Writing Workshop
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
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Assignment
Prewriting
Search Your Memory
Choose an Experience
Define Your Purpose and Audience
Gather Details
Organize Details
Share the Significance of the Experience
Practice and Apply
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
Assignment: Write an autobiographical narrative
that reveals an experience’s significance for you.
Do you have a relative or a friend who tells the same
stories over and over again? Many people like to share
stories about events that have a special significance to
them or that reveal something important about their
lives, values, or beliefs.
What story will you tell?
[End of Section]
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
Prewriting: Search Your Memory
Think about specific, meaningful experiences
from your life.
• a special place
a neighborhood park, a vacation spot
• the first time you did something
rode a bike, volunteered
• a special occasion
a sports event, a family reunion
[End of Section]
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
Prewriting: Choose an Experience
Ask yourself
• Is this experience important to me?
• What specific details can I give about this
experience?
• Is the experience too private or embarrassing
to share?
Choose the experience that brings out the most
detailed and positive response from you.
[End of Section]
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
Prewriting: Define Your Purpose and Audience
Purpose
• To relate the sequence of events that make
up a personal experience
• To express to your audience the significance
of those events
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
Prewriting: Define Your Purpose and Audience
Audience
• Teachers
• Friends
• Classmates
• Parents
• Others who will read
your autobiographical
narrative
What background information will the audience
need to understand the experience?
[End of Section]
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
Prewriting: Gather Details
List all the vivid details you can recall about
events, people, places, thoughts, and feelings.
Events
What sequence of events
make up the experience?
Were there important events
that led up to or followed the
experience?
Tip
Match the pace of your
narrative to the pace of the
actual events—a quick pace
for rapid events, a slow pace
for more drawn-out events.
Sequence of events: volunteered for beach clean-up, found
an injured turtle and got it help
Later events: volunteered at an animal rescue shelter,
decided to become a veterinarian
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
Prewriting: Gather Details
List all the vivid details you can recall about
events, people, places, thoughts, and feelings.
Places
Where did the events
happen?
Tip
Use concrete sensory
details to create effective
images of the sights, sounds,
and smells of the places you
are describing.
Beach on a spring afternoon; cool breeze from the sea;
warm, white sand; calm water; salty air
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
Prewriting: Gather Details
List all the vivid details you can recall about
events, people, places, thoughts, and feelings.
People
Who was involved in the
events? What did those
people look like? What did
they do and say?
Tip
Use sensory details to
describe actions and
gestures. Use dialogue,
actual words people say, to
show each person’s
personality.
Me—ages fifteen and sixteen
Dr. Alice Monroe—animal rescue veterinarian; friendly; gentle
with animals; always takes time to explain treatments
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
Prewriting: Gather Details
List all the vivid details you can recall about
events, people, places, thoughts, and feelings.
Thoughts and Feelings
What did I think and feel as
the events unfolded?
Tip
Use interior monologue,
“thinking out loud,” to share
your thoughts with readers.
Excitement to volunteer, worry about the injured turtle,
respect and admiration for the people at the animal rescue
shelter
[End of Section]
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
Prewriting: Organize Details
Discuss the events in chronological order, or
time order.
First
Next
Last
Background
Discuss events
that came before
your experience
to help your
audience
understand what
led up to it.
Main narrative
Discuss events
that were part of
your meaningful
life experience.
Conclusion
Discuss events
that came after
your experience
to show how
that experience
related to other
parts of your
life.
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
Prewriting: Organize Details
Use transitional words and phrases to guide your
readers through the events in your narrative.
Changes in Time
Changes in Place
at first
before
around
nearby
to begin
later
across from
next to
then
next
beside
behind
afterwards
last
in front of
under
[End of Section]
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
Prewriting: Share the Significance of the Experience
Ask yourself
• Did the experience change me? If so, how?
• What did I learn from the experience?
• Has my perspective, my thoughts and feelings
about the event, shifted over time? If so, how?
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
Prewriting: Share the Significance of the Experience
Write a sentence identifying your controlling
impression—the main idea or feeling you want
to communicate about your experience.
Rescuing the injured turtle and volunteering at the
animal rescue shelter has given me a new respect for
animals and a sense of accomplishment and purpose.
You don’t have to include this sentence in your
final draft, but every detail in the narrative
should contribute to the controlling impression.
[End of Section]
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
Prewriting: Practice and Apply
Follow the guidelines in this section to
choose an experience, analyze your audience, and
gather and organize details for your
autobiographical narrative.
[End of Section]
The End