I wrote this essay when I was teaching form 4 student Narrative Composition [Continuous Writing] back in 2018 [this was the time when I did my Latihan Ikhtisas]. This is based on my own story. The students were amazed that I use my own life experience to write a short narrative like this as an example that I gave them. I still remember one of them said this “Teacher, ini cerita pasal Teacher ke? Wah, Teacher pun tak suka sekolah ni ke dulu?”[Translated: Teacher, is this your story? Wow, did you also dislike this school?”]. I replied by rolling eyes while saying “Yes, like some of you, I also dislike this school but my mother requested me to stay until I finished form 5. Now, go back to read this essay again and highlight any word that you don’t understand. Later on, find the meaning of the words that you don’t understand from the dictionary”
NARRATIVE COMPOSITION
Tips and techniques
- A narrative tells a story. The main purpose of a narrative is to explain in a story telling manner.
- Know the difference between
| Question | What it means |
| i) Write a story based on
ii) Write a story beginning with …. iii) Write a story ending with …… |
Your story is about …..
You must start your composition with the line(s) given Your story ends with the line(s) given |
- Sometimes the title of the composition is an idiom or a proverb. Be sure you know its meaning before you start on the composition.
- Note the specific structure and language feature of a narrative composition.
Write a story ending with a proverb by Confucius “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop”
| My fists were clenched. Hurt and angry, I glared at my mother. She whispered softly, ‘This is the best chance for education, Dear. Behave yourself’. I did. Not because of my mother or any need for studying that I might have stayed at this school. It was the feeling that I needed to prove that I would never be the black sheep in the family that made me stayed at this school.
With three older siblings who were graduates from local and overseas universities and another one was studying at a local university doing Accountancy, I felt pressured to excel in my study too. I felt hopeless when I could not change to a different school that I wanted that has science stream classes. I hated myself for being a weakling. As the youngest in the family, many might assume that I was the baby in the family and pampered by my family. It was a far cry from the truth. I was never being pampered. In fact, I was consistently compared with my older siblings who were high achievers. Being a late bloomer, I was never academically high achiever during primary school. As I started to bloom during my adolescence, I was still struggling to get the kind of excellent grades that my parents could be proud of. Yet, deep inside my heart I knew that I could become someone that I envision myself to be, rather than someone that anyone would expect me to become. The question was how could I prove to all that I was a good student, a high achiever like my older siblings? What should I do? These questions gave me nightmares. I started to think to find ways to be a better student. But, I still did not know how to become one. One day, feeling especially sorry for myself, I huddled in a corner and refused to talk to anyone. After a while, my friends started to avoid me and treat me invisibly. A senior who saw me sulking muttered ‘Stop wallowing in self-pity’. With that, I realized that even if I did nothing to change my current situation, I was actually made a decision. I thought to myself that ‘Decision is not only being made if I do something, it is also being made if I do nothing’. Rather than doing nothing, I decided from then on to study hard and be persistent even though I might make mistakes or fail along the way to be academically high achiever. Finally, what Confucius once said made sense to me ‘It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop’. [442 words] |