Teaching Writing

WRITING SHORT STORY USING NARRATIVE APPROACH

By HAMIDDIN

            ABSTRACT

Narrative approach is basic technique in preparing the students are able to write a narration paragraph. Narrative is related to tell a story. In teaching writing in literature classroom, the teacher uses narrative approach to write a short story. Besides teaching writing paragraph, the teacher also teaches literature aspects especially short story aspects. Theoretically, this approach include to teaching of writing kinds of paragraph but practically, this approach can be involve in writing a short story in the literature classroom for students in university.

Keywords: narrative approach, short story, teaching writing.

INTRODUCTION

Teaching writing is teaching how to make appropriately and effectively writing product. The teacher of writing faces many obstacles in teaching their students, because writing needs certain skill. For university students, writing is essential component in learning English as second language or foreign language. The writing achievement is important for the students who will arrange proposal, thesis, and research. The students of university demanded to be able to make good writing. As teachers, we have to find ways of helping our students to improve our students’ skill especially writing skill.

The teacher of writing demanded to be creative in his/her teaching in the classroom. So, teaching of writing must be taught in many different approaches. The each approach can be effective and efficient, if the teacher believes in what he or she teaches and uses in the classroom.  Approaches to teaching writing rely on approaches to writing. The teachers may use and mix some approaches to writing in the class and give the students appropriate tasks and help them perfect their techniques.

The approaches to writing can lead to best results of writing product.  The different approach is the road taken by the writer to reach the final goal. The use of some approaches is how to help a student do his or her best depends on the approaches to writing (Rosu, 2008). 

According to Abisamra (2001), there are several common basic-approaches to writing; they are narrative, descriptive, expository and persuasive/argumentative approaches. These basic-approaches can be applied in the English classroom in different subjects.

I.             Rhetorical Modes in Narrative Approach

Adisamra (2001) say that rhetorical modes are based on the ways human brains process information. The teachers may choose the one mode that matches to the topic helps students organize their writing and helps the reader process the information students want to discuss. 

A Narrative Essay recounts a story. Narrative as part of story, it has character, setting, and action. The characters, the setting, and the problem of the narrative are usually introduced in the beginning. The problem reaches its high point in the middle. The ending resolves the problem. (Abisamra, 2001).

The narrative approach offers writers a chance to think and write about themselves. We all have experiences lodged in our memories which are worthy of sharing with readers. Silva and Henderson (2007) defined that narrative based writing is a techniques based on the narrative document product which is a précis of story that the author/writer intends to convey to the readers. Sometimes, the writers are so fused with other memories that a lot of the time spent in writing narrative is in the prewriting stage. Narrative approach is a technique how to build communication between the writers and readers.

The purpose of this type of writing is to tell a personal or fictional experience based on a real or imagined event. In well-written narration, a writer uses insight, creativity, dialogue, figurative language, drama, suspense, or fantasy to create a central theme or impression. The writers must be creative in telling his experience or imagination in a story.

II.          Principles of Writing Narrative Essays

The writers of narrative essays should keep three principles of narrative essays in mind. Abisamra (2001) in Teaching Writing says that three principles of narrative essays are:

1. The writers should involve readers in the story. It is much more interesting to actually recreate an incident for readers than to simply tell about it.
2. Find a generalization which the story supports. This is the only way the writer's personal experience will take on meaning for readers. This generalization does not have to encompass humanity as a whole; it can concern the writer, men, women, or children of various ages and backgrounds.
3. Remember that although the main component of a narrative is the story, details must be carefully selected to support, explain, and enhance the story.

The three principles of these narrative essays are essential for the writers who want to write narrative essays or story (novel, short story, etc).

III.       Conventions of Narrative Essays

In writing narrative essay, the writers also must understand the convention of narrative essays in which the writers must focus on the topic and time order. To keep the narrative essays in its way, firstly, the narratives are generally written in the first person, which is, using "I." However, third person ("he," "she," or "it") can also be used. Secondly, narratives rely on concrete, sensory details to convey their point. These details should create a unified, forceful effect, a dominant impression. Thirdly, narratives, as stories, should include these story conventions: a plot, including setting and characters; a climax; and an ending.

