The next essay that you will write for this class is called a “Narrative." To “narrate” means to tell a story, and we have already read or will read several texts by authors who use narration in their writing—Malcolm X writes about his prison experiences and the power of language to free our minds and Sandra Cisneros writes about trying to help her father understand her life as a daughter and a writer. These writers use stories to engage us as readers, and you will be given the chance to tell a story about your experiences with success in this essay.
As college students, you will most often be asked to exhibit or to expand your knowledge in your writing; you will not often be asked simply to “tell a story” in your academic assignments. Therefore, we are going to use what you are beginning to learn from the readings we have done so far this semester—you can choose one of the themes from our readings or you can choose from the ideas and questions you have raised in your reading logs about those themes. You will also be asked to quote at least once from one of the texts we have read to connect the writer’s experience to yours.
Prewriting
Think about the themes—about challenges and success— that we have explored in our readings and our problem-posing essay earlier this semester. Look at your previous writing about these themes—either your notes, your freewriting, our in-class writing, or your reading logs, and find a way to write about a time when you learned something that allowed you to feel successful. Freewrite or brainstorm on your own experience. Have you had any experience like those in our readings?
Drafting
You will be sharing the first draft with me and with your classmates.
All essays will be typed in the class wiki, at least 1000 words in length, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. We will be focusing on good beginnings for this essay. So this essay must have a strong introduction with enough specific detail to raise and keep reader interest. The essay should also show that you have begun to improve your critical thinking abilities, so what did you learn from the experience that you describe? Tell us something significant about the experience so that we know what kind of impact the experience had on you.
Final drafts of all essay will be due in the fifth or sixth week of class. These will be created in wiki as well.
The following is a list of guidelines to follow as you write your rough draft:
a. Introduction: Aim for one paragraph introducing your experience. Remember to choose only one experience. You may want to mention the writer to whom you are connecting or use a short quote to make this connection clear.
b. Thesis: end the first paragraph with a specific claim or point about your topic—remember to make clear to your readers the significance of the experience you are writing about.
c. Evidence: make your own experience clear to the reader with ample details and examples (remember, you want to show your readers rather than telling them; appeal to their senses to re-create the event or scene). You may also want to find quotes and examples from the story you have chosen to prove your thesis.
d. Dialogue: consider quoting or paraphrasing bits of conversation to help you make a scene more vivid and engaging for readers.
e. Conclusion: end your paper restating and explaining your main point, or leave the readers with one final thought about your main point, so that readers know you have come to an end.
Editing
The final stage of our writing will be editing the essay to meet expectations of academic written English. We will be working on surface level grammar and syntax throughout the semester as we prepare essays for the final portfolio.
See sample essays on the wiki