A Description of a Narrative Essay

if you have a personal or emotional experience lodged in your memory, you have the beginnings of a narrative essay. A narrative essay tells a story, often from the author’s point of view. Although it can be fictional, it is often based on actual events: it’s the story of an episode that really happened or could have happened. The ingredients of your essay should work together in an integrated way to pull in and engage the reader.

Topic

Choose a topic that surprises your readers, makes them laugh or causes them to feel your sorrow, fear or joy. Perhaps you achieved a personal goal or want to share a special childhood memory. If you're writing a personal narrative, recreate a personal incident that has meaning to you and engages your audience. If you're writing a biographical or fictional narrative, highlight one idea to focus on. Your essay needs to make a point. Quality trumps quantity -- a longer essay is not necessarily better. Narrow the topic to cover a short time span or a specific event.

Elements

A narrative essay includes all the parts of a good story. The introduction sets the tone and purpose and grabs the reader’s attention. The setting tells where the narrative takes place. Is the story happening now or in the past? The plot builds through story events, and then reaches a climax or turning point. The conclusion ties all the information together. Tell the reader what you learned from the experience or how you felt in the end, or how things turned out.

Characters

The characters in your essay should come alive for the reader. Include traits such as personality, age and appearance. Remember that even though you might know the characters personally, your readers don’t. You need to create a visual image. Is your main character absent-minded, mischievous, outlandish or somber? Your readers should realize the characters’ strengths and weaknesses.

Organization

Present the ideas of your narrative essay in an logical manner that doesn’t confuse the reader. Telling your story orally to a friend before you attempt to write it on paper can help you include all the significant factors of your story in sequence. Develop a new paragraph for each string of events. Your readers want to know what will happen next. Transition words, such as “first,” “next,” “then” and “finally” can help your ideas flow smoothly from one idea to the next.

Details

Include concrete, sensory details so readers can visualize your story in their minds. Don’t assume they know the particulars just because you do. Describe what you saw, heard and felt. Although the essay has a main point, the details explain, support and embellish the story to make it interesting. The details should all relate to the main point you are trying to make. Avoid the abstract. Rather than writing, “It was a cold day,” use concrete description: “Icicles hung from the rooftops, and I wondered if my hat and gloves could keep me warm.”

Language

Carefully chosen words add color to your essay. Use language to tap the senses and evoke emotion in the reader. Your sentences shouldn’t bore your audience. Use verbs such as puttering, squawking, wheezing or sloshing to create an image and a specific picture. Your character isn’t just “nice,” she’s “personable and popular.” She isn’t necessarily “sad,” instead, maybe she’s “shaky and anxious.”

How to Write a Narrative Eyewitness Essay

A narrative eyewitness essay tells of an incident the author has experienced or witnessed. It is nonfiction in which the author's experience is the primary source. It should draw readers into the story, and give them a sense of the meaning of the incident that the author describes.

Who, What, When, Where, Why?

As with other forms of narrative nonfiction, it is important that your essay answer the “five W” questions. Ask yourself, before beginning to write: Who am I writing about? What happened? When? Where? And why is this story important? What meaning do I want to get across to my readers? Choose a story that you witnessed from beginning to end, and about which you can answer the “five W” questions from your own experience.

Audience and Purpose

Though your narrative eyewitness essay does not need to contain an explicit thesis statement, there must be a point to the story. You can directly state the point at the beginning or end of your essay, or you may leave it to the reader to infer. Either way, the point of the essay should be clear. Your audience is composed of people who did not experience the event you are narrating. Give enough information that someone who was not present can follow your account.

Structure

The structure of your essay should be chronological: that is, starting at one point in time and going to another. It should be first-person; you may use the words “I” and “me.” It should also contain the elements of narratiive: characters, setting, rising action, climax and resolution. Though this is a nonfiction essay and must adhere to the facts, you may nonetheless choose where to start the story, where to end it and what to focus on. If nothing happens in your essay, ask yourself: Why do I want to tell this story? Is there a better story that I could tell?

Details That Do More Than One Thing

Each detail in a narrative needs to be doing sufficient work. One way to think about this is to ask, for each detail: Is this doing more than one thing? That is, in addition to giving your reader a sense of what something looked like, sounded like, smelled like, tasted like or felt like, does it also give your reader some additional information? Is this detail necessary for your reader to understand the event you are describing? Does it tell your reader something about the setting or the people you’re describing, or does it symbolize some larger point that your essay is making? Any detail that is just a detail, that doesn’t give any additional information, should be cut.

