Narrative Paper Assignment
ENL 211Narrative Paper Assignment
Introduction:
For this assignment, youll be writing a narrative-style paper to tell a story that youve experienced first or second hand. This means that your story should be truthful and from your own life, with either you (or someone very close to you) as the main character. If you choose to write about someone close to you, you will need to conduct an interview with this person to ensure that you have all the details needed. (Suggested topics include stories about a personal journey, a conflict among family members or friends, or a defining and life-changing experience)
Goals of assignment:
The primary purposes of this assignment are:
to share a meaningful message with your reader
to tell a compelling story in an interesting way
to help you find your voice as a writer
to practice sharing a message through showing via vivid descriptions rather than explicit telling of main points
Some secondary purposes of this assignment are:
to improve language skills by choosing effective and unique words and sentence types
to gain an understanding of the narrative-style genre through reading and discussion of various texts
to practice incorporating the key features of narration in your writing
to improve your writing skills though the planning, writing, and revising process
to practice using descriptive and figurative language
Key features of narration:
Captivating, compelling, or clever title
Clear and purposeful message or moral
Clear and purposeful organization
(dramatic arc, time order, organization to create suspense or intrigue, general-specific)
Good storytelling
(conflict-resolution; character change; suspense and intrigue; high interest story, themes/topics, characters; 3-dimensional and believable characters; direct and indirect dialogue; natural and varied pace/rhythm)
Meaningful and interesting description to create a narrative world for the reader and advance the story
(factual details, sensory details, emotional reactions)
Unique and effective language use
(figures of speech, comparisons, similes, metaphors, allusions, symbols, foreshadowing)
You can find examples of narrative-style writing almost everywhere:
Traditional literature
Short stories
Creative nonfiction
Newspaper articles
Magazine articles
Blogs
Questions to answer before you begin writing:
What is the main message or moral of the story?
Who are the main characters?
What problem(s) do the characters face? What is the resolution to the problem?
How did the main character(s) change by the end of the story? What new understanding was achieved?
What is the setting? (Where does it take place? When did it happen?)
What is the climax of the story? (When does the problem become so bad that something must be done about it?)
As the author, why is this story so important to you?
What do you hope your readers will gain from reading this story?
Assignment Requirements:
Your paper must be typed, printed, double-spaces, Times New Roman Font #12, 1 inch Margine, and at least 800 words long (but you are welcome to write more!)
Your paper must include the steps of the writing process covered in class (brainstorm, rough draft, peer/self-review, and final version)
Your paper should accomplish the goals of the assignment and include the features of a narrative essay that weve studied
On the due date, you will need to submit an electronic copy on Turnitin through Blackboard
You will also be writing an annotated reflection for this paper (explaining how you incorporated the narrative features and highlighting the revisions you made between drafts) Narrative Writing Brainstorming Activity
Idea 1
Idea 2
Idea 3
Story/Experience
(1-2 sentence description)
Specific incident(s) you will write in your narrative. The incident should have taken place over a short period of time, such as a few minutes, hours, a day, or a few days.
Why was this event important to you? Or, why is this event important for others to read about?
Answer two of the following:
What did you learn about yourself, others, or life in general from this event? How did you change as a result of this event? How did you feel at the time, and what is your present perspective of the situation?
What do you want to illustrate to your readers through this story? In other words, what specific message, or insight, or moral lesson do you want to convey to readers?
Who would learn or benefit from reading your narrative, and why? Who might be interested in reading your story? Why? What kind of attitudes, perspective, or background do they have?
Sources of potential significant events:
An incident that changed you or that reveled an aspect of your personality (such as initiative, insecurity, ambition, jealousy, or heroism)
A difficult situation (e.g., when you had to make a tough choice and face the consequences, or when you let someone down or someone you admired let you down)
An occasion when things did not turn out as expected (e.g., when you expected to be criticized but were praised or ignored instead, or when you were convinced you would succeed but failed)
An incident in which a conflict or a serious misunderstanding with someone made you feel unjustly treated or caused you to mistreat someone else
An experience that made you reexamine a basic value or belief (such as a time when you were expected to do something that went against your values or had to make a decision about which you were deeply conflicted)
An encounter with another person that led you to consider seriously someone elses point of view, that changed the way you viewed yourself, or that altered your ideas about how you fit into a group or community
An event that revealed to you other peoples surprising assumptions about you (as a student, friend, colleague, or worker)
