Difference between narrative and discriptive

[Mod]

what is the difference between a narrative and discriptive

[Kitosdad]

Effective description creates a dominant impression, a mood, or an atmosphere that reinforces a writer's central purpose. While narrative tends to naturally include some description, and many descriptive pieces rely on narratives as anecdotes, illustrations, support for ideas, narrative presents action.

Jonathan Raban's "Land of Cockaigne" traced the writer's trajectory through the Florida Keys, but the narrative acted as an organizing thread that enabled Raban to mull over the Keys' topography, history, and resident characters, charlatans, and drug runners. Similarly, Oliver Sacks' "The Last Hippie," used Greg's case history to reflect on Greg's mental defecits to arrive at conclusions about the role of the frontal lobe in human cognition and behaviour.

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[Skrej]

Description gives you details.

Narrative tells the story.

The narrative is done by a character, and may give you a description, but not always.
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[Alan]

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Hi Mod,

I think first you have to make a comparison between two similar types of words. Narrative and description are the two nouns.

'Narrative' is a story and 'description' is an account in detail of something. A novel can be an exciting narrative. An account of what a building looks like can be a detailed description.

There there are the two adjectives: narrative (the same spelling as the noun) and descriptive. We can apply both these adjectives to the noun 'poetry' (poems). We can say 'narrative poetry' and mean poetry that tells a story. We can also say 'descriptive poetry' that gives a detailed account of things.

Alan
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