Narrative (aka Remembering) Essay
Point value: 100 points
Due dates: First draft:
Second draft:
Final draft:
Your Assignment:
1. Reflect upon the events and circumstances that comprise your most vivid or pivotal memories. Take time to brainstorm about these reflections, noting the situations that mark significant changes in your life or personality. Bear in mind, the event itself does not have to be universally weighty; the simplest events often reveal some of the most profound discoveries. Also, while the memory should have personal significance for you, that significance should also be accessible to your reader. In other words, you should be able to convey your insight to your audience in a way that makes it meaningful for the reader as well.
· Select from among your brainstorming notes a single event or memory around which to focus your essay. This memory should be one in which there is sufficient tension or conflict – either internal or external – to keep the reader interested. Finally, your memory should be limited and focused in time and space.
3. Apply the techniques of observation (i.e., Show Don’t Tell). Explore the sensory details, comparisons and images, and dominant impression that surround your memory. Be sure to note instances of dialogue and details of time and location as you synthesize the descriptive elements of your memory into a single, significant event of discovery.
4. Organize the information that you have recalled and recounted into a unified essay. The essay should include the basic elements of dramatic action (i.e. rising action, conflict, climax, failing action, and resolution) as well as a focused discovery or insight.
5. You must be prepared with a copy of your paper for peer review on the initial due date in order to receive points for the day. When you turn in your final draft, please also turn in any preliminary brainstorming, clustering, listing, etc., activities that you do to help you recall the memory as vividly as possible. As always, every draft of your paper must be type-written and double-spaced. Finally, PLEASE AVOID CLICHES! Your finished draft should be 2-4 pages typed, double-spaced.
Evaluation Criteria
· Show Don’t Tell/Descriptive techniques (sensory detail, dialogue, action, etc.)
· Conflict
· Discovery (personal insight or main idea, connection between past and present)
· Focus and coherency
· Mechanics