Narrative Topic Sentences Activity
For each example, highlight the subject of the topic sentence and the claim of the topic sentence.
My trip to New Orleans taught me the value of trying new things.
When I first set foot at Disneyland, I knew that I wanted to work there someday.
My first day at work showed me just how important it is to be a quick learner.
Narrative Paragraph Examples
The day I found out my dog died, I truly learned how painful grief can be. It was a Tuesday afternoon when I got the news. I had just been dropped off after school, and I burst through the front door, ran to the kitchen, and swung open the fridge. As I grabbed an orange from the fruit drawer, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around to find my mom standing in the kitchen with tears running down her face. I asked her what had happened and she quietly said that Fido had died. All of a sudden, it felt like my heart sank to the floor. I set the orange down before breaking into tears. My mom tried to comfort me, but nothing she could say could take away the stabbing sensation that ripped through my heart. My lungs felt tight and my head throbbed. The sadness had taken over my whole body. I had never known before that moment that grief could be so strong that it could be physically painful.
Confronting my boss after I was wrongly blamed for stealing was one of the most difficult things I had ever had to do. Before he came to talk to me, it was a normal Saturday. I had finished counting out my drawer and was mopping up the kitchen so that the cooks could finish their other cleaning and go home. As I was putting the mop back on the wall, he tapped me on the back and said “Your drawer is short almost $100. That’s a lot of money, and I can’t imagine that it was an accident. I’m going to write you up, and district may have more to say about it.” I was stunned. My throat began to close up, and I couldn’t think of anything to say. “I didn’t steal!” I finally said. “I don’t know what to think,” replied my boss. He started to walk away, when I finally got mad. “Wait just a minute!” I yelled. He stopped walking and turned around. “I’ve been working here for two years, and I have only had a drawer shortage once. Do you really think I would throw that all away to make less than a hundred bucks?” My boss looked stunned. I felt even bolder after realizing that he was considering what I had said. “Listen, there were several people on register today who would have had the opportunity to get into my drawer if they wanted. It’s unfair that you’re blaming me with absolutely no evidence. I have always been good at my job and I thought you appreciated that.” My boss raised his eyebrows and said “I suppose I may have overreacted. I apologize. We still need to figure out where that money went, but I am not accusing you of taking it. We’ll start talking to the other employees tomorrow.” I thanked him for understanding and he went back to work. As soon as he left the room, I realized that I had been sweating. The whole incident had made my body tense up, and I was ready to go home and unwind on the couch!
David Sedaris
Letting Go
My last cigarette was smoked in a bar at Charles de Gaulle airport. It was January 3, 2007, a Wednesday morning, and though Hugh and I would be changing planes in London and had a layover of close to two hours, I thought it best to quit while I was still ahead. “All right,” I said to him, “this is it, my final one.” Six minutes later, I pulled out my pack and said the same thing. Then I did it one more time. “This is it. I mean it.” All around me, people were enjoying cigarettes: the ruddy Irish couple, the Spaniards with their glasses of beer. There were the Russians, the Italians, even some Chinese. Together we formed a foul little congress: the United Tarnations, the Fellowship of the Smoke Ring. These were my people, and now I would be betraying them, turning my back just when they needed me most. Though I wish it were otherwise, I’m actually a very intolerant person. When I see a drunk or a drug addict begging for money, I don’t think, There but for the grace of God go I, but, rather, I quit, and so can you. Now get that cup of nickels out of my face.
It’s one thing to give up smoking, and another to become a former smoker. That’s what I would be the moment I left the bar, and so I lingered awhile, looking at my garish disposable lighter and the crudded-up aluminum ashtray. When I eventually got up to leave, Hugh pointed out that I had five cigarettes left in my pack.
“Are you just going to leave them there on the table?”
I answered with a line I’d got years ago from a German woman. Her name was TiniHaffmans, and though she often apologized for the state of her English, I wouldn’t have wanted it to be any better. When it came to verb conjugation, she was beyond reproach, but every so often she’d get a word wrong. The effect was not a loss of meaning but a heightening of it. I once asked if her neighbor smoked, and she thought for a moment before saying, “Karl has . . . finished with his smoking.” She meant, of course, that he had quit, but I much preferred her mistaken version. “Finished” made it sound as if he’d been allotted a certain number of cigarettes, three hundred thousand, say, delivered at the time of his birth. If he’d started a year later or smoked more slowly, he might still be at it, but, as it stood, he had worked his way to the last one, and then moved on with his life. This, I thought, was how I would look at it. Yes, there were five more KoolMilds in that particular pack, and twenty-six cartons stashed away at home, but those were extra—an accounting error. In terms of my smoking, I had just finished with it.
Highlighter Key:
Topic Sentence
Anecdote/Narrative
Analysis
Paragraph 1
Many students today don’t make good use of their time. One student in my History 100 class is a perfect example of this. One day, we had a big test, and he showed up late for class, wearing sweat pants and looking tired. It was obvious that he didn’t get much sleep. He sat next to me and I could see throughout the test that he was struggling to stay awake; he was slumped over his chair, and he kept nodding off. By the end of the two hour class, he had fallen asleep, and when the teacher finally said “pencils down,” he snapped awake and started crying. As I walked out of class, I could hear him crying and telling the teacher that he had stayed up all night studying. This is a perfect example of a student who doesn’t understand how to make good use of his time. We had known about this test for weeks, yet he waited until the night before to start studying. Unfortunately, there are many other students like this one, and his failure is a common one.
Highlighter Key:
Topic Sentence
Anecdote/Narrative
Analysis
Paragraph 2
My cousin’s kindness isn’t something she saves just for her family; she is kind to people she has never met, as well. A perfect example of this is her reaction to a homeless man at the airport. We arrived at LAX at six in the morning; our flight to New York was at seven fifteen, and we were hungry and worried about being late. We carried a bag of breakfast sandwiches with us as we parked the car, grabbed our luggage, and then started to walk briskly toward the shuttle. I was ready to eat my sandwich at the shuttle stop, when I suddenly hear my cousin’s voice saying “would you like an egg sandwich?” I turn to look at her and she was handing her breakfast off to a homeless man who had been resting on the side of the shuttle stop. He said nothing and accepted the sandwich, looking hungry and grateful. Meanwhile, my cousin didn’t get a chance to eat until we were about to board the flight, but she never said a word. This is just one small example of the compassion and kindness she shows to strangers, even in her own times of discomfort and need.