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4.1.3: Narrative Essay introduction and assignment description

  • Page ID
    316822
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    The Narrative Essay assignment description

    The “personal is political” was a 1970s, second-wave feminist era, slogan that observed that our personal lives were impacted by the political activities and ideologies around us (See Linda Napikoski’s “The Personal is Political: Where did This Women’s Movement Slogan Come From? What Does It Mean?” ThoughtCo, (January 3, 2020)). Part of what gave the everyday citizen power then was to tell our stories to each other. As we shared our stories, we could begin to see patterns, overlaps, similarities, and differences — some of which were actionable towards changing our lives for the better.

    For instance, part of the power of the Me Too movement was in women telling their stories of workplace sexual harassment and assault (See Leigh Gilmore’s “Five Years On, #MeToo Shows That Survivors Are More Powerful Together” WBUR commentary (October 13, 2022)).

    Another example would be the Innocence Project in which people told their stories of being wrongly incarcerated and what it took for them to be freed and exonerated (See David Shephard’s “Dispatch from Philadelphia: Why I Tell My Story,” Innocence Project (November 9, 2007)).

    We see this trend also in memoirs of famous people who overcame tremendous odds or achieved great things. In reading their stories, we may gain some new understanding of our world.

    This chapter is designed to support you in composing a narrative essay, an essay composed of a single story or multiple stories that are shared to convey meaning. The readings serve both as examples of narrative essays themselves as well as openings to discussions of the power of stories, both shared verbally and in writing or performed.

    Relation to English 96 Student Learning Outcomes
    Your work towards successfully completing the narrative essay will demonstrate that you have met the following English 96 learning outcomes (Outcomes come verbatim from English 96 student learning outcomes.):

    Reading

    • Apply a variety of reading strategies to successfully decode texts, including:
    • Activating background knowledge;
    • Identifying stated and implied main ideas and supporting details.
    • Explaining the meaning of new words by using context clues, word parts, and dictionary skills;
    • Generating questions before, during, and after reading;

    Critical Thinking

    • Engage in practices of critical thinking while reading and writing, including:
    • Interpreting a text and supporting the interpretation with evidence; and
    • Analyzing and evaluating a text in connection with other areas of knowledge, including text to text, text to self, and text to world.

    Writing Through Reading

    • Respond to course readings by writing essays that
    • Use textual evidence from the readings;
    • Incorporate appropriate focus (including a thesis statement), organization and support;
    • Demonstrate unity, coherence, and clarity;
    • Support claims with examples, explanations, and details;
    • Integrate source material and utilize appropriate documentation practices;
    • Synthesize personal, social, and textual connections;
    • Apply a variety of invention strategies . . . to generate ideas for writing projects; and
    • Employ a recursive revision process through multiple drafts that integrates peer and instructor feedback into the finished writing and that includes self-editing strategies.

    Sample Curriculum
    This assignment is designed to be completed in three to four weeks.

    Week 1, Class 1: Watch a short film or documentary that connects story-telling with social justice (Use Kanopy). Review Assignment Description and a definition of a narrative essay.

    Homework: Read Ari Honarvar’s “Why Rituals are Good For Your Health.”

    Week 1, Class 2: Review discussion questions for Honarvar’s essay and do the four themes story-telling workshop.

    Homework: Do Take Home Writing Assignment for Honarvar’s essay and Read Linda Gonzalez’s essay.

    Week 2, Class 1: Review discussion questions for Gonzalez’s essay and share out the writing assignment for Honarvar’s essay with an eye toward revision and development. Start the Class Reader activity.

    Homework: Do Take Home Writing Assignment for Gonzalez’s essay and read “Six Short Essays” by Karen Anderson.  

    Week 2, Class 2: Review in-person activity for Anderson’s essay and review take home writing assignment for Gonzalez’s essay with an eye toward revision and development. Review assignment description for narrative essay and the outline template. Continue Class Reader activity.

    Homework: Complete an outline for the narrative essay assignment.

    Week 3, Class 1: Peer review the outlines submitted for the narrative essay. Do the pair-share exercise.  

    Homework: Using the outlines and the feedback from the pair-share, write the first draft of the narrative essay.

    Week 3, Class 2: Instructor conferences/Peer reviews/Finish Class Reader activity.

    Homework: Using feedback from instructor conferences and peer review, students will write a final draft of the narrative essay.

    Assignment Description for the Narrative Essay

    Goal
    Using the take-home writing assignments, the class reader activity or other activities in the class, write a narrative essay. Choose one of the questions listed below to start. Your thesis statement will be a one sentence statement of your overall meaning or idea.

    Narrative Essay Questions (Choose one.)

    1. Describe a ritual you practice yourself or a ritual you’ve seen practiced and its meaning.
    2. Choose one person that you know who is no longer living and describe how they impacted you and/or your community.
    3. Describe a ritual that you no longer practice or that you no longer see practiced that you want to revive.
    4. Discuss a holiday/holy day ritual you practice and what it means — describe one year’s celebration of it.
    5. What’s good? What are you up to? How was your day/week? How are you doing?
    6. Develop your story from the Four Themes Story-telling workshop.

    Essay Components

    •  Introduction: Your introduction should discuss generally the idea to be conveyed or the question you are answering. The last sentence of the introductory paragraph will be the thesis statement;
    • Thesis Statement: The thesis statement should convey the meaning or idea you are trying to share with the class.
    • Body Paragraphs should be a single story or multiple short stories that reflect your thesis statement.
    • Conclusion

    Criteria for Grading

    • Stories/Story in connection with thesis statement
    • Thesis Statement
    • Development: Your stories/story should clearly and fully develop your idea.
    • Grammar, Mechanics, Spelling: Your final essay overall should be revised and error-free. This may mean visiting a tutor who can proofread or visiting your professor during office hours to review your essay line by line.

    Writing Process

    • Outline
    • First Draft [I will grade the first draft based on the rubric. If the final draft addresses the feedback in the first draft and improves the essay, the first draft grade will convert to 100.]
    • Final draft

     


    4.1.3: Narrative Essay introduction and assignment description is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 1.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.