5: Narrative Writing- Using the Simple Past

The following paragraph tells a story that happened in the past. Such a paragraph is called narrative writing. Narrative writing tells a story in detail.

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Lessons from a Fire

In 2001, something difficult happened to me, and I learned many lessons from it. While I was in St. Louis at a conference, I got a phone call from my landlady. She told me that there was a fire in my apartment building in Ypsilanti. Everything was damaged, but nobody was hurt. I was shocked by this news. A few hours later, someone from my church called to tell me that a close friend had just died. I knew I had to go home, see my burned home, and attend a very sad funeral. I usually don’t talk to people on airplanes, but on the flight home, I told the woman sitting next to me about my bad news. Indeed, when I got home, my apartment was blackened with smoke damage. I stayed with a friend of mine and borrowed some clothes. The next day, I went to the funeral and mourned with my friends. At my church, I found six or seven bags of things that someone left for me: dishes, canned food, towels, clothes, and even some gift cards. In one of the cards, it said, “Good luck! Michelle.” I thought these gifts were from my friends, but I didn’t have any friends named Michelle. Then I realized who it was from. All of the stuff was from the woman on the airplane. This hard time taught me how good people can be, and how important it is to be generous to strangers at just the right time.

Practice 5A

Read the paragraph “Lessons from a Fire” and follow these instructions. Discuss your answers with a partner.

1. Look at the topic sentence. What is the topic and opinion/feeling?
2. Now look at the conclusion sentence. How are they similar? How are they different?
3. Underline all of the simple past verbs in the paragraph.
4. Circle the commas. How many commas are used because of the words “but” and “and”? Why are the other commas used?

The simple past verb tense is used to write about events that happened in the past and are complete. Simple past is an easy choice when the time of the event is given by some time expression. Here are some examples of past time expressions:

in [2012] yesterday [two years, three months, a long time] ago this morning

in [May] on [May 19, 2012] last [night, week, month, year] When I [was a child]…

Regular verbs take an –ed ending to form the past tense. The spelling rules depend on the spelling and syllable stress of the verb.

1. Most regular verbs simply take –ed.

Examples: She worked. He turned left.

2. Verbs that end with e simply add –d.

Examples: We danced. We lived.

3. Verbs that end with a vowel (V) + y, just add –ed. Verbs that end with consonant (C) + y, drop the y and add ied.

Examples: They enjoyed the party. She carried the suitcase.

4. For one-syllable verbs that end V C, double the consonant. For one-syllable verbs that end with V C V, don’t double the consonant.

VC VCV

stop hope

We stopped for gas. They hoped to get a green card.

5. For two-syllable verbs that end with VC, double the consonant if the stress is on the second syllable. Do not double the consonant if the stress is on the first syllable.

VC (stress second syllable) VC (stress first syllable)

conTROL LISten

My boss controlled me. I listened to my boss.

Practice 5B

Write the simple past verbs in the blanks. Use the correct spelling.

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1. We (move) last year.
2. I (study) architecture.
3. Jasmin (wait) a long time for her visa.
4. They (save) a lot of money by using Craigslist.
5. She (chop) vegetables for the soup.
6. We (love) the movie that we saw last night.
7. Tom (admit) that he was in love with Beth.
8. Something scary (happen) to me in 2016.
9. Last year, I (open) a bank account at PNC Bank.
10. I (travel) a lot when I was a student.

Many verbs in English have irregular past tense forms. In the paragraph “Lessons from a Fire,” find the past tense forms of the following verbs. Write them next to the present tense forms.

PRESENT	PAST	PRESENT	PAST
am		have
is		go
are		find
get		leave
tell		say
know		think
		teach

Here are the negative forms of the simple past:

I didn’t have time to say goodbye. She / He / It didn’t work. You didn’t work. We didn’t have time to say goodbye. They didn’t have time to say goodbye.

EXCEPTION: be verb I wasn’t hungry. She / He / It wasn’t hungry. You weren’t hungry. We weren’t hungry They weren’t hungry.

