Writing WorkshopWriting an Autobiographical Narrative
Assignment
Prewriting
Search Your Memory
Choose an Experience
Define Your Purpose and Audience
Gather Details
Organize Details
Share the Significance of the Experience
Practice and Apply
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Assignment: Write an autobiographical narrative that reveals an experience’s significance for you.
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
Do you have a relative or a friend who tells the same stories over and over again? Many people like to share stories about events that have a special significance to them or that reveal something important about their lives, values, or beliefs.
What story will you tell?
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Think about specific, meaningful experiences from your life.
a neighborhood park, a vacation spot
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Search Your Memory
• a special place
rode a bike, volunteered
• the first time you did something
a sports event, a family reunion
• a special occasion
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Ask yourself
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Choose an Experience
• Is this experience important to me?
Choose the experience that brings out the most detailed and positive response from you.
• What specific details can I give about this experience?
• Is the experience too private or embarrassing to share?
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Purpose
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Define Your Purpose and Audience
• To relate the sequence of events that make up a personal experience
• To express to your audience the significance of those events
Audience
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Define Your Purpose and Audience
• Teachers
What background information will the audience need to understand the experience?
• Friends
• Others who will read your autobiographical narrative
• Classmates • Parents
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List all the vivid details you can recall about events, people, places, thoughts, and feelings.
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Gather Details
EventsWhat sequence of events make up the experience? Were there important events that led up to or followed the experience?
TipMatch the pace of your narrative to the pace of the actual events—a quick pace for rapid events, a slow pace for more drawn-out events.
Sequence of events: volunteered for beach clean-up, found an injured turtle and got it help
Later events: volunteered at an animal rescue shelter, decided to become a veterinarian
List all the vivid details you can recall about events, people, places, thoughts, and feelings.
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Gather Details
PlacesWhere did the events happen?
TipUse concrete sensory details to create effective images of the sights, sounds, and smells of the places you are describing.
Beach on a spring afternoon; cool breeze from the sea; warm, white sand; calm water; salty air
List all the vivid details you can recall about events, people, places, thoughts, and feelings.
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Gather Details
PeopleWho was involved in the events? What did those people look like? What did they do and say?
TipUse sensory details to describe actions and gestures. Use dialogue, actual words people say, to show each person’s personality.
Me—ages fifteen and sixteen
Dr. Alice Monroe—animal rescue veterinarian; friendly; gentle with animals; always takes time to explain treatments
List all the vivid details you can recall about events, people, places, thoughts, and feelings.
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Gather Details
Thoughts and FeelingsWhat did I think and feel as the events unfolded?
TipUse interior monologue, “thinking out loud,” to share your thoughts with readers.
Excitement to volunteer, worry about the injured turtle, respect and admiration for the people at the animal rescue shelter
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Discuss the events in chronological order, or time order.
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Organize Details
Main narrativeDiscuss events that were part of your meaningful life experience.
Next Last
ConclusionDiscuss events that came after your experience to show how that experience related to other parts of your life.
First
BackgroundDiscuss events that came before your experience to help your audience understand what led up to it.
Use transitional words and phrases to guide your readers through the events in your narrative.
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Organize Details
at first before
to begin later
then next
afterwards last
Changes in Time
around nearby
across from next to
beside behind
in front of under
Changes in Place
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Ask yourself
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Share the Significance of the Experience
• Did the experience change me? If so, how?
• What did I learn from the experience?
• Has my perspective, my thoughts and feelings about the event, shifted over time? If so, how?
Rescuing the injured turtle and volunteering at the animal rescue shelter has given me a new respect for animals and a sense of accomplishment and purpose.
Write a sentence identifying your controlling impression—the main idea or feeling you want to communicate about your experience.
You don’t have to include this sentence in your final draft, but every detail in the narrative should contribute to the controlling impression.
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Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Share the Significance of the Experience
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Practice and Apply
Follow the guidelines in this section to choose an experience, analyze your audience, and gather and organize details for your autobiographical narrative.
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