WRITING A NARRATIVE USING
QUOTATIONS AND DIFFERENT
KINDS OF SENTENCES
NARRATION
Narration is that form of writing that
reports a series of events. In simple
narrative, you record your experience
with little analysis or comment. You
need not select some remote topic,
some spectacular escape or rescue;
ordinary happenings can be made
vivid and interesting.
EXCERPT 1
We tried every adjustment of the microscope known
to man, but not once did I see anything but
blackness or the lacteal opacity. That time, I saw to
my pleasure and amazement, a variegated
constellation of flecks, specks, and dots. These I
hastily drew. The instructor, noting my activity, came
back from an adjoining desk, a smile on his lips and
his eyebrows high in hope. He looked at my cell
drawing. “What’s that?” he said. “You didn’t, you
didn’t, you didn’t!” he screamed, losing control of
his temper instantly. He bent over and squinted into
the microscope. His head snapped up. “That’s your
eye!” he shouted. “You’ve fixed the lens so that it
reflects! You’ve drawn your eye!”
EXCERPT 2
“What beautiful blossoms! What fresh and
fragrant flowers! What lovely lilies!” Mother enthuses.
The girls look up at mother with bright pleased and
happy faces.
“Take some of the lilies, Mother,” they offer.
“Take some of the lilies for our own chapel.”
“Well now,” Mothers says. “That is a sweet idea.
Don’t you think it is sweet of the girls to offer me
some of their lilies, Peping?” Mother turns to Father
brightly.
Father does not say anything.
“I’ll take three lilies, just three, only three and no
more – one from each of your trays,” Mothers says.
“Enough of this!”
Someone has suddenly spoken.
“I have had enough!” It is Father speaking.
“Enough of what, Peping?” Mother asks brightly.
“What have you had enough of?”
“I won’t have anymore of it,“ Father says.
“What would you have no more of?” Mother asks.
“Do you think it is easy to watch your child die before
your eyes?” Father demands in a voice loud and unnatural.
“Do you think it is simple to let your child die?” Father
demands again.
“O Peping,” Mother cries, her mouth a little parted as if
she is in pain, her hand that holds the lily rigid as if it is
hurting her.
Father proclaims, “Victoria did not want to die!”
Mother cries, ”O Peping, please stop,” but Father will
not stop. Father will not be consoled.
“The flowers are gone. The flowers of May are gone. I
saw that Victoria did not want to die. There was nothing I
could do. There was nothing one could do,” Father says
helplessly.
His grief has found utterance at last. It is terrible and
deep. It is as terrible as the naked terror stark in Mother’s
eyes and deep as the new knowledge and first and final and
only wisdom that we have just now begun to share. So this is
death. So this is what it means to die. And for the first time
since she died and we buried her, we learn to accept the fact
of Victoria’s death finally. We know at last that Victoria is
dead – really and truly dead.
PUNCTUATION OF DIRECT QUOTATIONS
1. In a dialogue, the first word of the quotation is
capitalized.
2. The speaker’s words are set off from the rest of
the sentence.
3. When the end of the quotation is also the end of
the sentence, the period falls inside the quotation
marks.
4. If the quoted words are a question or an
exclamation, the question mark or the
exclamation point falls inside the quotation
marks.
5. If the entire sentence is a question or an exclamation,
the question mark or the exclamation point falls outside the
quotation marks.
Example: Did Father say “Enough of this”?
6. Both parts of a divided quotation are enclosed in
quotation marks. The first word of the second part is not
capitalized unless it begins a new sentence.
Example: “His grief,” the narrator said, “has found utterance.”
7. In dialogues, a new paragraph and a new set of
quotation marks show a change in speaker.
8. Single quotation marks are used to enclose a quotation
within a quotation.
Example: The narrator said, “Someone has suddenly
spoken, ‘Enough of this.’”
