P1: Narrative Essay

Today we'll talk about your first full paper (2-3 pages), I'll briefly touch on material that's contained in pages that I've linked to here.

A "narrative" is simply a story. I'm asking you to write a personal essay in the form of a story based on your own experience.  I want a true story, not a work of fiction, but I'm asking you to describe your experiences as if you were writing a very short story (with a protagonist with a clear goal, who struggles to overcome obstacles, and in the process goes through a meaningful change.)

Requirements for P1:

• Demonstrate your ability to punctuate quoted speech correctly.
• Rather than simply describing the big game, or a scary car crash or the loss of a loved one, present a story that SHOWS the consequences of an escalating series of moral choices.
• Example... in high school, a kid I didn't know accidentally threw food at me in the cafeteria one day. I ignored it. The next day, he did it again on purpose, and my friends told me he was laughing at me behind my back. I could have ignored it again, but I told my friends, "If he does it again, I'll throw my chocolate milk all over him."  I was just blustering to save face with my friends -- my plan was to drink my milk really quickly and then leave, but the kid threw a donut at me immediately.  I had another choice... ignore him again, back down in front of my friends, or throw the milk in his face.
  
• I've stopped this example at the CLIMAX -- the moment when my own moral choice -- the decision to bluff in front of my friends -- forced me to make another, more significant, choice. In order for the story to work, I'd need to introduce some context -- why was it so important to me to bluff in front of my friend, what the consequences were likely to be (the kid who was picking on me was a wrestler). My story would eventually get to the food fight (that's right, I threw the milk in his face), but the reader needs at least a glimpse of what the "normal" routine is, before something happens that makes this particlar day worth writing about.
• Note that a CRISIS is simply an exciting emergency -- a car crash, a wave sweeping somebody overboard, a crowd of bullies threatening to beat you up. A story needs CONFLICT.  In this case, I wouldn't make my adversary into a fully-fleshed out opponent (with his own set of motivations and values).  I'd keep him a background figure, just a prop, something that helps me SHOW a conflict between opposing moral systems (turn the other cheek, even if it means getting beaten up? Keep the respect of your friends, even if you're still gonna get beaten up and get sent to the principal's office?).