Narrative Essay About a Significant Moment of Your Life
English 1301 Freshman Composition I, Summer 2012
Instructor Name: Sampada Chavan
Assignment #2 Personal Narrative (20% of total grade)
Description of Assignment
For this project you will write a narrative essay about a significant moment of your life using the literary strategies of plot, character, and setting. This should be a moment when you learned something important about yourself or someone else, or about life. You will develop your story through the use of contraries, creating tension that moves the story forward and gives it significance. You can discuss the importance of your story explicitly, perhaps as a revelation, or you can imply it. Either way, it should be clear that you have contemplated the significance of the event and have pushed your thinking past the obvious, surface-level impact. The focus of your narrative should be “The Moment,” with only enough background to convey its understanding to the reader. Your audience for this narrative is your classmates and me. Therefore, you will want to think carefully about the story you choose to tell. Not only should it be something you are comfortable sharing about yourself, but it should be something that will be appropriate for your audience and that will not be too uncomfortable or offensive. I strongly discourage writing about violent, highly traumatic or sexual experiences. Not only are these potentially uncomfortable for your audience, but they are extremely difficult to write about effectively. Also, a topic like "First love" might seem like a good to you, but you should go with something that will have an impact on your life on a larger scale. Besides, you will find that it is often the seemingly quiet, even mundane experiences in life that have the most lasting impact.
Grading criteria:
I will grade your work on the following criteria:
• Narrative is 3-5 pages long • Is an improvement over the Literacy Narrative keeping style, grammar, formatting in mind • Tells a
Instructor Name: Sampada Chavan
Assignment #2 Personal Narrative (20% of total grade)
Description of Assignment
For this project you will write a narrative essay about a significant moment of your life using the literary strategies of plot, character, and setting. This should be a moment when you learned something important about yourself or someone else, or about life. You will develop your story through the use of contraries, creating tension that moves the story forward and gives it significance. You can discuss the importance of your story explicitly, perhaps as a revelation, or you can imply it. Either way, it should be clear that you have contemplated the significance of the event and have pushed your thinking past the obvious, surface-level impact. The focus of your narrative should be “The Moment,” with only enough background to convey its understanding to the reader. Your audience for this narrative is your classmates and me. Therefore, you will want to think carefully about the story you choose to tell. Not only should it be something you are comfortable sharing about yourself, but it should be something that will be appropriate for your audience and that will not be too uncomfortable or offensive. I strongly discourage writing about violent, highly traumatic or sexual experiences. Not only are these potentially uncomfortable for your audience, but they are extremely difficult to write about effectively. Also, a topic like "First love" might seem like a good to you, but you should go with something that will have an impact on your life on a larger scale. Besides, you will find that it is often the seemingly quiet, even mundane experiences in life that have the most lasting impact.
Grading criteria:
I will grade your work on the following criteria:
• Narrative is 3-5 pages long • Is an improvement over the Literacy Narrative keeping style, grammar, formatting in mind • Tells a