Narrative

We begin with the Narrative Essay since it tends to be a familiar genre for many students. Using the concepts of the "now-narrator" and "then-narrator" you will see that good writing is often a dance between critical and creative thinking. You will practice your descriptive skills to bring the reader back to a moment in time, and use your critical thinking to attempt to uncover the meaning behind that moment.

Narrative Features Slideshow

The Task

Narrative Writing Assignment Sheet

Narrative Writing Rubric

Responding to Sample Narratives

In Responding to Sample Narratives you will closely examine three Sample Narratives and respond to them. Before attempting this assigment, examime the resources below to help develop your reading strategies and to learn what it means to read like a writer.

One of the most effective ways to develop your writing skills is to closely examine models of the genre. More model essays can be found on the First Year Writing Website.

How to Read Like a Writer

17.1 Critical Reading – Composing Ourselves and Our World

4.1 Reading To Write: What Models and Reading Strategies Can Offer – Composing Ourselves and Our World

Brainstorming

In Brainstorming for Narrative Topics, you are in the Invention stage. You will work through three steps to generate and refine potential topics for your narrative essay: Brainstorming, Narrowing to Viable Topics, and Refining your Focus.

I encourage you to try the various invention exercises explained in the resources below. This process will help you discover a meaningful story to develop throughout your writing.

Brainstorming Techniques

This chapter, from Composing Ourselves & Our World, covers three popular brainstorming technqiues: Idea Mapping, Journalistic Questioning, and Clustering.

Part 2: Invention and Planning

Part 2: Invention and Planning of Phil Sloan's "The" Writing Process series explains some effective invention techniques that you can apply to your brainstorming exercises.

Composing a Draft

Use the resources below to guide you in composing your rough draft. This is a first attempt at capturing the moment that you are recreating and reflecting on the significance of that moment. Submitting a draft is essential as it allows you to receive feedback on your writing and to work through the next stage in the writing process: Revision.

Crash Course Video on Drafting

This is a great YouTube series by CrashCourse and ASU that covers the Drafting stage in the writing process. It encourages leaning into the "radical freedom" inherent to completing a rough draft and provides several useful tips.

Narrative Drafts

Narrative Drafting Tips

Use this slideshow to help you compose your Narrative draft. It contains tips and reminders about techniques and approaches you should be trying out in this genre.

Revising

Revision is the most often ignored step in the writing process while, argubably, being the most important. Use the various resources below to help you first complete the Guided Self-Review. I encourage you to also seek out additional feedback on your writing and to revise based on feedback from multiple sources.

Drafting, Revising, and Editing

From Phil Sloan's "The" Writing Process series, this video focuses on the heart of the writing process and reinforces best practices for drafting and the essential importance of revising.

Part 4: Revision

Part 4 of Better Writing from the Beginning covers a wide spectrum of types of revision, from line to global revisions and provides some concrete strategies to apply to your writing process.

Guided Self-Review Slideshow

This slideshow will walk you through completing a self-review of your Narrative draft. You will leave with concrete steps for revising and editing.

Editing and Polishing

Learning to edit takes time. We have included some editing resources here, but we also encourage you to work with WRSA in the Learning Commons, read your work aloud, run spellcheck and grammar check, and get feedback from other readers in order to polish your writing.

College ESL Writers: Applied Grammar

This is a really exhaustive overview of all grammar-related issues, from sentence structure to commonly confused words. I suggest looking at the table of contents to locate what you might need.

Grammar Refresher

This Grammar Refresher from Culturally Responsive Composition is a bit more user-friendly and covers the top 10 grammar errors while providing some checklists that can used while editing your work.

Crash Course and ASU: Editing

From CrashCourse and ASU, these Study Hall videos focus on the various stages of the writing process. Video #6 focuses on editing for grammar, style, and formatting.

Self-Reflecting

Self-Reflection is an act of metacognition and an essential step in your development as a writer. It can help you to understand your thinking and learning and to acknowledge your areas of growth and those that still need development. Take your time and be honest when completing your Self-Evaluation for the Narrative Unit. The resources below help to explain why this step is so important to your growth as a writer and student.

Metacognition

Overview of Metacognition

This brief slideshow defines metacognition and discusses how and why we encourage practicing metacognitive exercises.

Metacognition and Mindset

This YouTube video explores how you can practice metacognitive strategies to improve your learning and academic performance, aiming to empower you to become more self-regulated and self-aware.

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