Story Telling

Story Telling

Telling stories about yourself is a good way to practice expressing yourself in another language. It helps you to familiarize yourself with the words that you use in your native language, and their equivalent in English. People tend to tell the same stories over and over again, so it naturally gives you practice, by being able to repeat the story. Here are some examples of types of stories you might tell.

• Talking about an outing with your friends (dinner, hiking, the theatre, etc.)
• A story from a hard day at work, or a funny day at work
• Expressing how horrible or how awesome an ex-boyfriend/girlfriend was
• Telling someone about an awesome vacation you had, or just part of it.

Stories are told from beginning to end, like a film. However, you need words that will help you transition from one part of the story to the next, to show the order in which things happened. These words are known as linking words, and you should be familiar with most of them already.

Beginning:
Firstly,
First of all,
To start off with,
Initially,

Sidenote: You can also begin with when the story took place.
Example: Yesterday, Last week, This morning, About a year ago, When I was,

Examples:
Firstly, I began my day by going to the Art Museum.
First of all, I was at the bank in a long, long line.
To start off with, it was raining all day long, and we had forgotten our umbrellas.
When I was living in Spain during my internship, I met a lot of cool people.

Continuing:
Then,
After that,
Next,
As soon as / When + full clause,
... but then
Immediately,

Sidenote: The order in which you choose to use these words is entirely up to you. They are also optional. However, they help a story progress. Then is probably the most regularly used, and it is often used repeatedly.

Examples:
Then, we had desert, and the waiter brought us free Champagne.
After that, I decided I would never date an American guy again!
Next, they decided to go skiing and I decided to drink hot chocolate in the lodge.
As soon as the train arrived, we realized we were on the wrong platform.
When I got to the ticket window, I couldn't find my wallet.
We thought we had enough gas to make it to the station, but then the car stopped.
Immediately, I came here to tell you about it.

Interruptions / New Elements to the Story:
Suddenly,
Unexpectedly,

Examples:
Suddenly, this guy came stumbling down the street, completely drunk.
Unexpectedly, they surprised me on my birthday.

Events Occurring at the Same Time
While / As + full clause
During + noun (noun clause)

Examples:
While I was checking in to the hotel, my friends were buying groceries for the room.
During the meeting, I was so bored, I mainly sat and drew pictures of my boss.

Ending:
Finally,
In the end,
Eventually,
Lastly,
Examples:
Finally, I ended up going to my family dinner anyway.
In the end, the flight was cancelled and we couldn't go on our trip.
Eventually, the parade stopped and everyone went home.
Lastly, it was decided to extend the trip by one more day.

Providing Reasoning

In addition to telling a story in a certain order, at times you will want to provide reasoning. Here are some examples of other words to use besides because to explain Why something happened.

Punctuation
When an adverb clause begins the sentence use a comma to separate the two clauses. Example: Because he had to work late, we had dinner after nine o'clock.. When the adverb clause finishes the sentence there is no need for a comma.
Example: We had dinner after nine o'clock because he had to work late.

Because
• They received a high mark on their exam because they had studied hard.
• He works a lot of overtime because his rent is so expensive
Because can be used with a variety of tenses between the clauses.

Since
• Since he loves music so much, he decided to go to a conservatory.
• They had to leave early since their train left at 8.30.
'Since' means the same as because. 'Since' tends to be used in more informal spoken English. Important note: "Since" when used as a conjunction is typically used to refer to a period of time, while "because" implies a cause or reason.

As long as
• As long as you have the time, why don't you come for dinner?
'As long as' means the same as because. 'As long as' tends to be used in more informal spoken English.

As
• As the test is difficult, you had better get some sleep.
'As' means the same as because. 'As' tends to be used in more formal, written English.
Inasamuch as
• Inasmuch as the students had succesfully completed their exams, their parents rewarded their efforts by giving them a trip to Paris.
'Inasmuch as' means the same as because. 'Inasmuch as' is used in very formal, written English.

Due to the fact that
• We will be staying for an extra week due to the fact that we haven not yet finished.
'Due to the fact that' means the same as because. 'Due to the fact that' is generally used in very formal, written English.

Vocabulary
Try to use a variety of words to make your story more exciting. Early on in English writing classes, we are taught to stray away from words like “nice” and “bad”, because they are not very descriptive. They are generic and tend to be over used. Try to use interesting and more powerful words, like, “fabulous”, “beautiful”, “amazing”, “terrible”, “boring”, “awful” to help you exaggerate the main points of your story.

Practice
Now I would like you to put into practice what we have discussed. I would like you to take 15 minutes to prepare a story to read to your fellow classmates. Please write 15 to 20 sentences minimum, or as much as you would like. The focus of this activity, as with all, is practicing your verbal speech. If you finish, please practice reciting it with another classmate.