Guidelines for Personal Narrative Essay

Personal Narrative Essay

1. The “what” or summary
We began this project by writing the “what” of our stories. The “what” is basically a summary of what the story. Our objective is to write a personal narrative, so it should be a true story about you. The prompt was, “write about your best or worst day ever”. You may, however, write about anything you like, as long as it is a true story and it is about you!

2. Outline
We then created an outline for our essays, based on the six elements of plot:

Ø Exposition (introduction to characters and setting)
Ø Inciting Incident (event that gets the story started, introduction to the conflict)
Ø Rising Action (the bulk of the story, the events that lead up to the climax)
Ø Climax (the boiling point, the most exciting part of the story)
Ø Falling Action (wrapping up the loose ends of the story, bringing everything to a close
Ø Resolution (the final moments, the end)
This outline should have included only one or two sentences for each of the six elements. The point was to organize the basic elements of the personal narrative, not to give details.

3. Rough Draft
The rough draft builds on the outline. Each of the six elements has its own paragraph, but at this point each paragraph only needs to be 2-3 sentences. The elements of plot structure (exposition, rising action, etc.) should not be mentioned in the rough draft. You are now writing the story, so you don’t need to write “The exposition is when . . .” It should be evident from the progression of your story.

4. Second Draft Typed or Handwritten Due Friday, October 3rd
This should be your first attempt at the final product. Do your best to omit all spelling and grammatical errors. Make sure you have six complete paragraphs (5 sentence paragraph format), one for each of the six elements of plot (exposition, rising action, etc.).

5. Final Draft Typed Only Due Friday, October 10th
This is your opportunity to revise your personal narrative essay. Take my comments into consideration and correct all errors. Points will be deducted for spelling and grammatical errors.


Notes:
Remember, 5 points will be deducted for each day this project is late.

Receive one bonus point for every vocabulary word from our list that you use correctly in your essay, up to five points total.


Rubric

The six paragraphs of your personal narrative will be graded based on the list below. Your paragraphs will receive one point for each of the following criteria. Each paragraph is potentially worth 7 points; therefore, the essay will be worth a total of 42 points. Use the following list to revise your essay by reviewing each paragraph to make sure it follows these guidelines.


__ Paragraph is at least 5 sentences long


__ Paragraph stays on topic


__ Paragraph is recognizable as one of the six elements of plot structure


__ Paragraph contains descriptive details


__ Paragraph contains no grammatical mistakes


__ Paragraph contains no spelling mistakes


__ Paragraph is typed

September 30th

Due Wednesday: Part I of the new vocabulary handout (everyone except for 6th period)

Due Friday: 2nd draft of the personal narrative essay

September 29th

If students have not yet picked a title from the historical fiction genre, they need to do so ASAP! I want to make sure that everyone has time to finish their independent reading books and write a report by the end of the advisory.

We are taking DC-BAS tests today and tomorrow, so there is no additional homework this evening.

September 25th

We will have a vocabulary quiz tomorrow, Friday. Students also need to pick a book to read from the historical fiction genre by Monday. I look forward to seeing you all at Back to School Night this evening!

Historical Fiction: Historical fiction is a sub-genre of fiction which is set during a specific time in history (18th Century France), or which centers around an historical event (the American Civil War), at least 30 years in the past. The stories are fictional (made up), but they try to capture the reality of the period in history in which they are set. Setting is one of the most important literary elements in this genre, and information about the time period must be accurate. Authors of historical fiction must research the time period in great depth, right down to the details of what the people ate and how they behaved in their daily lives. The characters may be imaginary, or versions of people who actually lived. Events in the story may be based on things that actually happened, or they may be imaginary as long as they don’t contradict reality.

Vocabulary Words:
prosperous
deftly
sinister
console
hazard
impulse
intuition
tedious
minimal
elated

September 19th

I apologize for not keeping up with the blog, but I was having trouble logging in!

Due Monday: Part I of the new vocabulary packet

Have a great weekend!

Due Thursday, September 4th:
A free verse poem inspired by the Civil Rights Movement

Due Friday, September 5th:
Two summer reading projects
The summer reading test on either Warriors Don't Cry or Speak

There will be no homework assigned over the weekend; however, students should make sure that their English binders are organized by Monday, September 8th.