Narrative Essay
Final Draft due Oct. 6
100 points
Assignment Details
You are going to write a narrative essay based on your own
life. You get to decide what experience
or memory your essay will describe. This
essay should focus on a single experience or memory and not be about your life
in general. Use House on Mango Street, Skin,
The Glass Castle, Sickened: Memoire
of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood, “A & P”, “Fifteen,” and “The Summer
I was Sixteen,” texts that we’ve read and discussed in class, as examples that
show how to creatively describe specific moments of life in great detail.
Your narrative essay must:
- Be a true story from your own life
- Show that you’ve put your heart and soul into
your work
- Be 2.5-3 pages long
- Be typed and follow formatting guidelines
- Be high quality work
- Final draft must have first draft, second draft,
and peer editing forms attached behind it.
In order to create high quality narrative essay, you will
need to go through the writing process.
To help you, there will be several writing checkpoints along the
way. You are expected to meet all the
checkpoint deadlines.
Check Points:
- Brainstorming
Sheet in class on Tuesday, Sept 23
- Beginning
first draft in class and homework on Wednesday, Sept 24
- First
Draft (typed) in class on Thursday, Sept 25
- Typed
First Draft due in class on Monday, Sept 29
- Editing
started in class on Monday, Sept 29
- Second
Draft (typed) in class on Wednesday, Oct. 1
- Second
Draft (typed) due Thursday, Oct. 2
- Peer
Editing in class on Thursday, Oct. 2
- Final
Draft due on Monday, Oct. 6
Description of
Narrative Writing
As a mode of expository writing,
the narrative approach, more than any other, offers writers a chance to think
and write about themselves. We all have experiences lodged in our memories,
which are worthy of sharing with readers. Yet sometimes they are so fused with
other memories that a lot of the time spent in writing narrative is in the
prewriting stage.
When you write a narrative essay,
you are telling a story. Narrative essays are told from a defined point of
view, often the author's, so there is feeling as well as specific and often
sensory details provided to get the reader involved in the elements and
sequence of the story. The verbs are vivid and precise. The narrative essay
makes a point and that point is often defined in the opening sentence, but can
also be found as the last sentence in the opening paragraph.
Since a narrative relies on
personal experiences, it often is in the form of a story. When the writer uses
this technique, he or she must be sure to include all the conventions of
storytelling: plot, character, setting, climax, and ending. It is usually
filled with details that are carefully selected to explain, support, or
embellish the story. All of the details relate to the main point the writer is
attempting to make.
To summarize, the narrative essay
- is
told from a particular point of view
- makes
and supports a point
- is
filled with precise detail
- uses
vivid verbs and modifiers
- uses
conflict and sequence as does any story
- may
use dialogue
Once an incident is chosen, the writer should keep three
principles in mind.
- Remember
to involve readers in the story. It is much more interesting to actually
recreate an incident for readers than to simply tell about it.
- Find a
generalization, which the story supports. This is the only way the
writer's personal experience will take on meaning for readers. This
generalization does not have to encompass humanity as a whole; it can
concern the writer, men, women, or children of various ages and backgrounds.
- Remember
that although the main component of a narrative is the story, details must
be carefully selected to support, explain, and enhance the story.
Conventions of Narrative Essays
In writing your narrative essay, keep the following
conventions in mind.
- Narratives
are generally written in the first person, that is, using I. However,
third person (he, she, or it) can also be used.
- Narratives
rely on concrete, sensory details to convey their point. These details
should create a unified, forceful effect, a dominant impression. More
information on the use of specific details is available on another page.
- Narratives,
as stories, should include these story conventions: a plot, including
setting and characters; a climax; and an ending.
Here are some popular essay topic examples for your
narrative essay type:
- First
Day at College
- The
Moment of Success
- A
Memorable Journey
- The
Biggest Misunderstanding
- The
Difficult Decision
- The
Trip of Your Dreams
- The
Day You Decided to Change Your Life
The essay topic you choose should be interesting and
important to you, because the best essays are written on the topics that really
matter to the writer.
