Sample Personal NarrativeEnglish 9
Mr. Castellano
When I was a freshman in college, I had a terrifying experience camping alone in the Blue Ridge Mountains. One Friday afternoon, I set off on my bicycle for the Mountains, hoping to have a solitary experience “communing with Nature.” I had visions of an idyllic experience away from school and people. Instead, I nearly froze to death. Like all intense experiences, it taught me a lot about myself. And to this day, it is an experience that affects the way I think of Nature, solitude, camping, and myself.
After leaving my dorm, it took me about three hours to get to my campsite; almost the whole time, it rained continuously and the temperature dropped. I was unprepared for foul weather and had only a sleeping bag and poncho to protect me from the elements. I still wonder why I did not turn back. I suppose I kept thinking things would get better. They didn’t.
By the time I reached the Mountains, it was too dark to do anything but stay. I found a place to camp for the night but, because I was so ill prepared, I did not even know if I was in a legitimate campsite. Nonetheless, I settled in for the night. Cold, wet, tired, and scared, I ate the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I had brought, curled into my sleeping bag, threw the poncho over me, and hoped (and prayed) for the morning to come quickly. It did anything but.
After dozing for what I imagined was a few hours, I was awakened by the sound of a loud engine and the bright glare of a searchlight. Bizarre fears flooded my mind: was it an organized crime hit? deranged mountain men looking for a victim? poachers doing illegal hunting? the park ranger looking for illegal campers (which I probably was)? At the time, these thoughts all seemed like plausible outcomes. For what seemed like hours, the car stayed; I prayed I would not be discovered. Somehow, I was not. (Probably nobody was looking for me.) After the car or truck pulled away, I passed the rest of the night in fits and starts. Whenever I slept for a while, the rain would start again; the pelting on my poncho would awaken me. The sound of rain on a tent still brings me immediately back to that scary night.
Finally, after a few hours of sleep in the middle of the night, I awoke before dawn shivering, soaking wet, and numb in my fingers and toes. I waited only for enough light to begin bicycling back to my dorm; I did not even have food for breakfast. I was halfway home before I had feeling in my extremities. Arriving at my room, I crawled into a warm, dry bed, grateful to be alive. It took several days before I could laugh about the experience and probably several years before I gained some insight into it.
I have been as cold and as wet and as hungry on subsequent camping trips, but never have I been so scared. Nearly thirty years later, I remember distinctly the events of that eighteen-hour trip and hope never to have another such experience. From that very brief trip, I learned to prepare better for the challenges of Nature and to have an appropriate respect for its power. Most important, I learned that I could endure a lot more than I had ever imagined.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTEnglish 9
PERSONAL NARRATIVEMr. Castellano
“We had the experience but missed the meaning.” – T.S. Eliot
Your first big, at-home essay assignment will be to write a personal narrative: an essay in which you explore some specific aspect of your life. For right now, I don’t want you to be thinking about how long it will be, what you will write about, or anything else: we’ll discuss all that next week. What I want you to do for the next 7 nights is write for about 10 minutes in your journal. Use the method we read about in “A Way of Writing.” This time, I will ask that you do some focused free writing; try to write exclusively about yourself: about people in your life, your experiences, your hopes and dreams, etc. But more important than anything, I want you to do some sustained writing for the next 7 nights. Remember what Stafford said about this type of writing leading to discovering new treasures. Be open to the process. I have written suggestions below, but you are by no means limited to these ideas. By next Thursday, you will have 7 entries that will help you to pick a topic for your essay. And even if you do not discover a topic, I know you will discover things about yourself. Enjoy doing this.
JOURNAL SUGGESTIONS
Fri., 29 Sept.: Write about the first 3 weeks of school.
Sat., 30 Sept.: Write about someone who has influenced you.
Sun., 1 Oct.: Write about a positive event form your past.
Mon., 2 Oct.: Write about a goal or dream you have for your future.
Tues., 3 Oct.: Write about a favorite activity or hobby (playing the guitar, bicycle riding, etc.).
Wed., 4 Oct.: Write about a sad or difficult experience from your past.
