Personal Narrative

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• Multi-Angle personal Narrative Essay Example

  ...Multi-Angle Personal Narrative Assignment Sheet Stories, the argument goes, are the main way we make sense of things, whether in thinking of our lives as a progression leading somewhere or in telling ourselves what is happening in the world. –Jonathan Culler (Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction 82) PURPOSE Jonathan Culler argues that stories help us to make sense of things. For this assignment, you will select an important moment from your life and tell it as a story. Your purpose is to write a narrative that reveals something important about you to your audience, and perhaps to yourself as well. This first assignment asks you to reconsider your experience from a variety of angles. Along the way you’ll consider issues of organization, description, detail selection, point of view and audience. RESEARCH The main research resource for this assignment is yourself. While it may seem daunting to choose and write about just one of many significant moments in your life, the activities you will do in and out of class will help you sift through your history to find a rich story to tell. These activities might include: A short paper about a time in your life when you communicated well A timeline “Top Ten” lists Free writes that discuss who you are Talking with family and friends to gain their perspective on notable memories Reading some examples of narratives written by student authors and professional...

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• Essay on Slave Narratives

  ...Tanjala Harris Dr. Albert Farr AML 1600 29 September 2014 Slave Narratives The Influence of Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs, in the preface to the book, wrote: I do earnestly desire to arouse the women of the North to a realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the South, still in bondage, suffering what I suffered, and most of them far worse. I want to add my testimony to that of abler pens to convince the people of the Free States what Slavery really is (335). With this statement, Jacobs specified her purpose for writing and her intended audience. This perception gives readers an understanding of why she chose to include what she did in her story as well as to why she chose to exclude other details. Even though this work is presented as a narrative of her own life situations, there were many occasions when she described conditions of which she was not directly involved. For example, she titled one chapter "Sketches of Neighboring Slaveholders" and dedicated this section to recounting some of the disturbing experiences of other slaves from other plantations. It was her hope to paint a picture of slavery as a cruel and immoral institution. She did certainly include many of her own experiences, but she was very careful in how she included them. She sought to gain the compassions of the middle class white women of the North to boost their protests against slavery. Nevertheless, she...

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• Biblical Narrative Essay

  ...Leo Staley Art of Biblical Narrative by Robert Alter A Critical Book Review The Art of Biblical Narrative, by Robert Alter, presents us with an introduction to a literary approach to the Bible. Specifically, he treats the prose of the Bible as highly sophisticated fictional narrative for the purposes of literary and analysis, countering notions that the often bewildering features encountered in it are a result of primitive writing technique or confused synthesis of varied sources. After opening with an introductory example and a survey of the current state of the literary study of the Bible (as of 31 years ago at least), he moves on to the core of his argument. He begins by discussing prose fiction and sacred narrative in general, and then moves on to discuss the use of convention within Biblical narratives. Next is the function of, and relationship between, narration and dialogue in the Bible. Next is the Biblically ubiquitous rhetorical device of repetition. Next he discusses the way the Bible deliberately leaves out details where our modern ears would expect them. After that, he analyzes the multi-sourced aspect of the Bible. Finally, he restates and expands the earlier discussion of the purpose and value of fiction and why it appears as it does in the Bible. First I will distill the gist of his theses, and then I will offer my own commentary. Alter’s first and central thesis, that, in...

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• Narrative Paradigm Research Paper

  ... Narrative Paradigm Thomas McGarity College America/Eng223 We all had that friend that always had a story to tell. Years later I find out that story telling is a big part of communication. Walter fish wrote that all meaning full communication comes from storytelling, which is referred to as narrative paradigm. We use narrative paradigm every day to help us remember people, places, and things. We also use narrative paradigm to help us make decisions in life. Not all narrative paradigms are useful and relevant; some are just for entertainment purpose. The process of narrative paradigm helps us recall special moments in our lives. I always tell the story of the first time I held my son in my hands. He was 7 pounds and 8 ounces and was born at 4:38 pm. I was nearly in a car accident on the way to the hospital because I was driving in a panic. Luckily I didn’t get a ticket or hurt anyone including my-self. That story helps me remember the strong emotions I was feeling for the first time in my life. It also helps me remember where I was employed at the time; I was a temp at the post office. I can even recall what I was wearing that day because it was such a huge moment in my life. My mother and sister use narrative paradigm to try to help me remember things that happened when I was a child. Apparently I learned how to ride a bike with...