In this stage, writers first need to select an incident worthy of writing about and, second, to find relevance in that incident. To do this, writers might ask themselves what about the incident provided new insights or awareness. Finally, writers must dredge up details which will make the incident real for readers.

IV.       Writing Short Story: a Narrative Approach in Fiction

A short story is as narrative mode, it involves some elements of short story. In writing short story, the writer uses elements of story to build the interesting and exciting story. As a fiction, the short story told by the writers based on their experiences and imaginations.

The writers of fiction communicate meaning on many levels and use a variety of techniques and styles. Some write fiction in compressed and polished prose that is close to poetry; some tell stories mainly through dialogue; others through description or action.

Fiction is primarily creative, using events, characters and situations invented by the author/writer. The writer of fictions should focus on the basic elements of fiction especially short story. According to Marning and O’Neill (1999) the elements of short story that must be involved by the writers in their writing are: plot, character, setting, point of view and theme.

1. Plot

Plot is storyline. In plot the author/writer arranges events to develop his basic idea; it is the sequence of events in a story. The plot is a planned, logical series of events having a beginning, middle, and ending. The plot covers essential part of plot: introduction, rising action, conflict, climax, falling action and denouement/conclusion. Short story plot is simple plot (Hamiddin, 2007).

2. Character.

Character is person in a work of fiction or characteristics of person. Generally, short story uses few characters. One character is clearly central to the story with all major events having some importance to this character, it is called protagonist or main character and the opposer of the main character is called Antagonist (Marning & O’Neill, 1999).

3. Setting

Setting in fiction is the time and location in which the story takes place. Setting in short story generally divided into three parts: setting of time, setting of place, and setting of mood/situation of the characters and society in a story (Hamiddin, 2007).

4. Point of View

For which the story is told is called as point of view. The point of view covers first person point of view that uses “I”, “We” and third person point of view that uses “she”, “he”, “it” (Hamiddin, 2007).

5. Theme

Theme is main idea of the story or message or lesson that implied. Commonly, the theme showed by dialogue, characteristics of the characters, and so on.

V.          Practice Writing Short Story in the Real Classroom

Practical activities in the classroom aim at getting the goal of teaching. To practice writing a short story, the teacher should do some activities how to write a good fiction especially short story. The following steps must be considered by the teacher in his/her classroom activities.

a.      Prewriting Techniques

Pre writing techniques conduct in the classroom to stimulate the students’ interest in writing subject. This activity is to know the preliminary students’ achievement of writing. In this step, the teacher may use free writing techniques to write a story. In free writing, the teacher may give unfocused and focused free writing. Based on Abisamra’s writing (2001), unfocused free-writing can help you clear your mind so you are ready to concentrate on the task at hand, and focused free-writing can help you come up with ideas on your topic.

Unfocused free-writing is very easy. The teacher commands the students to write a story based on their willing. The students have to write everything on piece of paper and begin writing whatever comes to their mind. In this activity, the teacher let their students to be free in expressing their story’s idea by avoiding the punctuations, capitalization, coherences, and so on.

Focused free-writing is similar with unfocused free-writing. In this stage, the teachers ask the students to choose a topic of short story and students write about anything. In focused free-writing, the students should stay focused on the topic they are to write about. Write down everything that comes to mind on the topic, without stopping to consider whether an idea is worthwhile.  Just keep writing. 

