By Staff Writer | Last Updated August 4, 2015
Some examples of narrative text are novels, short stories, news stories, memoirs and biographies. Narrative text encompasses both fiction and non-fiction, and it includes any form of writing that communicates a series of events. It can be used to entertain, inform or persuade a reader to either accept or reject a premise or idea.
Narrative text can help a reader to develop a better sense of analysis and a greater understanding of human relationships. Novels, memoirs and biographies often illustrate universal themes and complex issues that lead to an increased awareness of how individuals, groups and cultures interact.
Because of its internal time sequence, narrative text can be considered distinct from other forms of text. It describes events unfolding over time. The concept of temporal narrative is believed to be an innate method of comprehension that predates linguistics and writing. Psychologists Roger Shank and Robert Abelson have put forth the assertion that “all knowledge is encoded as stories.”
Reading comprehension plays an important role in elementary education, and students benefit from a clear understanding of the differences between narrative text and informational text. Other than history text books and literature studies, students are required to learn from informational and descriptive texts that contain little narrative content. One of the primary tasks of elementary education is to enable students to become proficient in their effective comprehension of both the informational and narrative forms of text that they will encounter in their day-to-day and future professional lives.
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