...First my 12th grade teacher Mrs. Diaz allowed me to have unlimited freedom, in her class. I remember her assigning the class a project where, everyone get to create their own story, you named the characters, you get the choose your own story line, think outside of the box. I remember it vividly I wrote my story about an 18 year boy named Chris who is from Los Angeles California who had anger issues, no one was able to understand he’s lifestyle. The things that mattered to him the most were his friends and loyalty, he never got along with his parents. I was able to write a lot of explicit real life material about that character, as for in my other classes I was not able to do so. Secondly having Mrs. Diaz as a teacher she taught me how to be open minded, she found a way to make me see the bigger picture in reading and writing. She did that by allowing me to write my own stories, sharing it with my classmates and they would present their work to me, I would never judged my classmates work by saying negative comments about them, I would tell them my opinion in a pleasant way, I was able to see their ideas from a different perspective was not knocking anyones down by thinking :this is weird, it makes no sense” it was a judgment free zone....
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...What made me the writer/ reader I am today? I would have to say I went through a lot of stages of writing and reading because some years I liked to read and write but other years I didn’t like it. I liked reading short stories, poems, and nonfiction books but I didn’t like historical stories, research, or long books. I’ve never a finished a book until high school because I never found a book I liked considering I never tried since I didn’t have an interest in reading. Although, now I can say I like to read if I find the right book when i use to say that i hated reading. The youngest I remember writing was in 6th grade when I would write letters to my dad. I wrote letters to my dad after my parents got divorced since I didn’t get to see my dad from it. My letters would be about how much I missed him, how school was going, and how things were different. I wrote...
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...CLRC Writing Center Structure of a Personal Narrative Essay “Narrative” is a term more commonly known as “story.” Narratives written for college or personal narratives, tell a story, usually to some point, to illustrate some truth or insight. Following are some tools to help you structure your personal narrative, breaking it down into parts. The “Hook” Start your paper with a statement about your story that catches the reader’s attention, for example: a relevant quotation, question, fact, or definition. Introduction Set the Scene Provide the information the reader will need to understand the story: Who are the major characters? When and where is it taking place? Is it a story about something that happened to you, the writer, or is it fiction? Thesis Statement The thesis of a narrative essay plays a slightly different role than that of an argument or expository essay. A narrative thesis can begin the events of the story: “It was sunny and warm out when I started down the path”; offer a moral or lesson learned: “I’ll never hike alone again”; or identify a theme that connects the story to a universal experience: “Journeys bring both joy and hardship.” “Show, Don’t Tell” Good story telling includes details and descriptions that help the reader understand what the writer experienced. Think about using all five senses—not just the sense of sight—to add details about what you heard, saw, and felt during the event. For example, “My heart jumped as the dark ...
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...Structure of a Personal Narrative Essay “Narrative” is a term more commonly known as “story.” Narratives written for college or personal narratives, tell a story, usually to some point, to illustrate some truth or insight. Following are some tools to help you structure your personal narrative, breaking it down into parts. The “Hook” Start your paper with a statement about your story that catches the reader’s attention, for example: a relevant quotation, question, fact, or definition. Set the Scene Provide the information the reader will need to understand the story: Who are the major characters? When and where is it taking place? Is it a story about something that happened to you, the writer, or is it fiction? Thesis Statement The thesis of a narrative essay plays a slightly different role than that of an argument or expository essay. A narrative thesis can begin the events of the story: “It was sunny and warm out when I started down the path”; offer a moral or lesson learned: “I’ll never hike alone again”; or identify a theme that connects the story to a universal experience: “Journeys bring both joy and hardship.” “Show, Don’t Tell” Good story telling includes details and descriptions that help the reader understand what the writer experienced. Think about using all five senses—not just the sense of sight—to add details about what you heard, saw, and felt during the event. For example, “My heart jumped as the dark shape of the brown grizzly lurched toward me out of the woods”...
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...The primary purpose of historical narratives is to report as accurately as possible what happened at each particular place and time in history. But each of the writers in this unit (De Vaca, Bradford, and Equiano) went beyond merely reporting the facts; they had other, more personal reasons for writing what they did. Each of them had a personal agenda. Equiano’s personal agenda in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano was to shame his white audience into abolishing the slave trade by describing the horrible events that took place on the ship. While he did state facts about the ship, Equiano described personal experiences to persuade the audience more. For example, Equiano describes the smell of the hold as being “…so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to...
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...Africa through Theatre This paper sets out to explore how processes of theatre making employed by The Mothertongue project, provide spaces for women to remap their personal narratives. Mothertongue works from the premise that the development and subsequent performance of stories in theatrical processes affords women the opportunity to re-write and remap their personal narratives and in so doing insert their voices into the landscape of South African Theatre. In an attempt to redress the gender imbalances and androcentricism prevalent in post-apartheid theatre, this paper speaks to the relationship between theatre, liminality and communitas. I am interested in unpacking how collaborative processes of theatre-making provide spaces for women to remap their personal narratives. Remapping in this instance refers to processes of transforming lived experience through story. I address how, through engaging in ritual activities that are central to the stories performed, actors, audiences and the owners of the source stories are invited to physically participate in remapping and transforming lived experience. Linked to this is the choice of form(s) and how this affects or impacts on the performed stories as well as on the construction of performed rituals and ultimately on the processes of remapping personal narratives. I focus specifically on Mothertongue’s 2004 production, Uhambo: pieces of a dream. The production was an integration of theatre and visual art in the form of performances...
