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Narrative Voice

The narrative voice is the tone of the piece. The narrative voice might come from a character or from an omniscient narrator. You should focus on the language devices the narrator uses to assess their tone.

First or third person

First or third person

  • A first-person narrator will offer their own personal interpretation of events. A reader is likely to see the world through the narrator's eyes. First-person narrators will use phrases like 'I ran', 'I thought' and 'I saw'.
  • A third-person narrator will either follow a key character or tell events from a neutral perspective that knows about all the events happening in different places in the story. A third-person narrator tells the story rather than being part of the story.
Reading a narrator's tone

Reading a narrator's tone

  • You should study the language devices used by the narrator to assess their tone and how to interpret the characters in the story.
  • For example:
    • If the narrator uses negative adjectives to describe a character in the story, they probably have a bad opinion of that character. This suggests we are not supposed to like this character.
    • If the narrator uses a sarcastic tone to describe a character, they probably do not take the character seriously. This suggests we should not take the character seriously either.
Jump to other topics
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Key Terms

2

Language Devices

3

Writing Structure

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Section B: Reading & Writing

5

Section C: Writing

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