In focused and unfocused free-writing, the teacher gives time to the students, at least 15 minutes, to complete their writing. After the students finishing their story, the teachers ask to the students to check their work and give chance the students to correct, delete some points that the students want to do.

b.      Choosing a topic of a short story

In choosing a topic of a short story, the teacher gives some topics to the students and the students must choose one of those topics. The topic must be familiar for the students and logic. Some examples of topics of story that can be given to the students are: love, family, school, etc.

c.       Developing a plot

After choosing a topic, the students ask to develop a plot; a series of events which will be expanded in the story. In developing a plot, the teacher decides events that will happen in a story. For examples, the topic is about love. The event 1: character A is a girl in which the girl character is beautiful, smart, has idea to be a teacher, but she is from poor family. The event 2: she continues her study in a university by scholarship. The event 3: Character B and C are boys; the boys are close-friend of character A. The boy B is poor man, smart and simple. The boy C is rich man, smart and glamour. Event 4: Both of Boys fall in love to the character A, and they express their love to the girl and the girl must choose one of them. Event 5: The girl is confused in choosing one of them, she do not want to hurt one of them. The girl does not want to break their friendship. She likes them as friendship and but she also has strong love to character B. Event 6: conflict of them happen when the girl chooses one of them. Event 7: the conflict must be resolved by the characters A, B, and C.

In the end of the story, the students must end this story by themselves. The teachers let the students to resolve the problem of the story and how the students make an ending of the story.

In the example of plot above, conflict between characters (event 5, 6, and 7) constitutes climax of the story. A story needs conflict to be started, developed, built up and resolved in some ways. According to Manning and O’Neill (199) without conflict, a story is just a set of related events that may leave the reader wondering something is actually going to happen.

d.      Developing a theme

When the students start to write a short story, the writer decides a theme in mind or later what theme is emerging. The developing a theme in a story, it implies through characters’ behavior and speech. Do not miss a theme in a story, because theme is very important thing. Related to how develop a theme in a story, the students must list characters and possible events to covers that theme. For example: love is blind, friendship is better than love, etc. Here, the teacher asks the students to list some theme that they can involve in their story.

e.       Writing a setting

Setting is a part of story. The teacher may ask the students to write a setting of time, place to make the story life within the story. Setting is to describe when and how the story takes place. Let the students to decide a setting in their story.

f.        Characterization/giving characteristic of the character

To make interesting in a story, the teacher asks their students to give characteristics of the characters in a story. For example: character A is a girl, beautiful, smart, self-protection, and poor. Character B is a boy, single parent (mother), poor, simple, etc. Giving characteristics to the characters of the story (characterization) is to make the story real/life in the story. Characterization is a way of communication between the reader and the writer/author/writer.

g.      Editing

In the end of writing a short story, the teacher asks their students to correct, add, or delete some parts that are not important in that story. Editing part is conducted after the students finish their story. In editing process, the teacher has important role, because students sometimes do not know how to correct their story, so, the teacher demanded to be master in writing story and editing their student story.

All of activities above are practical ideas of narrative-based writing in writing a short story. This practice can be modified by the teachers depend on their students’ condition and character. This activity can be applied in literature classroom in university level.

CONCLUSION

Narrative approach is basic approach in writing essays. This approach close related to tell a story. In the literature classroom, narrative approach is very helpful for students in writing a short story. The teacher of literature may apply this approach to improve their students’ ability in writing a short story. This approach can be applied step by step. The teacher can start from a sentence, paragraph, and a story.

REFERENCES

Abisamra, Nada Salem. 2001. Teaching Writing: Approaches & Activities. http://www.nadaisland.com/writing. online (accessed on 5 December 2008).

De-Silva, Nishadi and Henderson, Peter. 2007. Narrative-Based Writing for Coherent Technical Documents. United Kingdom: University of Southampton. www.rochester.edu/warner/faculty/curry/pdf/TAW Chap2.pdf. Online (accessed on 25 December 2008).

Hamiddin. 2007. Introduction to Literature: Student’s Handbook. FKIP UNISMA. Unpublished.

Manning, Mary & O’Neill, Jennifer. 1999. Ways into Senior ENGLISH. Melbourne: Oxford University press.

Rosu, Anca. 2008. Teaching Writing. www.nj.devry.edu/~arosu /comp/approaches_to_teaching_writing.htm - 14k. online (accessed on 28 December 2008).