Power Point presentation with audio on how to write a personal narrative essay.

1. College Composition I Writing a Narrative Essay

2. Narrative—tells a story Who? What? When? Where? Why?

3. Pick a Topic Something significant that happened to you. Organize your story in time.

4. Decide On Your Purpose To entertain Your embarrassing moment To inform A lesson you learned To persuade Not to do what you did Picture Source: Tastybit, ZZ Gets Embarrassed, June 15, 2008 via Flickr, Creative Commons License

5. Keep Your Audience in Mind The members of the class The members of your group The instructor

6. Audience Will they find your topic interesting? Why do they need/want to know this? What do you need to tell them?

7. Generate Your Raw Material List all important events. What happened. Who was involved. What did people do or say. Do some freewriting or brainstorming.

8. Decide on Your Dominant Impression Why are you telling this story? What do you want your readers to feel? Sad? Embarrassed for you? Proud of you? Smarter?

9. Write Your Topic Sentence “I made a big impression on my new boyfriend’s family when I fainted in front of them in a fancy restaurant.” “When I was thirteen, I learned the hard way that driving a car was not as easy as it looked.” “On January 23, 2001, I realized that we can never take what we have for granted.”

10. Check Your Details Do you need more details? Are there any details you need to omit? Do all the details support your dominant impression?

11. Decide on Your Order Spatial (left to right, right to left) Chronological (time order) Least to most important

12. Set Up An Outline Topic Sentence, Major Detail, Two examples, Major Detail, Two examples, Major Detail, Two examples, Concluding Sentence.

13. Write the first draft. Start with the topic sentence. Write quickly. Don’t stop to correct mistakes. When finished, add a conclusion. Read the paper aloud; add transitions where necessary.

14. Write the Final Draft Must be typed and double spaced Three paragraphs Run “spell check” Be sure to include required sentences: Two compound sentences, Two complex sentences, Two compound/complex sentences.

15. Sources All clip art is from: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/?CTT=97.