Examples of Narrative Grabbers

A narrative story elaborates on a sequence of events that happens over time. The first lines in a narrative must grab a reader’s attention and encourage him to continue reading the story. He should experience feelings such as anger, sympathy, wonder, amusement or curiosity. Narrative grabbers, also called “hooks,” draw readers into a story. These attention grabbers make an impression on your readers and provide an effective start to your essay.

Shocking Statement

Provoke your readers with a startling statement -- something they didn’t expect. You can combine statistics with a personal experience. For example, you could write, “One in four children is bullied on a regular basis in U. S. schools, according to BullyingStatistics.org. When I enrolled as a freshman in high school last year, I had no idea that I would become one of those statistics.” You will surprise readers with the facts, and they’ll be sympathetic to your plight.

Healthy Humor

Inject humor into your essay with a funny or absurd notion. Consider who your readers are and relate to them in a relevant manner. Make sure the humor is appropriate. If your audience is a group of middle-school students, you might tickle their fancy with a comical opening about your school dance fiasco: “My enthusiasm for the school dance suddenly turned to horror when I realized the pants I wore weren’t designed for doing splits.”

Distinctive Dialogue

Readers see and hear your narrative when you use direct quotations. They also get an inside glimpse into the feeling and emotion of your story. For example, if you’re relaying a time when fire erupted in your home, the introduction draws readers in and becomes a sensory experience when you quote family members: "'Get out of the house now!' shouted Mom. 'Don’t stop to take anything with you!' yelled Dad. Our family’s peaceful sleep swiftly turned into a terrifying nightmare when an unrelenting fire swept through our home last summer."

Specific Scenario

Paint a picture with words, and your readers will instantly visualize the scene and make a connection. Include sensory details that establish a sense of time and place. If your narrative was about sports, you could write, “The spectators in the high school gymnasium could probably hear my heart pounding. I was afraid the basketball would slip from my trembling, slippery hands. Would I make this shot or let the fans down?” This type of attention grabber puts readers directly into the scene.

Rhetorical Question

Reinforce what you’re about to say with a thought-provoking question. When you begin a narrative with a question, you’re making a point, not seeking an answer. An open-ended question causes readers to become inquisitive about what will follow. If you’re relaying a bad experience with foster care, you’ll grab readers’ attention when you ask, “How would you feel if you spent your entire childhood being shipped from one foster home to another? Welcome to my world.” They’ll quickly formulate theories about how they’d feel if they were in your shoes. They’ll want to hear your story.

Stimulating Sound Effects

Onomatopoeia is the use of words to create sound effects. They might be car or animal noises or the drip of water. These sounds add an appealing element to a narrative story. If you open an essay with a sentence such as, “This was the worst storm I’d ever seen,” you run the risk of boring your readers. Instead, hook them with sound effects. “Crash! Crack! Boom! The lights in our house went out and the screen door slammed shut. We knew it was time to batten down the hatches.”

Eyewitness Account

An eyewitness account is:
An eyewitness account is a writing piece that presents a significant event. Through this writing piece, the reader should be able to picture and imagine this event happening through vivid adjectives and detailed descriptions. The writer has to step into a character’s /item’s shoes and then write from his/her perspective. When you write an eyewitness account, you should be able to write as though you were watching the event unfold or through the thoughts and feelings of the character whose perspective you were writing for.


Things that you could start with:
First, you need to pick an event and then brainstorm about what you are going to write. Use about 10-15 minutes for this. Try to brainstorm in your character’s/item’s shoes.

Brainstorming:
It is always best to write about events that you find:

-You find most interesting                        -Saw from the start to the end
-Remember most clearly                          


Afterwards you should take your events that you brainstormed and then you put them in a list so that it is in chronological order, and it makes sense to the reader. Have specific information, when you are writing . When you brainstorm, you should include these questions.
- Whose perspective are you writing from?               - Where did this event take place?
- Who took part in this event? Who caught my attention?   - How did I feel watching this event unfold?
- What did I hear, see, smell, feel and taste?              - How significant does this scene mean to the character or you?

Attention! Be sure to check if your list has any unnecessary events, think about it, is this event important to my story? 

