1. Writing a Personal Narrative
There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home.
John Stuart Mill

2. Being Selective
Is it important to include all of the details you recall from a personal experience? Why or why not?
Be selective. Include the details that are most important/interesting in conveying your experience.
Look at the sample details on page 90 in your text. Discuss with your classmates why some details were used by the writer and others were not.

3. Writing a Narrative Paragraph
What are the three parts, and their functions, of a narrative paragraph?
Topic sentence: introduces the experience
Body sentences: details that re-create the experience for your reader (chronological order)
Closing sentence: your personal reflection on the experience

4. Traits of Narrative Writing
Ideas
Unique experience/accomplishment from your life, include many specific details
Organization
Chronological order with beginning, middle and end
Voice
Be natural, believable and interested. Dialogue used to create realism and reveal the individuals in your essay
Word Choice
Specific words with appropriate connotation and/or feeling
Sentence Fluency
Cohesion: the flow of one idea to the next
Conventions
Punctuation, capitalization, spelling and grammar

5. Keys to Effective Prewriting
Think about memorable experiences that hold importance for you, something you feel strongly about.
Choose one of these as your topic.
Brainstorm/gather details about the experience.
Consider the important sensory details (see, hear, smell, touch and taste) of that time.
Organize your ideas chronologically.
Use dialogue to add personality and reveal the individuals in your writing.

6. Narrative Writing: Telling a Good Story
Some events we write about are inherently dramatic, some are not.
Good narrative writing makes us care about the storyteller and curious to know what happened.

7. Activity: Part I
Think of a memorable moment in your life that you feel comfortable sharing with your classmates (something that you can tell in a few minutes).
Take 5 minutes to make a plan (something that makes you proud, a conflict with someone else or within yourself, your best/worst day ever, etc.…)
What will be the turning point, or climax of your story, and how will you build up to it?
Take turns telling your stories.

8. Activity Part II What did you learn from others’ stories?
Purpose and Audience: What struck you the most when you heard the story?
What in the story was moving, suspenseful, edgy or funny?
What, if anything, helped you identify or sympathize with the storyteller?
What do you think is the most important point about the story?
What did you learn about writing a narrative?
What was easy/difficult about the process of telling a story?
Choosing an event
Showing conflict and making the story dramatic/memorable
Choosing what details to include and which to leave out
Letting the story speak for itself without explaining everything

9. It’s a Boy!
This model recounts an embarrassing public experience that provided the writer with new insight into teen pregnancy, single parenthood, and social stigmas. The voice of the piece shows the writer's personality and easily connects with readers. Many vivid details make the experience come to life.

10. Keys to Effective Revising
Put your pencil down and step away from the essay.
Be sure your beginning, middle and end work well.
Revise anything that is incomplete or confusing.
Pay particular attention to your writing voice. Do you sound sincerely interested in your experience?
Use specific words (i.e. verbs) that show your feelings about the experience.
Check to make sure your sentences read smoothly.

11. Revising for Ideas: Show
Do I show rather than tell in my narrative?
Show = sentences contain action, sensory details, dialogue, and your personal thoughts and feelings.
Telling: It looked like rain.
Showing: Dark gray clouds loomed overhead and thunder rumbled in the distance.
Do the exercise on page 108.

12. Revising for Ideas: Details
Details Details Details
Use the 5 W’s and H:
Who? What?
Where? When?
Why? How?
Do the exercise on page 109.

13. Revising for Organization: Beginning
Your beginning will grab the reader’s attention if it does one of the following:
Starts in the middle of the action
Creates a strong image using sensory details
Gives a personal thought
Do the exercise on page 110.

14. Revising for Organization: Ending
You know you have an effective ending when you can answer yes to the following four questions:
Does my essay build to personal change, accomplishment or victory?
Does my essay end soon after the most intense or important moment?
Will my reader understand why this moment was very important to me?
Are all of my reader’s questions answered?
Should your answer to any of the above questions be no, then return to your writing and revise your ending to make it both solid, based on your story, and satisfying to your reader.

15. Revising for Voice: Dialogue
Your dialogue sounds realistic if it reveals the speaker’s personality. Note the examples on page 112 of possible speaker personalities.
Flat dialogue: “I just heard that I was chosen for the debate team.”
Personality: “This rocks! I made the debate team!” (eager)
“How did this happen? I never tried out for the
debate team…” (suspicious)
Do the exercise on page 112.

16. Revising for Voice: Narrative Voice
You create a consistent narrative voice by sounding like yourself throughout the entire essay. Review your work for any parts that may sound unnatural or do not fit in with your predominant narrative voice.
Do the exercise on page 113.

17. Revising for Word Choice: Specific Verbs
General Verbs
Specific Verbs
Move
shift amble
wobble dawdle
dart sneak
Look
gaze study
stare peek
gawk view
Do the exercise on page 114.

18. Revising for Word Choice: Connotation
Connotation is the suggested meaning or feeling of a word.
Note the different feeling in each set of verbs listed below.
Yell
Laugh
Smile
Discusss
Call
Giggle
Grin
Debate
Bellow
Jeer
Sneer
Argue
Do the exercise on page 115.

19. Revising for Sentence Fluency: Long Sentences
Use long sentences to express complex ideas.
Read the paragraph on page 116 and complete the exercise below it.

20. Revising for Sentence Fluency: Short Sentences
Short sentences work well to deliver especially important ideas.
Use them as you would an exclamation point at the end of a sentence.
A series of short sentences can be used to quicken the pace, like a heart beating faster and faster.

21. Keys to Effective Editing
Use a dictionary, a thesaurus, and the “Proofreader’s Guide” on pages in your text book to guide your corrections.
Check for any words or phrases that may be confusing to your audience/reader.
Check your narrative for correct use of punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar.
Edit on a printed computer copy and then enter your changes on the computer.
Use the editing and proofreading marks on the inside back cover of this book to note your changes.

22. Editing for Conventions
Check for:
Punctuation
Capitalization
Spelling
Grammar

23. Have I punctuated dialogue correctly?
Use a comma to set off a speaker’s exact words from the rest of the sentence.
“Bob Taylor, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” said Melissa Moore.
Place periods and commas inside quotation marks.
“Hello,” Bob said. “It’s pleasure to meet you.”
3. Place an exclamation point or question mark outside the quotation marks when it
punctuates the main sentence, and inside when it punctuates the quotation.
What if someone said to you, “You’ve won a million dollars!”?
I would say, “Are you kidding me?”
Do the exercise on page 120.

24. Have I used pronouns correctly?
Antecedent: a noun or pronoun that a pronoun replaces or refers to. See pages in your text book.
A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in 3 ways:
Number (singular or plural)
Person (first, second or third)
Gender (masculine, feminine, neuter or indefinite)
Mr. Lucas owns 10 horses, and he trains them.
Mr. Lucas is the antecedent for he. Both words are singular, third person, and masculine. Horses is the antecedent for them. Both words are plural, third person, and indefinite Do the exercise on page 121.