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...Lake” and Judy Brady’s “I want a wife”, both authors write on personal encounters they experienced. The author chooses two different methods of writing styles. E.B. White utilizes a nostalgic reflective descriptive piece, whereas Brady uses a more sarcastic narrative. Arguably both writers do a great job in their story telling skills. Both stories are respected and pleasing, yet similar but different at the same time. The authors’ choice of writing style is what gives one story more of an advantage to the other. Though descriptive and narrative essay have identical intent – to tell the reader a story- narratives are more effective in capturing the audience because the uses of different voices, they bring ideas into perspective and they are relatable. There are special components that both style of writing possesses. Narrative writing usually does not stress adjectives to give the physical details of characters, setting or events in the story. Nothing like descriptive writing, narrative writings are written in the first person in order to convey the author's attitudes, beliefs and memories. Narratives are conventional, while descriptive writings content often emphases on a single event, object or place. Occasionally, writers utilize narrative writing style to tell about the past or the future in broad terms. A narrative often reflects personal experience, clarifying what happened during some sort of incident. Narrative essay topics include recounting an experience where the learned...
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...On Becoming a Writer 1 On Becoming a Writer English Composition April 27, 2013 On Becoming a Writer 3 The main idea of the essay is the fact that the author always had the desire to be a writer but he was faced with the difficult of writing during his time at school, his English classes were very hard and confused. The others points I found on this essay is: * The author faced and thought that only the rich people could write and that being a writer as professional did not have a good future, but even that he had begun to think about being a writer. So in his third year at college things changed for him. * When his class assigned to Mr. Fleagle, he was waiting another sad and dull year because the Mr. Fleagle was recognized as a person with no inspiration, no glare, his way of dressing or even his physical characteristics made the students in the city do not have a good conception of Mr. Fleagle. * Another important point that the author cites in his essay is he was not disappointed for a long time, because he expected an antipathetic professor. Also he cites the teacher wanted his students to like Macbeth, but the teacher didn’t know how to influence the students’ whit that passion he had for Macbeth. The author makes a citation which one the teacher always used in the classroom and is very interesting “do not you see”, the author claims it as his teacher was placed in front of students in a tone of mild surprise ignorance of them. ...
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...Essay is Better: A Narrative or A Descriptive? Ever read a story and say to yourself, “What’s happening?” Whenever I read a descriptive essay, that’s what I would say. In this essay I would be comparing and contrasting two types of essays, a narrative and descriptive. I have chosen “Are the rich happy?” by Stephen Leacock 1916 and “Sister Flowers” by Maya Angelou, n.d. By writing my essay, I want to give my views on each and decide which I would rather write. Narrative Essay A narrative essay reflects a personal opinion that is based on your own experiences. This helps you bring a reader into your very own mind and shows him/her the topic you’re writing about through your eyes. Telling a story or event the way it happened for you. It also could provide a sort of lesson or moral to be learned from the outcome of the story as well as what the writer did that contributed to it or not. It’s more on a personal level that any one reading could say that happened to them or that they learned from the story by not doing whatever it was that the writer did. In Stephen Leacock’s “Are the Rich Happy?” the author writes about his experiences with his friends, with of modest income. Most of it, all in his opinion, points out the problems or troubles those with an existential amount of funds in their bank accounts. He goes on to give some examples that he encountered several of his friends going through. “A friend of mine who has ten thousand dollars a year told me the other day with...
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...erian novelJournal of Education and Practice ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol 2, No 4, 2011 www.iiste.org A Study on Gender Consciousness in Nigerian Autobiographical Narratives and Power of the Interview Ogunyemi, Christopher Babatunde Department of English, College of Humanities, Joseph Ayo Babalola University PMB 5006 Ilesa 233001 Osun State, Nigeria. bbcoguns2@yahoo.se Akindutire, Isaac Olusola Department of Physical and Health Education, Faculty of Education University of Ado Ekiti Ado Ekiti. Ekiti State, Nigeria ioakindutire@yahoo.com Adelakun, Ojo Johnson Department of Economics, Joseph Ayo Babalola University, PMB 5006 Ilesa 233001, Osun State, Nigeria joadelakun@yahoo.co.uk Abstract The study explores some self-created metaphors in male autobiographical writings in Nigeria. It visualizes the negation of female gender in art. The paper investigates the dichotomy of language, the use of irony and situational metaphors to displace conventional ones; it blends theories with critical evaluation of discourse. The research uses empirical methods in solving hypothetical questions with the use of extensive and relatively unstructured interviews. It examines the interviews of twenty five people independently, these people include: University lecturers, students, administrative and technical staff. The work analyzes concurrently their interview testimonies to search for congruence. Data analysis begins with a detailed microanalysis in which emergent concepts...
