Directions: Read the narrative summary below. Note each of these key pieces of information in the summary and highlight the part of the summary with the same color as for each bolded word below. (For example, "title" is green and I highlighted the title in the first sentence green.)
The title of the story
The author
The setting (time and place)
The conflict
The key events
The resolution
The theme
Model Narrative Summary
The story “A Good Neighbor Is Hard to Find” by Whitney Terrell, a writer and
assistant professor of creative writing at UMKC, illustrates how a black teenage
boy from a poor family in Kansas City, Missouri gained economic mobility in the
late-twentieth century. The story began with the curiosity of Terrell, a white man,
about his new neighbor, Terry, a black teen. That day was the first formal meeting
with Terry since they became neighbors. After a short conversation, Jackie Eason,
probably Terry’s grandmother, came and warned her grandson to stay away from
Terrell. In spite of the warning, in time, the interaction between Terrell and Terry
became more frequent. In one conversation, Terrell warned Terry not to get his
girlfriend pregnant because he was talented and could have a bright future. With
Jackie’s permissions, Terrell took Terry to visit KU in hopes of helping him get a
college education. Terrell was excited while Terry was nervous during the trip
because almost everyone he saw was white and looked wealthy. KU offered Terry
an academic scholarship. He went; however, after the first semester, he dropped
out because, even with the scholarship, he couldn’t afford school. Instead of
returning to his poor neighborhood in KC, he decided to join the Air Force. Years
later, Terry was living in Washington, D.C. He had become a successful member
of the Air Force and he never moved back to Kansas City. The story demonstrates
the difficulties of an African American teenage boy from a poor incomplete family
raised by his “granny” to achieve upward mobility in the white-dominated society.
Work Cited
Terrell, Whitney. "A Good Neighbor is Hard to Find." Freeman, John. Tales of
Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation. New York:
Penguin Books, 2017. 268-279.
Grammar Note: Be sure to follow these verb tense guidelines when you write your summary:
Use present tense for reporting verbs.
When you refer to the story, you can use the past tense verbs that accurately reflect when the events occurred OR you can use “literary present”, which means you tell the story in present tense as if they events are occurring in the present (ex: “Terrell takes Terry to KU” instead of “Terrell took Terry to KU”). Either approach is acceptable, but you must be consistent. After you write your paper, go back and read it carefully, paying attention to all your verb tenses. It is common, even for native speakers, to be inconsistent in their usage of tenses on their first drafts. Good writers will always proofread their paper for correct verb tense use.