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Writing personal narrative essays
Rationale:
Although your content courses may not require you to write personal narratives, this form of
writing provides you with opportunities to develop skills in writing academic essays, i.e.,
brainstorming information; organizing ideas through outlining, webbing and the like; describing
details; developing a clear voice; expressing a position on an issue; and writing purposefully with
a specific audience in mind. Narratives are also often used in argumentative essays to illustrate a
point or move readers into action.
Since the topic of the narrative is your own personal experience, you are the expert on the topic
and can focus on how details can be organized more effectively to realize your purpose. All of
us have stories to tell, so we never run out of material for this project. Writing personal essays
can therefore be a fun way of kicking off a semester in Expository writing.
Goal:
At the end of the 8th week, you shall have gone through the process of writing and revising your
narratives based on a) your classmates’ critique on your narrative; b) your own reflection on your
own work; c) the response of native speaker proficient in academic writing; and d) your teachers’
response to your essay. You will also have the chance to read and respond to at least two other
classmates’ narratives in a small group discussion on the stories. Our goal is to help each other
improve our essays and include all of them in a book project showcasing your work.
Below is a tentative schedule of the activities:
Activity 1.
Reading great stories: Reflecting on the features of effective personal narratives
You will be assigned to read one of the four personal narratives. Read the story assigned to you
keeping the following questions in mind:
a. Why did the author write this narrative? What was her/his purpose?
b. Who do you think is his/her intended readers? What does he/she want them to think/feel as they
read the story?
c. What is the author’s attitude towards the experiences s/he had?
d. How does the narrative make you think/feel? Why do you think/feel that way?
e. Is the author effective in achieving his/her purpose in telling her/his story? Why? Why not?
f. What makes a great story?
A. Waiting in Line at the Drugstore, pp. 22-24
B. College, pp. 25-31
C. Shooting an elephant, pp.31-36
D. A student’s narrative essay
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Activity 2.
Telling stories: Summarizing narratives
A. Work with members of the class who were assigned to other stories. Your group should
therefore be composed of four members.
B. Your task is to summarize the story and share your summary with your group mates.
Summarizing does not simply mean retelling the story. You must be able to determine the
purpose of the author and identify incidents in the story that highlight the author’s insights and
attitude towards his/her experiences or the subject of the narrative. Refer to pp. 40-42 for
guidelines in summarizing narratives. Chapter 21 (page 274) also outlines four important
features of summarizing narratives. Writing double entry notes to remind you of significant
incidents or points in the story also helps.
Exercise 1: Characteristics/features of an effective summary
Each of you will be provided three student summaries of the narrative, School Days of an Indian
Girl. (Please refer to appendix 1a, 1b, and 1c for the student summaries).
Read and compare the three summaries.
Which do you think best summarizes the narrative? Why do you think so? (Share your ideas
with your group mates. Be ready to present your thoughts with the rest of the class.)
Class Discussion follows. Focus: Why do we need to learn how to summarize? What
makes an effective summary?
Exercise 2: Summarizing your story
A. Now that we have discussed the features of an effective summary, scan the narratives
assigned to you again with the purpose of identifying main themes/subjects the author focused on
and determining the author’s stance or attitude towards her/his experiences or insights and
conclusions s/he about central experiences in the narrative.
B. Summarize the narrative and be ready to share it with your group members. Note that your
group mates have not thoroughly read the story assigned to you. You are therefore the main
source of information or some kind of an “expert” of the reading selection. Be ready to answer
questions your group mates might have as the group discusses your story. Each group member
will fill out a form outlining what they understand from your presentation. (Please refer to
appendix 2 for the activity sheet).
Activity 3:
Formulating criteria for rating narratives: What makes a great story?
Regroup yourselves. Each group must consist of students assigned to the same selection. Your
task is discuss the reading selection one more time with the following question in mind: What
makes a great narrative? What makes the narrative assigned to you effective? What are the
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characteristics or features of a great story that you should take note of when you write your own
narratives?
Make a list of such characteristics you identified as a group and be sure to provide an example to
illustrate your point.
For example: (Refer to appendix 3. Discussion guide)
Characteristic of a
great narrative:
Example
Explanation
1. Specific, vivid
description of details to
illustrate a character’s
situation or position
I sat perfectly still, with
my eyes downcast, daring
only now and then to
shoot long glances around
me. (p. 17)
The author clearly describes the scene to show
the child’s feeling without explicitly telling us
that she felt embarrassed, humiliated, and
scared.
2.
The purpose of this activity is for the class to come up with a guide and some criteria for rating
the narratives.
Activity 4: Group presentation
(Please refer to appendix 4: Guidelines for presentation)
Review your work as a group and be ready to share your output with the rest of
the class. You will be provided with transparencies for this purpose. A presentation
guideline will be provided for you.
Note: The purpose of the group presentations is for the whole class to come up with the criteria
for rating their narratives. After all the presentations, the class outlines common features that
they think should be present in their narratives.
Activity 5.
Writing from experience: The process (Refer to chapter 5)
Teacher discusses with students the process of writing from experience
a. Exploring a topic (listing, freewriting, looping, cubing, clustering)
b. Writing a trial draft/structuring the essay
c. Writing the interim draft
d. Giving and receiving feedback (Feedback form on page 56: Guidelines, p. 55)
e. Revising
f. Completing the essay
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Note: In discussing the process, I “walked” the students through the process Rolando (the student
writer) went through. Since the discussion in the book is discussed clearly, I asked students to work in
pair as they go through each step to confer with each other re the progress of their work. What they do in
the pair work is simply to ask each other whether their work, e.g, their cluster, makes sense. What is
missing? What doesn’t make sense?How can the cluster be made clearer? What details should be
included? Deleted? Re-organized?
After their peer consultation, they discuss their work with me.
When students are through with their first draft, they work with their partners and evaluate each other’s
narrative using the guidelines on page 54, 56, and 57-58, as well as the class-formulated criteria as
guide. (I reproduced the class-generated criteria for each student).
The number of revisions are as follows:
First draft
1st revision
self evaluation/reflection
Draft with peer feedback
-2nd revision based on peer feedback
Draft with feedback from Writing workshop tutor or native speaker proficient in writing in
English
3rd revision based on native speaker/tutor feedback
conference with ELI instructor
final paper.
NOTE: Before students start writing their essays, I make it clear to the students that we all have
great stories to tell. What we need to develop is the skill to relate our experiences such that they
come alive to the readers and of course, to the writer. I also showed them students’ published works
and remind them that their narratives will be published in a book project. In the Fall semester, I will
pass around the book project my students in the past semester has done. Hopefully, the prospect of
having their works published will heighten their motivation to write their personal narratives.
Secondly, students are required to keep a journal where they reflect on the process of writing in each
stage of the process. Refer to appendix 4 for journal entry questions.
My philosophy for grading this project:
1. Students’ generate a clear criteria based on guided activities cited above. The students present
the criteria; I consolidate them; the whole class negotiates point system.
2. Students are graded both for effort/ process, and product.
3. As long as students go through the multiple feedback-multiple revision process and carefully
consider the feedback they receive as reflected in their revisions and their writing journals, the
get A for the task.
4. The final output, however, will be graded according to the specifications indicated in the classgenerated criteria for grading their narratives.
5. Students have a choice as to whether they publish their work or not, but the book project ensures
them of extra points that could even up for an activity they might miss in the future.
Prepared by Gina Abol Fontejon for ELI 100/Spring 2002