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• Narrative Essay

  ...NARRATIVE ESSAY PROMPTS [Being Unprepared] Because you have been sick, out of town, busy at work, or working on other homework, you didn't have as much time to study for an important test as you needed. Everyone going to school has been in this situation. Think of a specific test that you took that you felt unprepared for and narrate the events. Tell your readers about the preparation that you were able to do, the reasons that you didn't get to prepare as well as you wanted, taking the test, and any significant events that happened after you took the test. Your paper should help readers understand what it felt like to be unprepared. [Lightbulb Moment] Think of an experience when you realized that you suddenly understood an idea, a skill, or a concept you had been struggling with -- it might be something related to a class that you took or a specific athletic skill you were trying to perfect. For instance, you might think about trying to understand how to identify iambic pentameter in a poem or how to complete a Taylor Series problem in your Calculus class. Or you might consider trying to perfect your free throws and suddenly understanding how your follow-through was affecting your success. Write a narrative that tells the story of your movement toward understanding. How did you finally come to understand? What changed your perceptions and gave you a new understanding? Your paper should help readers understand how you felt to...

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• Narrative Rhetoric Essay

  ...Allison Hoover Chapter 5 notes I. Formal Components of Narrative Rhetoric II. In narrative rhetoric a story is told to make a point. In some cases the entire work of rhetoric is a story and the main point is implied. In other instances, the rhetor may use a number of small stories to make a point. In still other instances, the rhetor may refer to, but not tell in any detail, a widely known story. This type of narrative is somewhat similar to enthymematic argument and is used most often in reference to the dominant stories in an organization or society. III. What makes up a narrative? Narrative rhetoric is defined by four components i. Plot a. The plot is the story line. It is what happens in the tale. While there are many possible types of plots, it is important to recognize that principles of plot development demand that a story be introduced by some sort of scene that sets the stage for the plot that follows. b. Ultimately, a point of greatest conflict or tension is reached (the climax), and the conflict or tension is resolved. This is followed by a return to normalcy. c. Implicit or explicit conclusions 1. Moral of the story d. The logic of telling a good story required that the point of greatest conflict must come near the end. Crucially, the pattern of rising action, which I have described, is generally present, not because life always works that way, but...

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• Writing Narrative Essay

  ...IMPLEMENTING PICTURE SERIES TO IMPROVE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN WRITING NARRATIVE TEXTS AT MABI PROGRAM OF MAN 3 MALANG A Thesis by Fifin Naili Rizkiyah (Nim 20622140128) State University of Malang, Faculty of Letters, English Department, July 2010 Nowadays, English is becoming more and more important. English is a global language which many people all over the world speak English as first or second languages. Many countries include English as the subject taught in educational institution. English is a key to open the door of science, technology, economics and culture. In Indonesia, our government has made a policy on the school curriculum that English is taught as a compulsory subject. As stated in Pusat Pembinaan & Pengembangan Bahasa in 1984 (in Marhum, 2009:3), on December 12, 1967, the Minister of Education issued Decree No 096/1967, stipulating English as the first foreign language to be taught in Indonesian schools. Based on KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan= School Based Curriculum), the instructional objective of English is that the mastery of four language skills; they are listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Language skills are classified into receptive and productive skills. Receptive skill includes listening and reading while productive skill includes speaking and writing. Productive skills are obviously more difficult than the receptive. Widiati and Cahyono (2006:139) state that writing is the...

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• Frame Narrative Essay

  ...The Importance of Frame Narrative within a Novella The power of a literary work to affect a reader is often mysterious. What is it within the work that elicits an emotional response from the reader? Upon first glance, one might conclude that a narrative’s content is the source of this affective power – and often it is. The form of a narrative plays a significant a role in shaping the way a reader experiences a story; the manner in which it is told is as important as specific content of what is being communicated. While there are multiple forms of narrative, frame narrative is a particularly useful form, serving various functions within a story. This essay will demonstrate the structure and function of the frame narrative in the novellas May Day by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers, and The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. The prologue in May Day novella is that of a fairy tail. He uses recognizable words and phrases that are commonly found in fairy tales, such as: “never had there been such splendor,” and “I have no more slippers and alas, I have no more trinkets” (Fitzgerald 25-26), in order to create a fantasy-filled setting for the reader. The tone of the prologue is in stark contrast to that of chapter one and the rest of his work. By juxtaposing the fairy tale style prologue with an ultra realistic narrative the reader is jolted into the...

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