Practice 5C

Rewrite the sentences using the simple past.

1. My grandma has heart surgery last winter.
2. The doctors work for three hours.
3. I visit my grandma in the hospital.
4. I take her flowers and a good book.
5. We aren’t sure how the surgery goes.
6. Five days after the surgery, Grandma leaves the hospital.
7. She makes a full recovery.
8. In fact, she has more energy after the surgery.

Practice 5D

Fill in the tense verbs in the following paragraph.

Good Bye, Yellow Kite

When I was about seven years old, my family had (1. have) an interesting hobby: flying kites. My dad _____ (2. buy) a lot of kites. Some kites _____ (3. be) cut in special shapes or had interesting pictures on them. My sister and I _____ (4. tie) long tails and ribbons on our kites. My favorite kite _____ (5. be) a secondhand yellow kite with a red tail. One very windy day, my dad _____ (6. drive) us to a park with a big hill. We all _____ (7. fly) our kites in the strong wind on the top of the hill. I _____ (8. let) out my string all the way and _____ (9. hold) on tightly. I couldn’t even see the kite! When it was time to go, I _____ (10. pull) on my string, but I just couldn’t bring that kite in. My dad _____ (11. try) to help me, but the wind just _____ (12. keep) pulling the kite, almost out of our hands. Finally, my dad _____ (13. cut) the string and let the kite go. I _____ (14. be) so upset that I _____ (15. throw) myself down on the ground and cried. My family laughs now at my strong emotions. For me as a little girl, saying goodbye to my yellow kite was a very sad experience.

Practice 5E

Tell a story to a small group. If you can’t think of something that happened to you, tell the story of a friend or family member. When you speak, pay attention to your simple past verbs.

Choose one of these, or just talk about something that you remember well.

1. something that happened that made you very happy
2. a birthday you remember well
3. the story of your journey to the U.S.
4. how you met your spouse (or how you got engaged)
5. a time you got into trouble as a child, or a time you were in trouble with the police
6. problems you had with animals
7. a great or terrible vacation
8. a time when someone helped you, or you helped someone else
9. a time when a major political event touched your life
10. a time when a natural disaster touched your life

TO THE LISTENERS: Write down the past tense verbs that you hear during the story. Write at least five of the verbs that they use.

In Unit 1, we learned that normal English word order in sentences is:

S	V	O	P	T
subject	verb	object	place	time
Mike	bought	his first car	in Michigan	last year.

In narrative paragraphs, the “T,” or time expressions, are often used as a transition words in the paragraph. That is, they are at the front of the sentence to show the chronological order, or time order, of the story. When the time expression is at the beginning of the sentence, a comma separates it from the S V O in the sentence. Note these examples from “Lessons from a Fire”:

In 2001, something difficult happened to me, and I learned many lessons from it. While I was in St. Louis at a conference, I got a phone call from my landlady. […] A few hours later, someone from my church called to tell me that a close friend had just died. […] The next day, I went to the funeral and mourned with my friends. […]

Prepositions are often used to express place and time. Here are some examples. What’s the rule? Discuss with your classmates and instructor.

PLACE

Examples	Rule/Pattern
My friend lives in this apartment building. Helen spends a lot of time in her room.	in +
I can’t talk right now. I’m at work. We arrived at the airport, but our suitcase didn’t. I enjoy studying at coffee shops. The barber shop is at 408 Main Street.	at +
The barber shop in on Main Street. The computer lab is on the second floor of the GM building. Please don’t sing on the elevator.	on +

TIME

Examples	Rule/Pattern
Jose moved in June. I’m going to start taking photography classes in the winter. My daughter was born in 2009. He always drinks coffee in the morning.	in +
Class begins at 11:00. She loves to read at night.	at +
My interview is on Tuesday. My daughter was born on May 8, 2009. On New Year’s Eve, we set off fireworks.	on +

Practice 5F

Add the correct prepositions. Add commas where necessary.