A good eyewitness account should include:
– You should show the event unfold, not tell. Through showing, we can illustrate a picture in the readers head. As though the reader is watching the event through the character’s mind, and feelings. Example: The flowers are pretty (Tell). The flowers are blooming in the sunshine; they were like beautiful dancers, swaying in the wind. They attracted millions of butterflies, all gasping at the beauty of the flowers (Show).
– Your eyewitness account should also include fabulous vocabulary, and vivid adjectives. It also should included literary devices. You should not be using words like: good or bad. In your eyewitness account. These words often cannot give a detailed description, which will provide a lower chance of the reader really understanding the event, instead, use: Terrific, superb, magnificent, etc. The words should also be precise, and they are often stronger when grouped in threes. Use a thesaurus if you want to have a better use of vocabulary.
– Also, include dialogue, which is the character’s actual speech. But don't go overboard with too much. Only have two to three direct speeches linked together.
– Detailed descriptions are very important! Use descriptive language and precise adjectives. This helps paint a vivid picture in to the readers head.
- Grammar can be a mix of past and present tense, also called tense shifting because you may have flashbacks, so you will need to use past tense to write as well as present tense.

Framework:
Your eyewitness account should include a introduction, a body and a conclusion about the event.

Attention! Make sure that you keep the same voice throughout the story, not suddenly or slowly changing to your own perspective, or the reader will be baffled.


Introduction: In the beginning of the writing, you want a hook that can grab the reader’s attention, makes them want to continue reading on, something that makes them curious about the story .If you start off with a boring one, it is more likely that people will not want to read your piece. You may use literary devices, like onomatopoeia, hyperboles, similes, and alliteration. You should also add good vocabulary and vivid adjectives to spike up the introduction.


Body: You are writing from one of the characters perspective of your story. So you have to imagine yourself as the character you are writing from or someone watching the event unfolds. Use descriptive language to describe the event that shows the event, not tell the event. The eyewitness account is usually best written in the chronological order. You could also use a mix of past and present tense because of things you write about in general or specifically. But of course, you can start in the middle of the scene and then you can describe the beginning of the event through the characters thoughts, dialogue, or feelings.

Conclusion: You can end your piece whatever way you want to end it. But you must let the reader understand the importance of the event. As well as the change in the character through the event or why you wanted to write about this event. You can also leave the reader with a cliffhanger, making them want to know what happens next.

Peer Editing / Revising your work
After you have finished your writing, make sure that your grammar is correct. Then, share your writing with a friend. Make them write comments about your piece, what was good or needs to be improved. Make them give you positive and constructive criticism, you should also help them out

with editing, this way, both of your writing will be fabulous!

YOU HAVE FINISHED WRITING AN EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT!

Pat yourself at in your back, feel good? Great! Your writing is now excellent and people are eager to read it! Share with friends and family; prove to them how great of a writer you are! 

account writing

An eyewitness report is a first-person account of an event you personally witnessed. The goal is to provide details about the event in a clear, concise manner, giving as many details as you recall as accurately as possible.

Eyewitness reports are often crucial to solving incidents or providing background on newsworthy stories. Eyewitness reports are also used as part of incident reports at workplaces such as schools,  and other facilities requiring employees to monitor sensitive situations.

• Think about the incident you witnessed . Ask yourself exactly what you saw and the order of the events. Consider all parties involved in the incident and whether or not you've seen any of them before. Reconstruct the events and the order in which they occurred as clearly as you can before you write anything down.
• Write your eyewitness report in the first person. Describe only what you actually witnessed. There is no room in an eyewitness report for personal opinion or dramatic effect. If you want to add something that you didn't actually see, use a phrase like "He appeared to have a gun." Using the word "appear" lets anyone reading the report know that although you didn't actually see the gun for example, it looked as if there may have been one.
• Use language as precisely as you can. If you're describing clothes, don't just say someone was wearing an orange jacket. If you know a more specific word, use it. Try to remember any identifying marks, odd behaviors or out-of-place events surrounding the situation you're reporting on.
• Include specific time and date information when writing about the incident, your full name and contact information, and the names of anyone who might have been present who can back up your account. If you have access to information from someone who is unavailable to write a report, include the information but indicate that the information was obtained from someone else.

