Personal Narrative

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Personal Narrative

• Writing the first essay connectors habitual
  past versus simple past

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Introductions

• Interview a partner for 5 minutes.
• Ask your partner questions (Where are you from?
  What are your hobbies? Are you a student?)
• Write a 5 sentence introduction of your partner.

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First Writing Assignment

• Your Task
• Write a personal narrative in one or two
  paragraphs. Each paragraph should have at least
  five sentences.
• Think about
• When was an important time in my life?
• What has happened in my experience that I would
  enjoy writing about?
• Is there an event in my life that other people
  would enjoy hearing/reading about?

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What is a personal narrative?

• A personal narrative is a story about yourself
  and an event that happened in your past
• NarrativeStory
• The most creative essay and allows you more
  freedom than other academic essays.

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Components of a story

• SettingWhere the action in a story happens.
• ThemeBasic idea or point of the story
• MoodFeeling or atmosphere the author creates for
  the story.
• Characters The people in the story
• PlotWhat happens in the story

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Introduction-Narrative

• Describe the background of the story (characters,
  setting, atmosphere)
• Prepare the reader on what to expect in the
  story.
• Folse (2004) believes that in introductions, you
  should have a hook that will grab the readers
  attention, as well as a thesis that organizes the
  essay.

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What is a hook?

• The first two or three lines in the introductory
  paragraph that grabs readers attention.
• Help set the stage for the story.
• Make readers guess what will happen next in the
  story.

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How to write a good hook

• Like a fish getting hooked by a fisherman, you
  need to hook your readers and make them want to
  read your essay.
• If its a good hook, people would want to read
  your essay.
• If it is not a good hook, then no one wants to
  read your essay.

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Some suggestions

• Ask a question. (How many of you spend hours
  downloading music to your iPod?)
• Use an interesting observation (Because of the
  economy, President Obama is having problems
  sleeping well these days.)
• Create a unique scenario. (Traveling at more than
  300 km per hour, he traveled to another
  dimension.)
• Use a famous quote (To be or not to be that is
  the question.)
• Use a statistic (If world temperatures continue
  to rise, Singapore will be under water by 2050.)

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Hooks-Connecting Information

• After the hook, the writer usually writes three
  to five sentences that connect it to the topic.
• Example from Keith Folse
• Her daily routine was not glamorous. She did
  everything from sweeping the floors to cooking
  the meals. If someone had asked her, Are there
  any household chores that you practically hate?,
  she probably would have answered, None.

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Example

• Write a sample hook for this paragraph
• At 16 I worked in the toy department of
  Lotte Department Store, where I learned that I
  enjoyed helping people. I always went out of my
  way to help people because I learned that if I
  worked hard, I would succeed. This is the reason
  why I want to go to a businessman and go to
  business school.

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Example

• I had never been more anxious in my life. I had
  just spent the last three hours trying to get to
  the airport so that I could travel home.
• What questions do you have?
• What do you think will happen next?

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Thesis

• States the main idea of the essay (thesis
  statements).
• In narrative essays, they introduce the action
  that begins in the first paragraph of the essay.

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Examples

1. Now, as I watched the bus driver set my luggage
   on the airport, I realized that my frustration
   has only just begun.
2. I wanted my mother to watch me race down the
   steep hill, so I called out her name and then
   nudged my bike forward.
3. Because his pride wouldnt allow him to
   apologize, Ken now had to fight the bully, and he
   was pretty sure that he wouldnt win.

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Body

• Contains most of the plot-the supporting
  information.
• Can be organized in many different ways.
• One way is chronological, or time, order (where
  you give more information about the story as it
  proceeds in time).

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Transitional Sentences

• Have two purposes
• Signal the end of action in one paragraph
• Link the next paragraph.
• Gives your reader an ability to follow happens
  and predicts what will happen next.

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Concluding Paragraph

• Can have two functions
• The moral of the story, or what the character(s)
  learned from the experience.
• Make a prediction about what will happen next
  based on what happened.

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Examples

• Moral The little boy had finally learned that
  telling the truth was the most important thing to
  do.
• Prediction/Revelation I can only hope that one
  day I will be able to do the same for another
  traveler who is suffering through a terrible
  journey.

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Example Narrative Essay

• Have you ever had trouble trying to get to
  someplace very important? Where were you going?
  Why were you having problems?
• What is a hero? What do you consider to be a
  heroic act?

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Paragraph Unity

• Each paragraph of an essay must have unity.
• A paragraph must have one main idea.
• Every sentence in the paragraph must be relevant
  to that main idea.

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Paragraph Unity-Example

• As you manage your time, think about how long
  certain activities will take. A common mistake is
  to underestimate the time needed to do something
  simple. For example, when you are planning to go
  to the store, there may be a line of people. Last
  week in line I met a woman I went to high school
  with, so we chatted. It turns out she has two
  children just the same age as mine.

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Connectors and Time Relationship Words

• Show how events progress.
• Chronological Order- first (second, third, etc.),
  next, finally, later, now, then
• Prepositions- after (a moment), at (1pm), by
  (Thursday), during (class), until (600)
• Time Words that begin clauses- after, as soon as,
  before, (two weeks) later, from then on, when,
  while, whenever, until