Click here to load reader

Writing a Personal Narrative Essay

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Power Point presentation with audio on how to write a personal narrative essay.

Citation preview

  • 1. College Composition I
    Writing a Narrative Essay

2. Narrativetells a story
Who?
What?
When?
Where?
Why?
3. Pick a Topic
Something significant that happened to you.
Organize your story in time.
4. Decide On Your Purpose
To entertain
Your embarrassing moment
To inform
A lesson you learned
To persuade
Not to do what you did
Picture Source: Tastybit, ZZ Gets Embarrassed, June 15, 2008 via Flickr, Creative Commons License
5. Keep Your Audience in Mind
The members of the class
The members of your group
The instructor
6. Audience
Will they find your topic interesting?
Why do they need/want to know this?
What do you need to tell them?
7. Generate Your Raw Material
List all important events.
What happened.
Who was involved.
What did people do or say.
Do some freewriting or brainstorming.
8. Decide on Your Dominant Impression
Why are you telling this story?
What do you want your readers to feel?
Sad?Embarrassed for you?Proud of you?Smarter?
9. Write Your Topic Sentence
I made a big impression on my new boyfriends family when I fainted in front of them in a fancy restaurant.
When I was thirteen, I learned the hard way that driving a car was not as easy as it looked.
On January 23, 2001, I realized that we can never take what we have for granted.
10. Check Your Details
Do you need more details?
Are there any details you need to omit?
Do all the details support your dominant impression?
11. Decide on Your Order
Spatial (left to right, right to left)
Chronological (time order)
Least to most important
12. Set Up An Outline
Topic Sentence,
Major Detail,
Two examples,
Major Detail,
Two examples,
Major Detail,
Two examples,
Concluding Sentence.
13. Write the first draft.
Start with the topic sentence.
Write quickly.
Dont stop to correct mistakes.
When finished, add a conclusion.
Read the paper aloud; add transitions where necessary.
14. Write the Final Draft
Must be typed and double spaced
Three paragraphs
Run spell check
Be sure to include required sentences:
Two compound sentences,
Two complex sentences,
Two compound/complex sentences.
15. Sources
All clip art is from:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/?CTT=97.