vocabulary words

aberration

(n.) something that differs from the norm (In 1974, Poland won the World Cup, but the success turned out to be an aberration, and Poland have not won a World Cup since).

abhor

(v.) to hate, detest (Because he always wound up getting hit in the head when he tried to play cricket, Marcin began to abhor the sport).

acquiesce

(v.) to agree without protesting (Though Mr. Pospieszny wanted to stay outside and work in his garage, when his wife told him that he had better come in to dinner, heacquiesced to her demands.)

alacrity

(n.) eagerness, speed (For some reason, Simon loved to help his girlfriend whenever he could, so when his girlfriend asked him to set the table he did so with alacrity.)

amiable

(adj.) friendly (An amiable fellow, Neil got along with just about everyone.)

appease

(v.) to calm, satisfy (When Jerry cries, his mother gives him chocolate to appeasehim.)

arcane

(adj.) obscure, secret, known only by a few (The professor is an expert in arcaneKashubian literature.)

avarice

(n.) excessive greed (The banker’s avarice led him to amass an enormous personal fortune.)

brazen

(adj.) excessively bold, brash, clear and obvious (Critics condemned the writer’sbrazen attempt to plagiarise Frankow-Czerwonko’s work.)

brusque

(adj.) short, abrupt, dismissive (Simon’s brusque manner sometimes offends his colleagues.)

cajole

(v.) to urge, coax (Magda's friends cajoled her into drinking too much.)

callous

(adj.) harsh, cold, unfeeling (The murderer’s callous lack of remorse shocked the jury.)

candor

(n.) honesty, frankness (We were surprised by the candor of the politician’s speech because she is usually rather evasive.)

chide

(v.) to voice disapproval (Hania chided Gregory for his vulgar habits and sloppy appearance.)

circumspect

(adj.) cautious (Though I promised Marta’s father I would bring her home promptly by midnight, it would have been more circumspect not to have specified a time.)

clandestine

(adj.) secret (Announcing to her boyfriend that she was going to the library, Maria actually went to meet George for a clandestine liaison.)

coerce

(v.) to make somebody do something by force or threat (The court decided that David Beckham did not have to honor the contract because he had been coercedinto signing it.)

coherent

(adj.) logically consistent, intelligible (William could not figure out what Harold had seen because he was too distraught to deliver a coherent statement.)

complacency

(n.) self-satisfied ignorance of danger (Simon tried to shock his friends out of theircomplacency by painting a frightening picture of what might happen to them.)

confidant

(n.) a person entrusted with secrets (Shortly after we met, he became my chiefconfidant.)

connive

(v.) to plot, scheme (She connived to get me to give up my plans to start up a new business.)

cumulative

(adj.) increasing, building upon itself (The cumulative effect of hours spent using the World English website was a vast improvement in his vocabulary and general level of English.)

debase

(v.) to lower the quality or esteem of something (The large raise that he gave himself debased his motives for running the charity.)

decry

(v.) to criticize openly (Andrzej Lepper, the leader of the Polish Self Defence partydecried the appaling state of Polish roads.)

deferential

(adj.) showing respect for another’s authority (Donata is always excessivelydeferential to any kind of authority figure.)

demure

(adj.) quiet, modest, reserved (Though everyone else at the party was dancing and going crazy, she remained demure.)

deride

(v.) to laugh at mockingly, scorn (The native speaker often derided the other teacher’s accent.)

despot

(n.) one who has total power and rules brutally (The despot issued a death sentence for anyone who disobeyed his laws.)

diligent

(adj.) showing care in doing one’s work (The diligent researcher made sure to double check her measurements.)

elated

(adj.) overjoyed, thrilled (When he found out he had won the lottery, the postman was elated.)

eloquent

(adj.) expressive, articulate, moving (The best man gave such an eloquent speech that most guests were crying.)

embezzle

(v.) to steal money by falsifying records (The accountant was fired for embezzling€10,000 of the company’s funds.)

empathy

(n.) sensitivity to another’s feelings as if they were one’s own (I feel such empathyfor my dog when she’s upset so am I!)

enmity

(n.) ill will, hatred, hostility (John and Scott have clearly not forgiven each other, because the enmity between them is obvious to anyone in their presence.)

erudite

(adj.) learned (My English teacher is such an erudite scholar that he has translated some of the most difficult and abstruse Old English poetry.)

