must write a biographical narrative about someone you do not know or someone you cannot interview, you must suggest his or her motivations through analyzing his or her actions. For instance, if someone apologizes for past behavior, then you can infer that he or she feels regret about the incident. You could then analyze the events following this apology to see if the individual's apology was genuine. In other words, you could see if the individual's behavior changed after the apology or if the individual changed his or her actions in significant ways. In order to vocalize the analysis in your paper, you must suggest to your reader that the individual started acting and behaving differently because he or she was responding to a past experience. For example, you would need to stipulate that the good behavior following the apology means that the individual regrets his or her past actions. On the other hand, if an individual’s actions after an apology do not change (if the person continues to make the same mistake for instance), you can infer that he or she does not regret or feel sorry for his or her past actions.
::如果你必须写一篇有关你不认识的人或者你无法采访的人的履历叙事,你就必须通过分析其行为来建议他或她的动机。例如,如果有人为过去的行为道歉,那么你就可以推断他或她对事件感到遗憾。然后,你可以分析道歉之后的事件,看这个人的道歉是否真实。换句话说,你可以看到个人的行为在道歉后是否发生变化,或者个人的行为是否明显改变。为了在你的文件中发表分析,你必须向你的读者建议,个人开始行为和行为是不同的,因为他或她对过去的经历有反应。例如,你需要说明,道歉后的良好行为意味着个人对过去的行为感到后悔。另一方面,如果一个人在道歉后的行为没有改变(如果这个人继续犯同样的错误的话),你可以推断他或她对其过去的行为并不后悔或感到抱歉。

Review Questions
::回顾问题

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1. What is the purpose of a narrative essay?
   ::叙述性文章的目的是什么?
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2. How does a narrative essay differ from a descriptive essay?
   ::叙述性论文与描述性论文有何不同?
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3. What are the two ways you can organize an autobiographical narrative?
   ::你可以用什么两种方式 组织一个自传叙事?
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4. How do you show the feelings and thoughts of other individuals when writing a biographical narrative?
   ::在撰写简历时,你如何表达其他人的感情和想法?
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5. Write an autobiographical narrative about your experience as a writer. Be sure to stress how you have grown as a writer by including both descriptions of past situations and your feelings and thoughts about these situations.
   ::写一篇关于你作家经历的自传叙事。 请务必强调你作为作家是如何成长的。 请既描述过去的情况,又描述你对这些情况的感情和想法,以此强调你是如何成长为作家的。