Class #4: THE NARRATIVE: Monday, September 19, 2016

Today's poem. 

READ article, "How to Mark a Book" by Mortimer Adler

WRITE: 

Writing a Personal Narrative

A narrative is a story. In writing a narrative essay, you share with the reader some personal experience of your own in order to make a point or convey a larger message. A great narrative, for example might be how your grandfather influenced your desire to become an orthodontist, or perhaps you’ll relate the story of the time you didn’t make the cut for the basketball team. Whatever the story, a good narrative relays a higher purpose or meaning.

Narrative effect is the main point of your story—the moral, the message, the insight you offer. Without a specific narrative effect, your essay is merely a series of unconnected events. If you are unsure what your main point is, you might ask yourself, “Why am I telling this story? Why should someone else be interested in reading about my experience?” In addition, you must decide whether to reveal your point explicitly (stated directly) or implicitly (suggested but not stated).

Formal Essay #2: The Descriptive Narrative: Your narrative will be a story that evinces LOVE...not necessarily the LOVE of a human being. It could be the love of an item (your favorite chair) or an activity (knitting, spelunking, 40 man squash tournaments, full-contact origami). The catch is that the narrative must provide its description through the telling of a specific story. So you can't simply DESCRIBE your chair, you must tell me the story of how you got it, or a time when it provided you solace. You can't tell me about your boyfriend, you have to tell me about a particular memorable date. 

The narrative MUST tell a story, and the story must illustrate the love you feel for the thing. 

You may NOT write about a person, animal or sport. 

Sorry, just plain tired of reading those. This forced movement outside of the box will be good for you, I promise. 

Two - three pages double spaced, default font, 1" margins. Write name and Formal Essay #2: Narrative in the header. 

DRAFT ONE, DUE WEDNESDAY. Bring a hard copy to class.  

Frequently Committed Narrative Issues: 

1. Inciting Incident: To begin...as weird as it seems...don't just start at the beginning...MAKE the beginning at the point of incitement.

2. Write a story, not an expository essay: Too few of you cave credence to not explicitly describing the thing/person/idea you love. Many of you make this mistake early on as if the rules and conventions of a traditional opener were too hard to resist. "Help us, high school English tactics. You're our only hope!"

3. Dominant Impression: Too many of you did not focus your story on ONE, SPECIFIC, CONCRETE INCIDENT, instead you wrapped it up in a complete day's worth of description. For example, if you love Disney World, and you know that because you went last summer, don't tell me the whole story, from packing the car to leaving Orlando on interstate 4. Instead, why not focus on riding your favorite ride with loved one. Or one magical evening at the Magic Kingdom. Or eating at World Showcase.