Read the list aloud
Read your numbered list to a partner exactly as written — no connecting words, no smoothing. Say the numbers out loud.
It will sound terrible, and every fact will be present. That gap is what this lesson fills.
Eight connectors. Match each to the job it does between two events.
The same list, connected
A list of eight events
1. I left the house late. 2. The bus did not come. 3. I walked. 4. It started raining. 5. I arrived at the interview twenty minutes late. 6. They had already given the slot to somebody else. 7. I waited two hours. 8. They interviewed me and I got the job.
The same eight events, told
To begin with, I left the house late, which was entirely my own fault. Then the bus did not come — and I mean it did not come at all, not that it was late. So I walked.
Halfway there, of course, it started raining. To make matters worse, I was wearing the only jacket I own that is not waterproof.
I arrived twenty minutes late. It turned out they had already given my slot to somebody else, which I fully deserved. Meanwhile, the person in reception was very kindly pretending this happened all the time.
So I waited. Two hours. At the time I thought I was wasting an afternoon.
In the end they saw me at half past four, and I got the job. Looking back, I think the two hours were most of the reason.
Four questions comparing the list with the telling.
1. The told version contains no facts the list does not. What has been added?
2. At the time I thought I was wasting an afternoon. Why is that sentence in the story?
3. To make matters worse, I was wearing the only jacket… — is the jacket an event?
4. The told version is 160 words. The list is 55. Where did the extra 105 go?
The full set
Narrative connectors, by job
| Job | Connectors |
|---|---|
| Sequence | To begin with · First of all · Then · After that · Next · Eventually · In the end · Finally |
| At the same time | Meanwhile · At the same time · All this time · The whole time |
| Suddenly | Out of nowhere · All of a sudden · Before I knew it · The next thing I knew |
| Consequence | So · Because of that · Which meant that · As a result |
| Reversal | But · However · Then again · That said · On the other hand |
| Revelation | It turned out that · As it happened · Sure enough · Funnily enough |
| Escalation | To make matters worse · Worse still · And then, of course, |
| Looking back | Looking back · In hindsight · At the time I thought · I did not realise then |
Two families do something the others do not.
Revelation reorganises the story. It turned out that… tells the listener that what they have understood so far was incomplete, and it is the single most useful connector in a long narrative.
Looking back steps outside the story altogether. It is the only one that speaks from now, and it is how a story becomes a reflection rather than a report.
Four sentences have been removed from this narrative. Put each one back where the connectors tell you it belongs.
We had booked the ferry for six in the morning because it was the cheapest one, which tells you everything about that holiday. [1] We got to the port at ten to six.
The ferry was not there. [2] It was a Tuesday, and the Tuesday service had been cancelled since April.
[3] She was extremely kind about it and entirely unable to help, which is a difficult combination to be angry with.
We waited eleven hours for the evening crossing. [4] I have since described that day as the best part of the holiday, and I am not being sarcastic.
Connecting your own list
Two to five words per gap. Each gap wants a connector from a different family.
everything went exactly to plan, which should have worried me. the printer stopped working forty minutes before the deadline. the only other printer in the building was in a room somebody had locked. my colleague was in a meeting with her phone off, and she was the only person with a key. she had left it on her desk, in an unlocked drawer, the whole time. the entire crisis lasted about nine minutes and I aged a year.
Seven sentences where the connector says the wrong thing, or sits in the wrong place. Fix each.
1. Meanwhile, three hours later, we finally left.
2. It turned out the bus, that it was cancelled.
3. In the end of the day, everybody was fine.
4. To make matters worse, then it stopped raining and the sun came out.
5. Looking back, at the time I think I was right.
6. Sure enough, nobody expected it and everybody was shocked.
7. Before I knew it, the whole thing took four hours.
Six connector families. Put them in the order they typically appear across one narrative.
From list to story
Task card · Speaking · Pairs · 4 minutes each
Your numbered list from homework. Tell it properly, with the connectors doing the joining.
Three minutes from a list that took thirty seconds to read.
- Open with a sequence connector and close with a looking-back one. Both compulsory.
- At least one it turned out that, even if you have to reveal something small.
- At least one escalation and one meanwhile.
- Your partner holds the connector table and ticks each family as they hear it.
- Any connector that contradicts its own sentence costs you a point.
From the tellings
Four sentences from the task. Fix each.
1. It turned out that was nobody there.
2. Meanwhile I was waiting the whole time and nothing happened.
3. In hindsight, at that moment I am thinking it was fine.
4. And then of course, the worse thing happened.
Two families that do more
Three questions.
1. Which connector reorganises what the listener has understood so far?
2. Which one speaks from now rather than from then?
3. Sure enough means —
Before next lesson. Your story has to run five minutes. Find three more things for it: one more background strand, one line somebody said, and one thing you believed at the time and no longer do.
Bring all three written down. Five minutes is much longer than it sounds and nobody gets there by adding events.