Thurs., 5 Oct.: Write about a favorite book, movie, song, or other work of Art.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTEnglish 9
PERSONAL NARRATIVEMr. Castellano
“We had the experience but missed the meaning.” – T.S. Eliot
Your first big, at-home essay assignment will be to write a personal narrative: an essay in which you explore some specific aspect of your life. For right now, I don’t want you to be thinking about how long it will be, what you will write about, or anything else: we’ll discuss all that next week. What I want you to do for the next 7 nights is write for about 10 minutes in your journal. Use the method we read about in “A Way of Writing.” This time, I will ask that you do some focused free writing: try to write exclusively about yourself: about people in your life, your experiences, your hopes and dreams, etc. But more important than anything, I want you to do some sustained writing for the next 7 nights. Remember what Stafford said about this type of writing leading to discovering new treasures. Be open to the process. I have written suggestions below, but you are by no means limited to these ideas. By next Thursday, you will have 7 entries that will help you to pick a topic for your essay. And even if you do not discover a topic, I know you will discover things about yourself. Enjoy doing this.
JOURNAL SUGGESTIONS
Fri., 29 Sept.: Write about the first 3 weeks of school.
Sat., 30 Sept.: Write about someone who has influenced you.
Sun., 1 Oct.: Write about a positive event form your past.
Mon., 2 Oct.: Write about a goal or dream you have for your future.
Tues., 3 Oct.: Write about a favorite activity or hobby (playing the guitar, bicycle riding, etc.).
Wed., 4 Oct.: Write about a sad or difficult experience from your past.
Thurs., 5 Oct.: Write about a favorite book, movie, song, or other work of Art.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTEnglish 9
PERSONAL NARRATIVEMr. Castellano
For your first writing assignment, you will write a multiple paragraph essay, with special attention given to good paragraph development. The paragraph is the basic unit of composition and organization. If you can write a good paragraph, you can write a good book. The paragraph helps you to organize your writing, to stay focused, and to develop your ideas fully. The paragraph helps your reader to follow your argument and to absorb all you have to say. The paragraph provides a logical order.
Every paragraph needs to have a TOPIC SENTENCE. Sometimes this is called a controlling idea. The purpose of the topic sentence is exactly that – to control the rest of the paragraph. The topic sentence should be clear, focused, limited, and, most important, it must express an attitude. It serves as the hub that connects all the spokes of the wheel of your paragraph.
In the first paragraph of a multi-paragraph essay, you will state, clarify, and develop the controlling idea of your entire essay. The statement of this controlling idea is called the THESIS STATEMENT. I know you already know this, but I will say it again: if you can write a good introduction with a clear, focused thesis, you can write a good essay. That is what we will work on for this (and every) essay.
PERSONAL NARRATIVE
Our first type of writing will be the personal narrative. In this type of writing, you will tell about a significant experience in your life. You have been writing in your journal this past week in order to try to generate some possible topics for this assignment; keep writing in your journal if you find it helpful and enjoyable: it’s a great habit. Maybe you have found a topic you want to write; if so, great. If not, think about event, hopes, goals, people, activities, etc., that are important to you. We all have something important to say. Remember what William Stafford wrote. Once you come up with a topic, you will then need to limit it by generating a good thesis statement.
The challenge of any topic is to find a topic broad enough to be interesting and narrow enough to be completely examined in the limited space of 1-2 pages. Keep that in mind as you write. Remember: it is always better to say a lot about a small topic than to say a little bit about everything.
Here is a way to approach the assignment: choose a topic; generate lots of ideas; narrow your focus; write an outline or plan of attack; start writing; re-read, revise, re-write. At first, just try to get ideas down. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar the first time through. (Remember “A Way of Writing.”) Show your essay to other people and me. No one should write the essay for you (of course), but do get feedback from others. Get in the habit of writing multiple drafts. You will not only eliminate errors; you will also improve your writing.
I have given you a sample personal narrative. The purpose of the sample is not to make you write as I do; it is to give you a sense of a valid topic and of one way to approach it. A topic like “My Life” is NOT appropriate for this assignment. A more appropriate topic would be what it was like when I broke my leg and what I learned from the experience (for example).
ASSIGNMENT: During the next few days, work at developing a focus for your personal narrative paragraph. Get started. We will do some writing in class next week. The essay is due on Friday, 13 October. It is worth 100 points. Have fun with it. Do your best.