Informative essay
Major Assignment #1 for ENC 1101 at MDC West: Self-Reflective Autobiographical Narrative
Assignment: As stated in Allyn and Bacon’s Guide to Writing, your goal is to “write a narrative essay about something significant in your life using the literary strategies of plot, character, and setting. Develop your story through the use of contraries, creating tension that moves the story forward and gives it significance. You can discuss the significance of your story explicitly, perhaps as a revelation, or you can imply it. Use specific details and develop contraries that create tension. In the Allyn and Bacon text, (the authors) argue that a narrative qualifies as a story only when it depicts a series of connected events that create for the reader a sense of tension or conflict that is resolved through a new understanding or change in status. Your goal for this assignment is to write a story about your life that fulfills these criteria.
Not every memorable event in your life will lend itself well to this assignment. The most common failing in faulty narratives is that the meaning of the event is clearer to the narrator than to the audience. It’s the storyteller’s job to PUT THE READER THERE by providing enough detail and context to see why the event is significant. If an event didn’t lead to any significant insight, understanding, knowledge, change, or other kind of difference in your life, and if you really had to be there to appreciate its significance, then it’s a poor candidate for a self-reflective (personal) autobiographical narrative.
Consider the following ideas for choosing a plot:
Moments of enlightenment or coming to knowledge: Understanding a complex idea for the first time, recognizing what is meant by love or jealousy or justice, mastering a complex skill, seeing some truth about yourself or your family that you previously hadn’t seen
Passages from one “realm” to the next: from innocence to experience, from outsider to insider
Assignment: As stated in Allyn and Bacon’s Guide to Writing, your goal is to “write a narrative essay about something significant in your life using the literary strategies of plot, character, and setting. Develop your story through the use of contraries, creating tension that moves the story forward and gives it significance. You can discuss the significance of your story explicitly, perhaps as a revelation, or you can imply it. Use specific details and develop contraries that create tension. In the Allyn and Bacon text, (the authors) argue that a narrative qualifies as a story only when it depicts a series of connected events that create for the reader a sense of tension or conflict that is resolved through a new understanding or change in status. Your goal for this assignment is to write a story about your life that fulfills these criteria.
Not every memorable event in your life will lend itself well to this assignment. The most common failing in faulty narratives is that the meaning of the event is clearer to the narrator than to the audience. It’s the storyteller’s job to PUT THE READER THERE by providing enough detail and context to see why the event is significant. If an event didn’t lead to any significant insight, understanding, knowledge, change, or other kind of difference in your life, and if you really had to be there to appreciate its significance, then it’s a poor candidate for a self-reflective (personal) autobiographical narrative.
Consider the following ideas for choosing a plot:
Moments of enlightenment or coming to knowledge: Understanding a complex idea for the first time, recognizing what is meant by love or jealousy or justice, mastering a complex skill, seeing some truth about yourself or your family that you previously hadn’t seen
Passages from one “realm” to the next: from innocence to experience, from outsider to insider