How to Live
1st Quarter Writing Performance Assessment: Narrative Composition
DUE ON OCTOBER 21ST. BRING IT SAVED ON A FLASH DRIVE OR SAVE IT ON Google Drive.
Writing a Narrative composition appeals to one of humankind's basic instincts, the impulse to share stories. Sometimes the aim of the story-teller is simply to entertain, to provide a moment of escape from the business of the day or the horrors of the night, but sometimes the aim of the story-teller is to instruct, to help others in their understanding of something.
The skills needed to narrate a story well are not entirely the same as the skills needed to write a good essay. Some wonderful short fiction writers are not particularly good essayists and vice versa. Still, it is useful to look at those elements that make up a good narrative and know how to apply what we learn toward making our essays as dramatic as possible whenever that is appropriate.
The ability to describe something convincingly will serve a writer well in any kind of essay situation. The most important thing to remember is that your job as writer is to show, not tell. If you say that the tree is beautiful, your readers are put on the defensive: "Wait a minute," they think. "We'll be the judge of that! Show us a beautiful tree and we'll believe." Do not rely, then, on adjectives that attempt to characterize a thing's attributes. Lovely, exciting, interesting – these are all useful adjectives in casual speech or when we're pointing to something that is lovely, etc., but in careful writing they don't do much for us; in fact, they sound hollow.
Let nouns and verbs do the work of description for you. With nouns, your readers will see; with verbs, they will feel.
Choose ONE from the following prompts to complete your narrative writing assignment:
1. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Pearl is both a blessing and a curse to Hester. Write a narrative essay in which you describe a personal incident in which a child was a blessing or a curse.
2. One
DUE ON OCTOBER 21ST. BRING IT SAVED ON A FLASH DRIVE OR SAVE IT ON Google Drive.
Writing a Narrative composition appeals to one of humankind's basic instincts, the impulse to share stories. Sometimes the aim of the story-teller is simply to entertain, to provide a moment of escape from the business of the day or the horrors of the night, but sometimes the aim of the story-teller is to instruct, to help others in their understanding of something.
The skills needed to narrate a story well are not entirely the same as the skills needed to write a good essay. Some wonderful short fiction writers are not particularly good essayists and vice versa. Still, it is useful to look at those elements that make up a good narrative and know how to apply what we learn toward making our essays as dramatic as possible whenever that is appropriate.
The ability to describe something convincingly will serve a writer well in any kind of essay situation. The most important thing to remember is that your job as writer is to show, not tell. If you say that the tree is beautiful, your readers are put on the defensive: "Wait a minute," they think. "We'll be the judge of that! Show us a beautiful tree and we'll believe." Do not rely, then, on adjectives that attempt to characterize a thing's attributes. Lovely, exciting, interesting – these are all useful adjectives in casual speech or when we're pointing to something that is lovely, etc., but in careful writing they don't do much for us; in fact, they sound hollow.
Let nouns and verbs do the work of description for you. With nouns, your readers will see; with verbs, they will feel.
Choose ONE from the following prompts to complete your narrative writing assignment:
1. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Pearl is both a blessing and a curse to Hester. Write a narrative essay in which you describe a personal incident in which a child was a blessing or a curse.
2. One