Flow Chart of a Story or Event — Worked Example

A narrative flow chart tracks events rather than stages, so the boxes follow the order in which things happened. Use the past tense, keep each box to one event, and match the grammatical shape of the boxes already completed — if the given box reads "reached the village", yours should not read "he was reaching".

The format

Track events, not stages

A narrative flow chart follows what happened in the order it happened. Unlike a process, the steps are not repeatable stages but single events, so the past tense is normal and each box names one thing that occurred.

Use the given box to fix the tense and the subject

Narrative charts are usually written in the past tense with the subject omitted — reached the village, met an old woman. If the given box drops the subject, drop it in every box; if it keeps it, keep it. This is the most frequent source of avoidable inconsistency in narrative charts.

• Given: reached the village → yours: asked for shelter, not he asked for shelter
• Given: The boy reached the village → yours: The boy asked for shelter
• Keep the tense the given box uses, throughout.

Watch for events out of chronological order

Narratives sometimes tell events out of order — a flashback, or a before clause. The chart follows the order of events, not the order of sentences, so read carefully where the passage uses before, had already or earlier that day.

One event per box

A box holds one thing that happened. If a sentence contains two events and the chart has two boxes, split them; if it has one, choose the event the chart's arrows imply.

Model answer

Worked example

Passage

A traveller lost his way in the hills as evening came on. After walking for an hour without seeing anyone, he came upon a small village and asked at the first house for shelter. The old woman who lived there had nothing but a little rice, but she cooked it and shared it with him. In the morning, before he left, the traveller quietly placed a coin under his plate. He had gone some distance when he heard someone calling behind him: the old woman had run after him to return it, thinking he had forgotten it there.

The chart, with box 1 given

1 (given): lost his way in the hills → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6

Answers

2 — came upon a small village. 3 — asked for shelter at a house. 4 — shared the old woman's rice. 5 — left a coin under his plate. 6 — was chased by her to return it.

Note on box 5

The passage says he placed the coin before he left, which comes after the meal in time even though the sentence mentions leaving first. The chart follows the order of events, so the coin goes in box 5, after the meal. Reading "before he left" as a sequence marker rather than a time clause is what trips candidates here.

What earns and loses marks

• Match the given box exactly on tense and on whether the subject is included.
• 🚨 Follow the order of events, not the order of sentences. Watch for before, had already and earlier.
• One event per box; do not combine two to save space.
• Keep to the passage. A satisfying ending you invent is still an invention.
• Number your answers clearly if you cannot draw the chart — examiners accept a numbered list.