Sunday, September 2, 2007

Getting started on your personal narratives

Our first assignment is to write a personal narrative. A narrative is anything that tells a story, so this assignment is quite open ended. You decide the story you want to tell. One way to get started is to think of important experiences/people/memories from your life that you believe have shaped you. As you begin deciding what you want to write about, we will also be examining examples from other students.

Read the following three narratives linked below. These student writers have explored memories, people, and hobbies.

For the love of the game

Dancing Genes

The Birthday that never happened

As you read them, keep an eye out for what makes them effective, interesting, and/or well-written. This class is called Writing the Essay, so it is important we focus on those choices that good writers make. What is it that the authors do in these pieces to effectively tell their story and illustrate to their readers why the experience/person/memory has such significance to them. Choose one of the essays and complete a Personal Narrative Think Sheet for the essay. The Think Sheet should also help you brainstorm ideas to explore and develop in your own essays.

As a follow up to this assignment, complete a Think Sheet of your own for the personal narrative you plan to write. Bring it with you to the next class. A copy of the Think Sheet can be found here.

No comments: