For this week’s discussion board post, I’d like you to read over the assignment sheet for Essay #1: Personal Narrative. You can find this posted here, as well as in the Assignments section, as an attachment. Once you’ve read over the assignment and thought a bit about which prompt you’d like to respond to, ~200 words about the story you would like to tell, with a specific focus on the scene(s) your story centers around. This will get you started towards a very preliminary version of your essay, and we’ll revisit your posts next week during our class meeting, which will focus on narrative technique. Don’t focus too much on style if you’re coming up against how to write your story. Just do your best to relate the story in a concise way?
!!!!QUESTION 2: WEEKLY PROMPT NUMBER 2!!!
This week, we looked at two more personal narratives that use different narrative methods to consider the intersection of language, identity, and cultural/social institutions. Considering the differences between the three narratives we’ve read so far, I can’t emphasize this enough: it matters how a story is told. You probably know this from telling stories to friends, or maybe you have a friend or family member who’s a really good storyteller. Now, you will need to make those choices consciously, in writing. For this week’s response, I’d like us to have a conversation about what the features of this genre are. In 200 words total, please discuss some of the following:
- What, from what you’ve seen so far, are the conventions of a personal narrative? In other words, based on what we’ve seen, what techniques and/or devices do writers tend to use when writing personal narratives?
- What are the most significant stylistic and/or structural differences between the personal narratives we’ve read so far?
- What are your questions or concerns about writing a personal narrative of your own?
!!!!QUESTION 2: WEEKLY PROMPT NUMBER 3!!!
Think about the anecdote (or one of the central scenes) in your personal narrative essay. This might be something you’ve already tried to write, something you’re planning to write about, or something you brainstorm right now on the spot.
Now, in at least two (2) paragraphs, write what you consider to be the most vivid, clear, and interesting version of this anecdote.
- Where does this anecdote specifically begin? Where does it end?
- What amount of context does your audience need to know? When in the anecdote do you need to give this context so that your anecdote makes sense?
- What details of the setting or scene do you need to highlight?
- What specific information do you need to highlight?
- What sensory details will you include?
- What other tactics can you use to heighten the anecdote, or make it more vivid? (E.g.: imagery, word choice, sentence length, figurative language, etc.)
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