For this assignment, you will begin working on a narrative essay. At this stage, you will work through the prewriting and drafting steps of the writing process.

Narrative Essay Prewriting and Drafting

STEP 1: Choose a Topic

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 and Family
  • Gaining independence
  • A friend’s sacrifice
  • A significant trip with your family
  • A wedding or a funeral
  • An incident from family legend
• The World Around You
  • A storm, a flood, an earthquake, or another natural event
  • A school event
  • The most important minutes of a sporting event
• Lessons of Daily Life
  • A time you confronted authority
  • A time you had to deliver bad news
  • Your biggest social blunder
• Firsts
  • Your first day of school
  • The first performance you gave
  • A first date

STEP 2: Prewriting

To get started writing, first pick at least one prewriting strategy (brainstorming, rewriting, journaling, mapping, questioning, sketching) to develop ideas for your essay. Write down what you do, as you’ll need to submit evidence of your prewrite.

Remember that “story starters” are everywhere. Think about it—status updates on social media websites can be a good place to start—you may have already started a “note” to post on social media, and now is your chance to develop that idea into a full narrative. If you keep a journal or diary, a simple event may unfold into a narrative. Simply said, your stories may be closer than you think!

STEP 3: Outlining

Next, write an outline for your essay. Organize the essay in a way that:

• Establishes the situation [introduction];
• Introduces the complication(s) [body]; and
• States the lesson you learned [conclusion]

STEP 4: Drafting

Lastly, write a first draft of your essay. Remember, when drafting your essay:

1. Decide on something you care about so that the narration is a means of communicating an idea.
2. Develop an enticing title—but don’t let yourself get stuck on the title! A great title might suggest itself after you’ve begun the prewriting and drafting processes.
3. Use the introduction to establish the situation the essay will address.
4. Include characters, conflict, and sensory details.
5. Create a sequence of events in a plot.
6. Avoid addressing the assignment directly. (For example, don’t write “I am going to write about my most significant experience,” because this takes the fun out of reading the work!)
7. Think of things said at the moment this experience started for you—perhaps use a quote, or an interesting part of the experience that will grab the reader.
8. Let the story reflect your own voice. (Is your voice serious? Humorous? Matter-of-fact?)
9. To avoid just telling what happens, make sure your essay takes time to reflect on why this experience is significant.

Your essay should be a minimum of 3 typed, double-spaced pages (about 600–750 words), in Times New Roman, 12 pt font size. The paper and citations should be formatted in MLA format. Papers submitted that do not meet these formatting requirements will be returned to you ungraded.

STEP 5: Review and Submit

Before submitting your paper, review the bullet points listed above in the drafting stage and the grading rubric below, ensuring you have completed all parts of the assignment.

Once you have done this, submit your prewriting and draft as a single file upload. If you developed your prewriting by hand on paper, scan or take a picture of your prewriting, and then insert the image on a separate page after your draft.

Rubric