叙述文分两种：一种是事实叙述(Factual narration)，一种是想像叙述(Imaginative narration)。事实叙述写的是真实的事情，包括历史、传记、自传等。想像叙述写的是虚构的故事，包括短篇小说、长篇小说等。

　　叙述文应注意事件结构与叙事观点以及时间的顺序和对话的语言结构等问题。

　　故事的结构必须严紧；事件与事件之间需要有密切的因果关系。一般说来，故事的结构有三个步骤；也就是亚里士多德(Aristotle)所说的beginning，middle，and end。故事必须有个开始，然后有一项冲突(conflict)，这个冲突到了顶点，也就是故事的高潮(climax)，然后结束。当然，讲故事的方法很多，这只是个基本概念。

　　叙事的观点可用第一人称或第三人称叫第三人称又分主观第三人称和客观第三人称。第一人称是[我] (I)或[我们] (We)，以这个人称来讲故事的好处是使故事听来非常亲切，因此也比较容易让人相信。它的缺点是太过狭窄，因为只有故事里面这个『我』所听到、看到、想到的事情读者才能知道，限制要比第三人称所持的观点大得多。第三人称是用『他』(He)或[她] (She)或『他们』(They).这个观点的好处是运用起来比较灵活。

　　时间顺序是指故事里面事件发生的顺序。一般叙述都是采用事情发生的先后顺序，按部就班地，先发生的先讲，后发生后讲。这种顺序英文里称作顿时序(chronological order)，也有时候作者会采用另外一种方法，把后发生的事先讲，然后再同去交代前面发生过的事情。这种倒叙的方法英文里称作『急转回溯』(flashback)。

　　叙述通常采用的是简单过去式(simple past tense)，但也有少数在特殊情形下用现在式(historical present tense)。

　　讲故事常有对话，对话应注意下列五点：

　　(a)每一句对话，不论多短，都自成一段。

　　(b)对话本身必须用引号"……"(中文用[…])。

　　(c)英文对话本身第一个字的头一个字母必须大写。

　　(d)与对话本身有关的标点符号都应该放在引号里面。

　　(e)对话本身假如分好几段，引号应该用在每一段的开始，以及最后结尾时：

　　".......，.

　　"........"

　　中文：[………

　　[…………

　　[…………]

　　(f)引号中如有引用话语时，应用双引号来区别。

　　<范文> This Was My Mother(1)

　　My mother, Jane Lampton Clemens, died in her 88th year, a mighty age for one who at 40 was so delicate of body as to be accounted a confirmed invalid, destined to pass soon away. But the invalid who, forgetful of self, takes a strenous and indestructible interest in(2) everything and everybody, as she did, and to whom a dull moment is an unknown thing, is a formidable adversary for disease.

　　She had a heart so large that everybody's griefs and joys found welcome in it. One of her neighbor never got over the way she received the news of a local accident. When she had told how a man had been thrown from his horse and killed because a calf had run in his way(3), my mother asked with genuine interest, "What became of(4) the calf?" She was not indifferent to the man's death, she was interested in the calf, too.

　　She could find something to excuse and as a rule to love in the toughest of human beings or animals--even if she had to invent it. Once we beguiled hersintossaying a soft word for the devil himself. We started abusing her, one conspirator after another adding her bitter word, until she walked rightsintosthe trap. She admitted that the indictment was sound, but had he been treated fairly? luck, and that was enough. She generally had a cat in her lap when she sat down, but she denied indignantly that she liked cats better than children; though there was one advantage to a cat, she'd say. You could always put it down when you were tired of holding it.

　　I was as much of a nuisance as any small boy and a neighbor asked her once, "Do you ever believe anything that boy says?"

　　"He is the wellspring of truther". My mother replied, "but you can't bring up the whole well with one bucket. I know his average, so he never deceives me. I discount him 90 percent for embroidery and what is left is perfect and priceless truth, without a flaw."

　　She had a horror of snakes and bats, which I hid in pockets and sewing baskets; otherwise she was entirely fearless. One day I saw a vicious devil of a Corsican, a common terror in the town(5), chasing his grown daughter with a heavy rope in his hand, threatening to wear it out on her. Cautious male citizens let him pass but my mother spread her door wide to the refugee, and then, instead of closing and locking it after her, stood in it, barring the way. The man swore, cursed, threatened her with his rope; but she only stood, straight and fine, and lashed him, shamed him, derided, and defied him until he asked her pardon, gave her his rope and said with a blasphemous oath that she was the bravest woman he ever saw. He found in her a longfelt want--somebody who was not afraid of him.

　　She was 82 and living in Keokuk(6) when, unaccountably, she insisted upon attending a convention of old settlers of the Mississippi Valley. All the way there, and it was some distance, she was young again with excitement and eagerness. At the hotel she asked immediately for Dr. Barrett of St. Louis. He had left for home that morning and would not be back, she was told. She turned away, the fire all gone from her, and asked to go home. Once there she sat silent and thinking for many days, then told us that when she was 18 she had loved a young medical student with all her heart. There was a misunderstanding and he left the country; she had immediately married, to show him that she did not care. She had never seen him since and then she had read in a newspaper that he was going to attend the old settlers' convention. "Only three hours before we reached that hotel he had been there." she mourned.

　　She had kept that pathetic burden in her heart 64 years without any of us suspecting it. Before the year was out, her memory began to fail. She would write letters to schoolmates who had been dead for 40 years, and wonder why they never answered. Four years later she died.

　　语汇说明

　　(1)本文作者马克吐温(Mark Twain，本名Samuel Langhorne Clemens)生于1835年，卒于1910年，为美国著名的幽默作家。这篇叙述他母亲的文章仍是以幽默的笔触来表达，非常生动感人。

　　(2) take interest in：关心

　　(3) in his way：碍著他的路；挡路

　　(4) become of=happen to：降临在……身上(通常用於what起首的疑问句中。)

　　(5) a common terror：意为众所共怕的人或物。a common terror in the town是a Coriscan的同位语。

　　Keokuk：在密西西此河上，位于Iowa州东南部。