1st Assignment: Literacy Narrative Composition

In this assignment you are going to write a narrative essay about a personal experience involving reading, writing or language which had/has a wider significance. We have seen that in Langston Hughes’s “Salvation” how the writer uses his experiences to highlight a general truth, insight – something they learned that was bigger than the experience itself. This is what you should also do.

As you write the essay, bear in mind the principle features of narrative writing that we are discussing in class. Think about how you can introduce the experience and suggest the conflict without giving too much away. Try to construct the narrative using summary and scene effectively so that you can bring your narrative to some kind of climax. Remember to include a “payoff” section at the end, in which you resolve the conflict you have described, provide a retrospective, and say something about what the events meant to you.

Orientation – Complication – Aftermath-Resolution

Point of View

Chronological Time – Psychological Time

Scene – Summary

“Exploding the Moment”

Open-form and Closed-form Writing

In preparation for this assignment, we will look at a number of professionally written narratives for the purposes of reflection and possible imitation. Successful writers will typically have “moves” that can be useful models for us to copy.

The essay will be graded according to the following criteria:

Essay structure

Coherence

Build-up of tension

Descriptive power in the Complication section

Effectiveness of the Introduction and Resolution

Correct Use of English

Length: around 3-4 pages, double-spaced

Format: MLA

Deadline: Saturday, March 5, by 11:59pm