Essay Assignment: Narrative Essay—Final Draft

For this assignment, you will turn in your final draft of your narrative essay.

Narrative Essay Prompt

Choose one of the following topics to write your own narrative essay. The topic you decide on should be something you care about, and the narration should be a means of communicating an idea that ties to the essay’s theme. Remember in this essay, the narration is not an end in itself.

Friends

  1. Gaining independence
  2. A friend’s sacrifice
  3. A significant trip with your family
  4. A wedding or a funeral
  5. An incident from family legend

The World Around You

  1. A storm, a flood, an earthquake, or another natural event
  2. A school event
  3. The most important minutes of a sporting event

Lessons of Daily Life

  1. A time you confronted authority
  2. A time you had to deliver bad news
  3. Your biggest social blunder

Firsts

  1. Your first day of school
  2. The first performance you gave
  3. A first date

Assignment Instructions

  1. Review the grading rubric as listed on this page.
  2. Review feedback.
  3. Work through the revision and proofreading stages of the writing process.
  4. Create a final version of your Narrative Essay according to the following formatting guidelines. Papers submitted that do not meet these requirements will be returned to you ungraded.
    • 3–4 typed, double-spaced pages (about 600–750 words), 12 pt font size, Times New Roman
    • MLA formatting
  5. Submit your final version of your Narrative Essay as a single file upload.

Requirements

Be sure to:

  • Decide on something you care about so that the narration is a means of communicating an idea.
  • Include characters, conflict, sensory details.
  • Create a sequence of events in a plot.
  • Develop an enticing title.
  • Use the introduction to pull the reader into your singular experience.
  • Avoid addressing the assignment directly. (don’t write “I am going to write about…”—this takes the fun out of reading the work!)
  • Let the essay reflect your own voice (Is your voice serious? Humorous? Matter-of-fact?)
  • Avoid telling just what happens by making sure your essay reflects on why this experience is significant.

If you developed your prewriting by hand on paper, scan or take a picture of your prewriting, load the image onto your computer, and then insert the image on a separate page after your draft.

Rubric

Grading Rubric: Narrative Essay—Final Draft
Criteria Ratings Point Total: 100
Presentation Paper is double-spaced throughout using Times New Roman 12 pt. font. Full name, class, Instructor’s name, your location, and time of class, date, and description of assignment are in upper-left-hand corner. The essay should be paginated (show page numbers) as well. Title should not be bolded or underlined. __/8 pts
Title The title is three or more words and hints at the essay’s main point. __/2 pts
Introduction Introduction sets up the problem the author struggles with. This could be internal, external or both. __/20 pts
Essay body The body presents the “complication” that sets the plot in motion. __/20 pts
Transformation Conclusion shows the transformation from the introduction and thus the “moral” of the story. __/20 pts
Audience The “moral” of the story is objective and reflects a universal lesson that all readers can benefit from. __/10 pts
Show, don’t tell Author “shows” the events with vivid and compelling language rather than simply tells the story. __/20 pts