Instructions for Essay 1

Narrative Essay Assignment Sheet

A narrative essay is a story. More to the point, it’s a story with a purpose. People are full of stories, after all. The vast majority of personal narratives are written for personal satisfaction or for a specific audience. In the work world, the narrative doesn't come into play very often, but occasionally you will be asked to report on what happened at a conference, or your memory of something that just happened.

Any time you tell about something that happened to you, it’s a story, right? WRONG.

Go back to that first sentence again. We are not just talking about narrative in general. We are discussing the Narrative ESSAY. This story that you are going to write down needs to be able to carry the weight of an essay. It needs to have an introduction, body paragraphs a conclusion, a thesis, and everything thing else that an essay has.

So it needs to be long and complicated, right? WRONG.

Sometimes a narrative essay is long or complicated, but it’s just as common for a narrative essay to be about a relatively simple, brief situation. What makes it an essay is that it is analyzed and explained in some detail. The actual incident might be only a small part of the essay.

So since the analysis is so important, the thesis—the point being made—must really need to be emphasized in the introduction and conclusion, right? WRONG.

What often gets missed about narrative essays is that since it is a story with a purpose, telling the story as completely as possible with the necessary details communicates the point and purpose quite well. Being too strong about the point or purpose in a narrative makes it come across as preachy and obvious, not natural or realistic. Emphasize the significant details, and the purpose and reality come through clearly.

So if we are emphasizing details and description, a fictional story where we can control all the details is a better choice than a personal story, right? WRONG.

Most writers have a tendency to try to make their own narratives wrap up into neat little packages like a fictional story. The audience knows that reality doesn’t work that way and typically rejects this approach as unrealistic. The audience wants to know that this really did happen to somebody, that it isn’t just a made up example. If the story or details follow standard plotlines from TV shows, movies, or other essays, the audience knows that you are “borrowing” details, not writing about what actually happened to you. An honest, realistic narrative will always include some specific elements or details that only somebody who actually experienced the situation could remember.

A narrative essay is just that, an ESSAY that tells a STORY. This essay needs to be fully detailed and complete wherever possible. The thesis or purpose doesn’t need to be made incredibly obvious in the introduction or conclusion. If it’s there from the beginning of the writing process, it will be there in the finished story. If YOU as the writer understand what you “learned,” it should come through in the essay to the reader. 

When writing a narrative essay, the author should keep these three elements in mind. The questions following each element are the sort of questions that need to be asked as part of the early stages of the writing process as well as in the revision stages.

Purpose -- There needs to be a reason, not only for writing the narrative, but also for why the reader should read it. WHAT purpose you have isn’t important, just that you, as the writer, are aware of what that purpose is.

• What is the purpose of YOUR essay?
• Do you understand WHY you are writing THIS essay?
• Do you want the reader to laugh? To feel sorry for you? To be angry?
• How are you going to make sure that the reader sees this purpose?

Audience -- The writer needs to know who his/her audience is and how their needs will affect the way the narrative is composed and presented.

• Is everything explained completely?
• Does the audience know who you are talking about?
• Is your language and/or vocabulary appropriate?
• Is the subject matter appropriate?

Focus -- The writer needs to be in control of the information being presented to the reader.

• Does the narrative have a definite beginning/middle/end?
• Is the narrative a complete story?
• Does the narrative stand on its own as a story?
• Does the reader understand the reason why this narrative was shared?

Introductions and Conclusions are often a difficult part of a narrative essay, because a story often uses different types and strategies than a more informative essay. In a more traditional essay, it is important that the subject is clear in the introduction and that the thesis/purpose is absolutely clear in the conclusion. However, in a narrative, too much emphasis on the thesis/purpose makes the essay seem forced – “preachy” – too much like a lesson.

My suggestion is very simple: write the first draft with a more traditional introduction and conclusion emphasizing the subject in the introduction and thesis in the conclusion. Then, as you revise that draft, play around with changing or even eliminating the introduction and conclusion. Most of the time, the writer will discover that the essay works much better as a narrative without them, but they served their purpose in the earlier draft of keeping the writer focused.

The story needs to have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Understand that every story has things that happened both before the story and after it that might pertain or be interesting. Make your choice. “I’m writing about the accident, not the argument that led up to the accident or the physical therapy after the accident.” Then stick to the choice. After all, if the other parts are interesting, they can become their own essays once you are done with this one.

For this assignment, you will be writing a narrative that fits one of he following topics:

• A time when you wish you would've been honest but weren't.
• A time when you felt you were growing apart from a friend or loved one.
• A time when you were made to feel different or isolated. 
• A time when you lost someone or something you loved.
• A time when someone's behaviors differed from your expectations.
• A time when you disappointed someone else.
• A time when you surprised someone else or differed from their expectations. 

You can interpret the topics however you'd like, but the essay should somehow fit one of these descriptions.

To produce an acceptable narrative essay, the writer should:

1. Use grammatically appropriate sentence structures
2. Organize the essay so that it is a story with a clear beginning, middle and end
3. Use appropriate paragraph breaks to control the flow of information
4. Use transitions both within and between the paragraphs
5. Develop and explain the essay content completely 
6. Communicate a clear and specific purpose to an audience

Remember that the writer of a personal narrative needs to keep several factors in mind:

Purpose: There needs to be a reason, not only for writing the narrative, but also for why the reader should read it.

Audience: The writer needs to know who his/her audience is and how their needs will affect the way the narrative is composed and presented.

Focus: The writer needs to be in control of the information being presented to the reader.

• Be sure to use your introduction to “sell” your audience on your topic. Be sure that the audience understands very quickly exactly what your narrative will be about (the time I got in trouble, the horrible car accident that happened when I was 16, the time I almost killed my sister, etc.) with the necessary background information to fully understand that narrative. DON’T worry about announcing the thesis or “moral” of the story in the introduction – that will develop as the story develops.
• Use your conclusion to “wrap up” the topic and the narrative. Unlike a more traditional essay, a narrative doesn’t usually announce the thesis in the conclusion. If you’ve followed the writing process, it should come through the story without having to be made too obvious.
• Focus THIS narrative on THIS particular incident. Focus on the actual marriage ceremony, not the years of dating beforehand or the divorce afterwards. You can't tell us everything in one narrative. Focus on A story and leave the other stories for other essays.
• Give the reader appropriate background, but don't go overboard. Give the reader only the background they HAVE to have to understand the story. You would want us to know that you were having an argument in the car, because it explains why the accident happened. However, we don’t need to know the whole backstory about why you were arguing –that’s a distraction.
• Don't go overboard on how the situation has affected every aspect of your life, as that would be a cause/effect essay focusing on the effects, not a personal narrative focusing on the actual event itself. A narrative is simply a story about what happened, not why it happened or what effects came years afterward.