Creative Nonfiction: Personal Narrative Writing Assignment

Ms. CrandellName______

English 9Period ______

Creative Nonfiction: Personal Narrative Writing Assignment

Overview: In this writing project, you will write a personal narrative about a specific time you have experienced either a sense of loss or a sense of hope.

Honors option: Your personal narrative will describe a specific time you have experienced both a sense of loss and a sense of hope.

Personal narratives should creatively describe a significant moment in your process of growing up. Using dialogue, imagery, and other literary devices, your narrative should show your meaning rather than telling it outright. As you compose, weave a thematic ribbon throughout your piece. Don't tie your message up in a bow at the end, however. Instead, allow your audience to tie it up themselves. The most sophisticated writing engages the reader in an experience of interpretation and closure.

Guidelines:

__ Use first-person point of view.

__ Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.

__ Use narrative techniques such as dialogue, description, and reflection.

__ Create a smooth progression of experiences or events; sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole.

__ Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.

__ Length: Between 2-4 pages, double spaced

Read the following model narratives to give you an idea of a possible structure, voice, and tone for your narrative:

Model Narrative 1:

Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief. New York: Knopf, 2005. (2005) From “The Flag”

The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places it was burned. There were black crumbs, and pepper, streaked amongst the redness.

Earlier, kids had been playing hopscotch there, on the street that looked like oil-stained pages. When I arrived I could still hear the echoes. The feet tapping the road.The children-voices laughing, and the smiles like salt, but decaying fast.

Then, bombs.

This time, everything was too late.

The sirens. The cuckoo shrieks in the radio. All too late.

Within minutes, mounds of concrete and earth were stacked and piled. The streets were ruptured veins. Blood streamed till it was dried on the road, and the bodies were stuck there, like driftwood after the flood.

They were glued down, every last one of them. A packet of souls. Was it fate?

Misfortune?

Is that what glued them down like that?

Of course not.

Let’s not be stupid.

It probably had more to do with the hurled bombs, thrown down by humans hiding in the clouds.

For hours, the sky remained a devastating, home-cooked red. The small German town had been flung apart one more time. Snowflakes of ash fell so lovelily you were tempted to stretch out your tongue to catch them, taste them. Only, they would have scorched your lips. They would have cooked your mouth.

Clearly, I see it.

I was just about to leave when I found her kneeling there.

A mountain range of rubble was written, designed, erected around her. She was clutching at a book.

Apart from everything else, the book thief wanted desperately to go back to the basement, to write, or read through her story one last time. In hindsight, I see it so obviously on her face. She was dying for it—the safety, the home of it— but she could not move. Also, the basement no longer existed. It was part of the mangled landscape.

Model Narrative 2:
Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Ballantine, 1989. (1989) From “Jing-Mei Woo: Two Kinds”
My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could become rich. You could become instantly famous.
“Of course you can be prodigy, too,” my mother told me when I was nine. “You can be best anything. What does Aun- tie Lindo know? Her daughter, she is only best tricky.”
America was where all my mother’s hopes lay. She had come here in 1949 after losing everything in China: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls. But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better.
We didn’t immediately pick the right kind of prodigy. At first my mother thought I could be a Chinese Shirley Temple. We’d watch Shirley’s old movies on TV as though they were training films. My mother would poke my arm and say, “Ni kan”—You watch. And I would see Shirley tapping her feet, or singing a sailor song, or pursing her lips into a very round O while saying, “Oh my goodness.”
“Ni kan,” said my mother as Shirley’s eyes flooded with tears. “You already know how. Don’t need talent for crying!”

Brainstorming ideas:

1.Look through your warm-ups. Many of these ask you to reflect on things you’ve experienced or learned.

2. Think about your birthdays for the past five or so years. Where were you? Who was with you? What were you doing/feeling/experiencing?

3. Think about a time you:

were scared

were alone

were helpful

were courageous

forgave someone

realized something new

made a new friend

learned something about someone you’ve known for a long time

moved

started high school

traveled

did something thoughtless and then made up for it

apologized

took responsibility for something

What else have you experienced?

Remember, a small event can symbolize a much bigger change.

Who

What

When

Where

Why

Sight

SoundTouch

TasteSmell

Graphic Organizer for Personal Narrative

People in your story:
•
•
• / Sights: / Sounds: / Smells/Textures/Tastes: / Emotions:
List what happened in order: / First: / Second: / Third: / Last:

Personal Narrative Rubric

Criteria543 2 1

Content / Describes a significant moment in the process of growing up; uses several narrative techniques such as dialogue, description, and reflection. / Describes a moment in the process of growing up; AND/OR uses more than one narrative technique such as dialogue, description, and reflection. / Describes a moment in the process of growing up; AND/OR uses one narrative technique
such as dialogue, description, and reflection. / Describes a time period in the process of growing up; AND/OR attempts to use one narrative technique such as dialogue, description, and reflection. / Description of event has little to do with growing up; AND uses no narrative techniques such as dialogue, description, and reflection.
Style and Word Choice / Precise words and phrases, sensory language, vivid picture created. / Precise words and phrases, but little sensory language. / Ambiguous words and phrases AND/OR little sensory language. / Vague words and phrases AND/OR little sensory language. / Clichéd words and phrases AND little sensory language.
Organization / Introduction clearly establishes setting and point of view; smooth progression of events that are sequenced to build on one another;
conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced or resolved over the course of the narrative. / Introduction establishes setting and point of view; clear progression of events that are sequenced to build on one another;
conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced or resolved over the course of the narrative. / Introduction somewhat vaguely establishes setting and point of view; AND/OR progression of events that build on one another; AND/OR
conclusion that scantily reflects on what is experienced or resolved over the course of the narrative. / Introduction attempts to establish setting and point of view; AND/OR unclear progression of events; AND/OR
conclusion that scantily reflects on what is experienced or resolved over the course of the narrative. / Introduction attempts to establish setting and point of view; AND/OR unclear progression of events; AND scant
conclusion that does not reflect on what is experienced or resolved over the course of the narrative.
Mechanics and Usage / Punctuation and grammar are standard usage and error-free. / Punctuation and grammar are mostly standard usage--paper has 1-3 errors. / Punctuation and grammar are mostly standard usage--paper has 4-6 errors. / Punctuation and grammar are frequently non-standard usage--paper has 7-10 errors. / Punctuation and grammar are frequently non-standard--paper has more than 11 errors.
Length / Between 800 and 1500 words (approx. 3-5 pages, double -spaced). / Longer than 5 pages OR fewer than 800 words (only 2 ½ pages, double -spaced.) / Fewer than 800 words (only 2 pages, double -spaced.) / Fewer than 800 words (only
1 ½ pages,double -spaced.) / Fewer than 800 words (only one page or less, double -spaced.)