extol

(v.) to praise, revere (Kamila extolled the virtues of a vegetarian diet to her meat-loving boyfriend.)

fabricate

(v.) to make up, invent (When I arrived an hour late to class, I fabricated some excuse about my car breaking down on the way to work.)

feral

(adj.) wild, savage (That beast looks so feral that I would fear being alone with it.)

flabbergasted

(adj.) astounded (Whenever I read an Agatha Christie mystery novel, I am alwaysflabbergasted when I learn the identity of the murderer.)

forsake

(v.) to give up, renounce (I won't forsake my conservative principles.)

fractious

(adj.) troublesome or irritable (Although the child insisted he wasn’t tired, hisfractious behaviour - especially his decision to crush his jam sandwiches all over the floor - convinced everyone present that it was time to put him to bed.)

furtive

(adj.) secretive, sly (Claudia’s placement of her drugs in her sock drawer was not asfurtive as she thought, as the sock drawer is the first place most parents look.)

gluttony

(n.) overindulgence in food or drink (Helen’s fried chicken tastes so divine, I don’t know how anyone can call gluttony a sin.)

gratuitous

(adj.) uncalled for, unwarranted (Every evening the guy at the fish and chip shop gives me a gratuitous helping of vinegar.)

haughty

(adj.) disdainfully proud (The superstar’s haughty dismissal of her co-stars will backfire on her someday.)

hypocrisy

(n.) pretending to believe what one does not (Once the politician began passing legislation that contradicted his campaign promises, his hypocrisy became apparent.)

impeccable

(adj.) exemplary, flawless (If your grades were as impeccable as your brother’s, then you too would receive a car for a graduation present.)

impertinent

(adj.) rude, insolent (Most of your comments are so impertinent that I don’t wish to dignify them with an answer.)

implacable

(adj.) incapable of being appeased or mitigated (Watch out: once you shun Grandmother’s cooking, she is totally implacable.)

impudent

(adj.) casually rude, insolent, impertinent (The impudent young woman looked her teacher up and down and told him he was hot.)

incisive

(adj.) clear, sharp, direct (The discussion wasn’t going anywhere until her incisivecomment allowed everyone to see what the true issues were.)

indolent

(adj.) lazy (Why should my indolent children, who can’t even pick themselves up off the sofa to pour their own juice, be rewarded with a trip to Burger King?)

inept

(adj.) not suitable or capable, unqualified (She proved how inept she was when she forgot two orders and spilled a pint of cider in a customer’s lap.)

infamy

(n.) notoriety, extreme ill repute (The infamy of his crime will not lessen as time passes.)

inhibit

(v.) to prevent, restrain, stop (When I told you I needed the car last night, I certainly never meant to inhibit you from going out.)

innate

(adj.) inborn, native, inherent (His incredible athletic talent is innate, he never trains, lifts weights, or practices.)

insatiable

(adj.) incapable of being satisfied (My insatiable appetite for blondes was a real problem on my recent holiday in Japan!)

insular

(adj.) separated and narrow-minded; tight-knit, closed off (Because of the sensitive nature of their jobs, those who work for MI5 must remain insular and generally only spend time with each other.)

intrepid

(adj.) brave in the face of danger (After scaling a live volcano prior to its eruption, the explorer was praised for his intrepid attitude.)

inveterate

(adj.) stubbornly established by habit (I’m the first to admit that I’m an inveteratecider drinker—I drink four pints a day.)

jubilant

(adj.) extremely joyful, happy (The crowd was jubilant when the firefighter carried the woman from the flaming building.)

knell

(n.) the solemn sound of a bell, often indicating a death (Echoing throughout our village, the funeral knell made the grey day even more grim.)

lithe

(adj.) graceful, flexible, supple (Although the dancers were all outstanding, Joanna’s control of her lithe body was particularly impressive.)

lurid

(adj.) ghastly, sensational (Barry’s story, in which he described a character torturing his neighbour's tortoise, was judged too lurid to be published on the English Library's website.)

maverick

(n.) an independent, nonconformist person (John is a real maverick and always does things his own way.)

maxim

(n.) a common saying expressing a principle of conduct (Ms. Stone’s etiquettemaxims are both entertaining and instructional.)

meticulous

(adj.) extremely careful with details (The ornate needlework in the bride’s gown was a product of meticulous handiwork.)