1. My flight arrived 4:00 PM December 28, 2009.
2. night eight inches of snow fell.
3. I was surprised when I woke up the morning.
4. January it snowed more than six inches every week.
5. Finally the flowers started blooming the end of April.
6. When spring came we spent almost every evening the park.

So far, we have been looking at simple sentences with our S V O word order patterns. A compound sentence is slightly longer. It is made up of two simple sentences connected with a coordinating conjunction. The seven coordinating conjunctions are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so (known by the acronym: FANBOYS). The function of the conjunction is to determine the relationship between the two simple sentences.

Note

Note that the most common coordinating conjunctions used in writing are and, but, and so.

Conjunction	Meaning/Use	Example
For:	In this situation, it means because. (formal, not common)	He dropped the class, for he was too busy.
And:	And is used to show addition. It’s like a “+” sign in the middle of the sentence. (VERY COMMON)	Our friends came over for dinner, and we enjoyed our time together.
Nor:	Nor connects two negative facts. The word order is unusual. (formal, not common)	My boss didn’t take New Year’s Day off, nor did he take a vacation this year.
But:	This is used to show contrast or to show unexpected result. (VERY COMMON)	My sister loves to shop, but I hate shopping. It was raining, but we didn’t cancel the picnic.
Or:	This is used to show two choices. (not common)	Passengers can get a cabin with a view, or they can choose a big inside cabin.
Yet:	This use is similar to but, used for unexpected result. Yet is a little stronger and more formal. (not common)	Tim is very quiet, yet he has many friends.
So:	So is used to show a logical result. (VERY COMMON)	It was raining, so we canceled the picnic.

Practice 5G

Below are compound sentences that contain two simple sentences.

• Find and label the S V O.
• Circle the coordinating conjunction.

Then add three of your own sentences using three different coordinating conjunctions.

1. Pamela bought some new dishes, and she gave her old ones to Jill.
2. Karen and Greg went to Tennessee last week, so they didn’t go to the party.
3. Frank has a new job, but he misses his old one.
4. Jack made dinner for Jill last night, but she couldn’t eat it.
5. Kacie is getting married, so she has a lot to do.
6. __________________________________________________________________________________
7. __________________________________________________________________________________
8. __________________________________________________________________________________

Practice 5H

Put the pairs of sentences together using a logical coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS). Remember that if you join two sentences together using a coordinating conjunction, you must use a comma (,) in between them. Use both complete sentences to maintain the writer’s original meaning. Use pronouns when possible.

1. Mary doesn’t drink coffee. Mary doesn’t drink beer. Mary doesn’t drink coffee, and she doesn’t drink beer.
2. Ali’s team won first place in the district. Ali’s team might win the state finals.
3. Kris likes volleyball. Kris doesn’t like bowling.
4. Ben is looking for a new job. Ben knows his company is moving out of the state.
5. Would you like to go out for dinner? Would you like to stay home and cook?
6. I have been saving my money for two years. Now I can buy a new car.
7. Mike has been learning Spanish for seven years. Mike has never visited a Spanish-speaking country.
8. Filling out applications is important. You must also call store managers.
9. Many students like ESL grammar classes. Many students do not like ESL writing classes.
10. Jennifer doesn’t like her new job. Jennifer doesn’t want to go back to her old job.
11. Felipe doesn’t like his job. Felipe knows he must keep his job.
12. We have a preposition quiz tomorrow. We had better study.
13. We can get the car fixed. We can buy a new car.
14. Sandy takes night classes during the week. Sandy works at Bagel Barn on weekends.

Practice 5I

Below are compound sentences that contain TWO clauses. Find the S V O and label them.

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1. Jack has a dog, and it had puppies.
2. Jena is a pre-school teacher, so she needs a lot of patience.
3. Tom is going to buy a new motorcycle because his other one needs too much work.
4. Although Brian lives in Iowa, he still visits his family every weekend.
5. Kelly is going to quit her job when she has a baby.
6. David will take you to the airport if you need a ride.
7. Larry asked Melanie if she wanted to go to the parade.
8. I have a lot of homework, but I have no time to do it.
9. Juan has a full-time job, so he can only take two classes per semester.