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...semester of Intro to Expository Writing, my academic writing has greatly improved. My writing started as “Elementary school was like a fairytale; there was a pretty princess and a handsome prince, but I was an evil villain.” And has grown to “Through her diction, Walls creates various tones in order to convey to her audience that despite obstacles, it is possible to escape from a dysfunctional family in hopes of a brighter future.” Using How to Say Nothing in 500 Words, I will be evaluating my own writing by discussing my strengths, weaknesses, and how I have grown as a writer. Writing narratives have always been a personal struggle for me. Unless I passionately come up with a story, and immediately write it on paper, my narratives are bland. It is hard to write personal life-changing stories when I have a deadline. One weakness of mine is using colorful words. For example, a sentence from my personal narrative was written as “It was magnificent with its stained green carpet and plenty of wooden bookshelves stocked with colorful books.” In retrospect, this is how it could have been written, “The spacious library had wooden bookshelves stuffed with leather-bound books, which rested on gritty emerald carpet.”...
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...Growing up I have always enjoyed writing. I have always been an emotional writer. I liked writing on how I feel. Even though I considered my writing “good” I was just never the one for presenting. I had friends and teachers to tell me my writing was great. I considered my writings personal reflections. I like writing and reflecting on them to see how I have grown as a person. Though I didn’t like sharing, my English teacher of my freshman year help change that. We were assigned to pick a theme song. The theme was our life. When we were first assigned I was pleased but when she said we were presenting I became apprehensive. Now that I have actually did it I consider that assignment the door to a new experience. I walked into my English class...
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...day. Some thoughts like, “Maybe this will be my best class!” and “This class will be easy because I love writing!” were good thoughts that helped me boost my confidence about my college course. Other thoughts loomed in my head as well such as, “Do I really belong in this class?”, and “I’m probably going to fail this class with just one assignment!” Such thoughts as these brought my spirits and gave me a pessimistic outlook on this class. But now that I am done with this class, I find myself to be more at ease with myself and have a newfound confidence in the way that write. Writing has been an important form of expression for me. I find myself to be very soft spoken and speaking verbally is usually difficult for me because I can’t always seem to find the right words to say. This has led me to be very shy in class. With writing, I feel that I am more expressive and have more control over what I want to say. Writing is therapeutic for me, whatever I cannot say directly I can just pour out my heart and soul. I have been keeping a journal for the past eight years and it has done wonders for me. I find myself not only a better person for it but it also serves as an aid for writing. My journal is one of the best ways I take into consideration life’s difficult choices I make. It serves as a permanent record for me to look back on in the future to see how much I matured in my life. Although I enjoy writing in such an informal way, I always...
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...and structure of narrative writing. 2. Recognize how to write a narrative essay. Rhetorical modes simply mean the ways in which we can effectively communicate through language. This chapter covers nine common rhetorical modes. As you read about these nine modes, keep in mind that the rhetorical mode a writer chooses depends on his or her purpose for writing. Sometimes writers incorporate a variety of modes in one essay. In covering the nine rhetorical modes, this chapter also emphasizes these as a set of tools that will allow you greater flexibility and effectiveness in communicating with your audience and expressing your ideas. rhetorical modes The ways in which we effectively communicate through language. 1.1 The Purpose of Narrative Writing Narration means the art of storytelling, and the purpose of narrative writing is to tell stories. Any time you tell a story to a friend or family member about an event or incident in your day, you engage in a form of narration. In addition, a narrative can be factual or fictional. A factual story is one that is based on, and tries to be faithful to, actual events as they unfolded in real life. A fictional story is a made-up, or imagined, story; the writer of a fictional story can create characters and events as he or she sees fit. However, the big distinction between factual and fictional narratives is based on a writer’s purpose. The writers of factual stories try to recount events as they actually happened, but writers of fictional stories...
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...Descriptive vs. Narrative Essays Camille Hall English 121 Instructor James Welch March 17, 2013 Descriptive vs. Narrative Essays Descriptive essays are much more detailed and expressive than narrative essays and are more apt to hold the reader’s attention by ejecting more emotion. The narrative essay uses detail to advance the story, while the descriptive uses to detail to describe an unfamiliar subject. The ability to describe something convincingly is always important to both the writer and their audience. Both descriptive and narrative essays use detail but for different purposes. In this essay I will compare and contrast two essays; “I Want A Wife” and “Caged Bird” in order to give insight into each type of essay. The aim of a narrative essay is to describe a course of events from a subjective point, is usually told in chronological order, and is usually written in first person. Narrative essays are used to tell a story in a way so that the reader learns a lesson or gains insight, much of this is done through lots of detail about the subject that is being written about. The best narrative essays are those inducing images in the reader’s minds about what's happening by using concrete, specific verbs and nouns rather than a lot of adverbs and adjectives. To write a narrative essay you will need to tell a story (usually about something that has happened to you) or it could be fiction. The purpose is for your reader to learn a lesson or gain insight of...
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