modicum

(n.) a small amount of something (Refusing to display even a modicum of sensitivity, Magda announced her boss’s affair to the entire office.)

morose

(adj.) gloomy or sullen (David’s morose nature made him very unpleasant to talk to.)

myriad

(adj.) consisting of a very great number (It was difficult to decide what to do on Saturday night because the city presented us with myriad possibilities for fun.)

nadir

(n.) the lowest point of something (My day was boring, but the nadir came when my new car was stolen.)

nominal

(adj.) trifling, insignificant (Because he was moving the following week and needed to get rid of his furniture more than he needed money, Kim sold everything for anominal price.)

novice

(n.) a beginner, someone without training or experience (Because we were allnovices at archery, our instructor decided to begin with the basics

nuance

(n.) a slight variation in meaning, tone, expression (The nuances of the poem were not obvious to the casual reader, but the teacher was able to point them out.)

oblivious

(adj.) lacking consciousness or awareness of something (Oblivious to the burning smell emanating from the kitchen, my father did not notice that the rolls in the oven were burned until much too late.)

obsequious

(adj.) excessively compliant or submissive (Donald acted like Susan’s servant, obeying her every request in an obsequious manner.)

obtuse

(adj.) lacking quickness of sensibility or intellect (Political opponents warned that the prime minister’s obtuse approach to foreign policy would embroil the nation in mindless war.)

panacea

(n.) a remedy for all ills or difficulties (Doctors wish there was a single panacea for every disease, but sadly there is not.)

parody

(n.) a satirical imitation (A hush fell over the classroom when the teacher returned to find Magdalena acting out a parody of his teaching style.)

penchant

(n.) a tendency, partiality, preference (Fiona’s dinner parties quickly became monotonous on account of her penchant for Indian dishes.)

perusal

(n.) a careful examination, review (The actor agreed to accept the role after a three-month perusal of the movie script.)

plethora

(n.) an abundance, excess (The wedding banquet included a plethora of oysters piled almost three feet high.)

predilection

(n.) a preference or inclination for something (James has a predilection for eating toad in the whole with tomato ketchup.)

quaint

(adj.) charmingly old-fashioned (Mary was delighted by the quaint bonnets she saw in Romania.)

rash

(adj.) hasty, incautious (It’s best to think things over calmly and thoroughly, rather than make rash decisions.)

refurbish

(v.) to restore, clean up (After being refurbished the old Triumph motorcycle commanded the handsome price of $6000.)

repudiate

(v.) to reject, refuse to accept (Tom made a strong case for an extension of his curfew, but his mother repudiated it with a few biting words.)

rife

(adj.) abundant (Surprisingly, the teacher’s writing was rife with spelling errors.)

salient

(adj.) significant, conspicuous (One of the salient differences between Alison and Helen is that Alison is a couple of kilos heavier.)

serendipity

(n.) luck, finding good things without looking for them (In an amazing bit ofserendipity, penniless Mark found a $50 bill on the back seat of the bus.)

staid

(adj.) sedate, serious, self-restrained (The staid butler never changed his expression no matter what happened.)

superfluous

(adj.) exceeding what is necessary (Samantha had already won the campaign so her constant flattery of others was superfluous.)

sycophant

(n.) one who flatters for self-gain (Some see the people in the cabinet as the Prime Minister’s closest advisors, but others see them as sycophants.)

taciturn

(adj.) not inclined to talk (Though Magda never seems to stop talking, her brother is quite taciturn.)

truculent

(adj.) ready to fight, cruel (This club doesn’t really attract the dangerous types, so why was that bouncer being so truculent?)

umbrage

(n.) resentment, offence (He called me a lily-livered coward, and I took umbrage at the insult.)

venerable

(adj.) deserving of respect because of age or achievement (The venerable High Court judge had made several key rulings in landmark cases throughout the years.)

vex

(v.) to confuse or annoy (My boyfriend vexes me by pinching my bottom for hours on end.)

vociferous

(adj.) loud, boisterous (I’m tired of his vociferous whining so I’m breaking up with him.)

wanton

(adj.) undisciplined, lewd, lustful (Joanna’s wanton demeanor often made the frat guys next door very excited.)

zenith

(n.) the highest point, culminating point (I was too nice to tell Emily that she had reached the absolute zenith of her career with that one top 10 hit of hers.)