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Just like Logic has an ordered arrangement of sentences or proposition, Narrative structure has an ordered arrangement of ‘Event’ sentences.

• A general Narrative structure has a following sequence of events:

This structure has five general events:
Exposition, Rising action, Conflict, Falling Action and Denouement.

A variety of general sequence of events comes under this narrative structure.

- Exposition elaborates the current state of routine affairs.
- The Rising Action details some disturbance in the otherwise peaceful routine affairs.
- The rising action leads to a point of maximum Conflict.
- Then event that results in resolution (Falling Action) of conflict happens.
- This finally leads to the return of peaceful new state (Denouement)

These five narrative events can be mapped onto a scientific inquiry event. In the case of a scientific inquiry, the five events become:

- Exposition     > Existing belief
- Rising Action > Doubt
- Conflict        > Hypothesis [hypothesis conflicts with existing belief]
- Falling Action> Experimentation [if the experiment is successful, but that is not necessary]
- Denouement > Establishment of a new belief or theory


• It can also be graphically represented as:

• Each event step can be described symbolically in the following manner:

• The detailed narrative structure for a scientific inquiry event that leads to formulation and acceptance of a theory is given by:

• Constituents of a scientific discovery event are:


• Description of each constituent element is given as follows:

Symbol Description
Existing Belief or general principle is a sentence that describes relation between two or more concepts.
Existing routine is a sentence that describes a particular event that happens as expected according to Existing Belief.
Doubt is a sentence that describes a thought that occurs when a particular event does not happen according to some general principle.
Question is a Sentence that asks why particular event did not match general principle.
Reasoning is a sentence that searches for other similar events in the past and links them with current event.
Hypothesis/Suggestion is a statement that states a proposition regarding a new relation between concepts.
Experimentation is a sentence that states that one concept in the suggestion was present then the other concept was also found to be present as predicted.
Theory is a statement that states relation between certain concepts as a general principle or law.
Sharing with community is a sentence that describes an event or set of events in which the actor shares his/ her proposition of new belief with the community.
Replication is a sentence that describes an event or set of events in which the experiment done by an actor is repeated by another actor.
Comparison is a sentence in which the community debates about choosing the proposition to be accepted a s theory which will establish a new justified belief.is a sentence in which the community debates about choosing the proposition to be accepted a s theory which will establish a new justified belief.
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