Dialogue writing in a Narrative Essay

English essay writing comprises numerous types of compositions that vary greatly in terms of the purpose of writing, composition style, and background information. Likewise, when someone talks about a narrative essay, the brief description that comes to almost all writers’ minds is to tell a short story. Additionally, a narrative essay can adopt a personal, anecdotal, and experiential tone. The diversity in composition style of such essays offers a great opportunity for students to showcase their creative writing abilities in the most appealing manner. Dialogues are important parts of narrative writing, especially when personal narratives are concerned. It helps writers in bringing life to a story. In such essays, a story moves forward as the exchange of dialogues takes place between different characters of a story. Thus, this article will primarily focus on the most useful dialogue writing tips that can help a writer sketch a clear picture of a scenario to be discussed in a narrative essay.

1. All dialogues should stay on the topic:

Students who are not well-familiar with dialogue writing practices include dialogues in writing that seem irrelevant to the context of an essay. This is the biggest mistake that decreases the overall quality of an essay, including dialogues. No doubt, dialogues in a conversation between different friends include many points that apparently lack any connection with the original topic of interest. However, the same is considered wrong in writing dialogues in the narrative type of essay. In fact, a reader never sits to read unnecessary detail; rather, he/she will only stay connected to your composition if it seems informational and directional. Thus, the dialogues must also discuss all points highly relevant to the topic of interest. If there is no relevancy, then cheap essay writing services can be hired to write dialogues according to the topic.

2. Write dialogues using a direct speech manner:

Mostly, academic essays of narrative style are written to share a lived experience with readers or to tell people how a certain incident can affect someone’s life. In either case, dialogues help in describing events in as clear a manner as possible. It helps readers distinguish between right and wrong by establishing a conversation between two or more characters involved in a story. Thus, to serve the purpose, the use of dialogues in a ‘direct speech’ format is the best tip. That is why almost all good writers always use direct speech so the reader can understand who is speaking and to whom a dialogue originally belongs. For example, suppose you want to write that an event seems most controversial to Sam. In that case, you can use two types of sentences 1) Sam said that he considered the event one of the most controversial, and 2) Sam said: “That incident was one of the most controversial events”. The one enclosed in the quotation marks refers that Sam used exactly the same words to describe an event and can better grasp the reader’s attention.

3. Avoid long speeches:

The clarity in essay writing establishes when a reader gets aware of an author’s statement without consulting any external aid. Many writers confuse readers by adding additional points without ending the previous one. The clarity of your essay will also be at risk if you start injecting opinions between dialogues. Inconsistency in writing style or too-long speeches is also important to avoid if you really strive for clarity in a narrative essay using dialogues. To avoid long speeches, you can break a long dialogue into two or smaller dialogues by using phrases like ‘he added. Short speeches are easy to understand, even for non-native English readers. Remember, the more reader-friendly you write; the more successful your essay will be.

4. Never commit any grammatical mistake:

Suppose you are writing a narrative essay to share your success story as a physician who invented a treatment for sleeping sickness for the first time. The story must contain you, your colleagues, assistants, patients, and other paramedical staff as characters of a story. The dialogues between these characters help readers know how a story progresses. It is optional to use either direct or indirect speech format. However, in either case, the use of grammatically correct sentences must be the priority of a writer. Suppose you have chosen a direct speech format and the sentence enclosed in the quotation marks is grammatically incorrect. Is it still remaining impactful? Of course, not. The moment a reader locates a grammatical error, he/she starts losing interest in your manuscript. Thus, writing grammatically correct sentences is one of the fundamental rules of writing dialogues, no matter where you want to add them.

5. Use dialogues to increase the suspense between dialogues:

Dialogues can include space for suspense and help hook your readers. What comes next? How did the past event or previously described events influence the future of the main character? Questions like these, if raised in a reader’s mind by creating suspense in a story, help them get emotionally indulged and stay connected. Additionally, including dialogues in a story does not mean dumping a whole conversation into the context. For example, dialogues like ‘Hey, how are you? Where were you lost over the past few days? And Have you taken breakfast today? are not seem information to the reader; thus, a narrative writer must skip such dialogues in an essay.

While including suspense in a narrative essay, remember that a shy demeanour cannot be suddenly turned into a bold character. In a personal narrative essay, the writer can create suspense by describing who is the helping hand, who is the protagonist, who is confident, and who is the antagonist.

Bottom lines:

The use of dialogue in writing a narrative essay is no doubt a wonderful idea. Writers and readers both get several benefits from following the practice. Dialogues are extremely important for sketching the actual scenario. It is the best way to increase the clarity of content and make an essay reader-friendly. However, the whole scenario may be reversed if proper dialogue writing practices are not followed. The article has provided five best tips, so even a newbie writer can best take advantage of using dialogues in an essay of narrative type. Additionally, to take your essays to the next level, you must also follow a few formatting guidelines for essays, including dialogues.