Practice 5J

Choose ONE of the topics below for your narrative paragraph.

1. Write the story of something that happened to you in a paragraph. It can be something sad, happy, frightening, funny, important, difficult, or embarrassing. Use the pre-writing (speaking) activity from Practice 5E if you need more ideas.
2. Write a narrative paragraph called “My Best Day.” Write a true story about the best day of your life.
3. Write a narrative paragraph called “A Time I was Afraid.” Write a true story about a time that you were afraid.

Your instructor will let you know when to submit the rough draft and final draft. When you finish your rough draft, look back at the ways to create compound sentences using

• and
• but
• so

Read your paragraph one more time. Did you use and, but, or so? Did you use them correctly?

Do you have a lot of short sentences? Can you combine a few of them using and, but, or so?

Practice 5K

Help the writers with their simple past verbs. Add the be verb where necessary.

1. I had an accident. There is no major damage to the car.
2. It was a long flight. I try to find something to do, but it still boring and I couldn’t sleep.
3. I didn’t asked him, “How are you?”
4. That’s when I toled her what hapen.
5. I make my way to Italy across the sea, but because of a heavy storm, I end up in Malta instead of Italy.

In Unit 2, we practiced writing in the simple present to summarize. The narrative present (simple present) is used to write a summary of a fictional story. However, if you are writing a summary of a nonfiction text that informs about history, use past tenses. Examples of nonfiction articles about history are biographies and true stories about historical events.

The following passage is from “Daily Life in Ancient China: Social Class, Clothing, and Adornments” by Emily Mark. Read the text. Then read the summary that follows.

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During the period known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907-960 CE) the practice of foot binding began. It probably started earlier but became a custom after the reign of the emperor Li Yu (937-978 CE) who had his consort Yia Niang bind her feet to resemble a crescent moon and perform a special dance for guests at one of his parties. Li Yu had erected a large golden statue of a lotus flower in his garden, and Yia Niang's dance was to honor its unveiling. Her dance was so beautiful it made the other women there want feet as tiny and graceful as Yia Niang's were, and soon the idea developed that a beautiful woman should have tiny feet.

Girls as young as toddlers would have their feet wrapped in bandages so tightly it broke their toes and curled them under the foot. Girls had to walk around stepping on their own toes and were in constant pain for years until they grew used to it. Although this practice started among the upper classes, it soon became common for all women in China. This made working in the rice fields or doing any kind of manual labor very difficult. Women are shown in ancient paintings crawling in the rice paddies because they could not walk. Foot binding continued for centuries until it was outlawed in 1911 CE. Many women were interviewed in the late 19th early 20th centuries CE on footbinding and talked about crying from the pain for years and how it never made them feel any more beautiful.

Summary

According to “Daily Life in China: Social Class, Clothing, and Adornments,” a famous beautiful woman named Yia Niang started the practice of footbinding in the 900s. For hundreds of years, the feet of young girls were wrapped tightly to make them small and beautiful. This was very painful. Many girls cried and worked in pain. Footbinding ended in the 20th century.

Practice 5L

Find a nonfiction text about something historical in your reading textbook, or choose a book about history from the library. Write a summary of the text. Use past tense verbs when necessary.

Attributions

"Daily Life in Ancient China" by Emily Mark, Adapted by Lumen Learning is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 / A derivative from the original work

Image 1:

“Greenfield Apartment Fire” by Jay Adan is licensed via Flickr under CC BY 2.0.

Image 2:

“Architecture Students (5118908560)” by Tulane Public Relations is licensed via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY 2.0.

Image 3:

“Bsa Motorcycle Oldtimer Old Motorcycle Vehicle” by Emslichter is licensed via Pixabay under CC0 1.0.

Image 4:

“GebundenerFuss” by Ernst v. Hesse-Wartegg is licensed via Wikimedia Commons under Public Domain Mark 1.0.