Narrative Essay

The narrative essay often focuses on a single experience that blends observation, memory, narration, description, and reflection. Among the writing techniques students will notice in narrative essays are vivid descriptions of setting, people, dialogue, tone of voice, body language, interior thoughts, flashbacks, flashforwards, and descriptive language. These writers focus on telling a story about how different identities and experiences have helped shape them into who they are at the time of writing.

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Students have the choice what they can write about, as long as it connects to their life in some meaningful way. To help get them started, ask them to think of a significant person, place, thing or event that influenced who they are today. Then, let them use these questions as their springboard.

• Person: What is this person’s relationship with you? What are some distinctive features of this person? How did/do you respond to this person? What are some phrases this person says? What things you have in common? Why do you remember this person? Did/do you respond in the same way to this person as with other people, why? If you don’t see them regularly, how does interacting with other people remind you of this person?
• Place: Why do you remember this place? What is the most vivid image that comes to mind when thinking of this place? What are some important objects or colors in this place? What did it smell like? What is your connection to the place?
• Thing: Why do you remember this thing? Was there a place this thing was usually located? What did it look like, smell like, sound like? Did it influence your daily life, how? How did other people react to this thing?
• Event: How did/do you respond to this event? Why do you remember this event? What did it sound like, smell like, look like? Why do you remember this event? How do you relate to other important events that remind you of this event? Who was with you at the time? How did they react? Did their reaction influence you in some way?

Narrative Essay Objectives

• Students choose their own topics for the Narrative and how to convey their message to their audience.

This project is connected to Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) through:

Genres & Formats

• Written narrative

Rubric

Developing	Meets Criteria	Advanced
	Descriptive Writing Leverages descriptive detail to bring the audience into the episode. Where appropriate, includes effective figurative language, dialogue, flashbacks/flashforwards, etc. to describe the topic.
	Purpose Uses varied (or purposefully repetitive) language to emphasize major themes. Reveals the major theme/purpose through descriptive language in the episode rather than explanation alone.
	Audience Consideration Uses grammar and spelling appropriate to audience/purpose. Where appropriate, provides background information to improve audience understanding.
	Organization & Editing Breaks up major ideas into self-contained and coherent paragraphs. Uses concise word choice, sentences, and paragraphs to relate the theme. Ideas and major themes flow from one paragraph to the next throughout the essay.

A copy of the Narrative Essay rubric: File:Narrative Essay Rubric.pdf