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Description
Narrative Essay Mla Format document sample
Document Sample
Writing
to narrate to persuade
Purposes: to describe to inform
to express to exemplify
to entertain to summarize & respond
Style & Tone: informal formal
(1st person, slang, colloquial (3rd person, standard English)
expressions, contractions, etc.)
Form: open closed
Organization: scene-by-scene point-by-point
Thesis: implicit (delayed) explicit (end of intro.)
The Narrative Essay
I. Choose a topic (autobiographical & narrow timeframe)
A. Consider different types of conflicts you have
experienced:
(1.) Old Self vs. New Self
(2.) Old View of Person X vs. New View of Person X
(3.) Old Values vs. New Values
B. Other types of conflicts:
Human vs. Human Human vs. Nature
Human vs. Society Human vs. Him/Herself
The Narrative Essay
II. Organization/Order & Sequence
A. Chronological
B. Begin “In Medias Res” (“In the Midst of Things”)
III. Setting
A. When does the story take place?
B. Where does the story take place?
The Narrative Essay
IV. Plot
A. Common Plot Stages
(1.) An arresting opening scene
(2.) Introduction of major characters
(3.) Filling in of background information
(4.) Building of tension or conflict
(5.) Climax Epiphany
(6.) Resolution and Reflection Theme
The Narrative Essay
V. Character
A. Characters who contribute significantly to the
tension or who represent some aspect of that
tension belong in your narrative and need
development.
(1.) Use dialogue (See LR pg. 133-134 and example
on pp. 137)
Rule: When quoting the dialogue of two or more
speakers in one paragraph, start a new line and
indent for each new speaker of dialogue. Also, in
this case you must write the dialogue first and the
attributive tag second.
The Narrative Essay
Example:
As I walked into the room, my father and mother were
sitting on the couch staring at me with stern looks on
their faces.
“Where have you been?” they asked as I slowly
sat down in the chair.
“I just went out for a little while,” I answered.
“It is 2:00 in the morning, John! You have been
gone for seven hours!” they screamed.
“I meant to call and tell you, I really did, but…”
I muttered.
“But what, John?” they asked.
The Narrative Essay
What not to do:
They all looked like a bunch of colorful fish bobbing
in and out of the water, laughing, playing, and
making way too much noise. As soon as Kia saw the
kids she said,
“Mommy can I go in the pool?”
At first I hesitated, but then I said,
“Okay”
The Narrative Essay
Correction:
They all looked like a bunch of colorful fish bobbing
in and out of the water, laughing, playing, and
making way too much noise.
“Mommy can I go in the pool?” Kia said as
soon as she saw the kids.
“Okay,” I said, after hesitating at first.
The Narrative Essay
VI. Use lots of imagery/descriptive details
A. Joseph Conrad: “My task…by the power of the
written word is to make you hear, to make you
feel, to make you see…”
The Narrative Essay
VI. Use lots of imagery/descriptive details
A. Joseph Conrad: “My task…by the power of the
written word is to make you hear, to make you
feel, to make you see…”
B. Imagery makes the narrative vigorous and
immediate vs. lifeless and dull (See LR pg. 133)
Pg. 133
The Narrative Essay
VI. Use lots of imagery/descriptive details
A. Joseph Conrad: “My task…by the power of the
written word is to make you hear, to make you
feel, to make you see…”
B. Imagery makes the narrative vigorous and
immediate vs. lifeless and dull (See LR pg. 133)
VII. Try to use a consistent verb tense (past tense is the
easiest and usually the best tense to put the
narrative in)
The Narrative Essay
VIII. Theme
A. A universal lesson of some sort that applies to
all people in some way and to more situations in
life than just the specific situation dealt with in
your story.
B. This lesson, if followed by the reader, should
have the potential to make his or her life better
in some way.
Narrative Essay Outline Assignment
(Due on the same day as the rough draft)
I. Conflict(s): ____________________________________
II. Organizational Method: _______________
III. Setting: Where?________ When? ___________
IV. Stages of Plot:
1. Arresting opening scene: _______________________
2. Intro. of characters: _____________________
3. Filling in of background info: _____________
4. Building of tension/conflict: _____________________
5. Climax & Epiphany: ______________
6. Reflection/Resolution & Theme: _______________
V. Characters: ___________________
VI. Imagery: What/Who will you describe in detail? ____________
VII. Verb Tense _______ Reasons why? ________
VIII. Theme/Universal Lesson:
Autobiographical Narrative: Essay #1 Assignment
Format: --12 Point Font
--Times New Roman Style
--Double-Spaced
--Correct Heading w/ a Header at the top of each page
--One Inch Margins
-- No Cover Pages or Special Folders
--PROPER MLA FORMAT IN ALL AREAS (See HB Chap. 36)
Length: Must be at least 2 full pages long and no more than 4 pages.
Assignment: In a well-developed, organized, and grammatically correct essay,
write a narrative describing ONE specific moment or conflict you have experienced
at any time in your life and what important lesson you learned from it. Use the
literary strategies of description, plot, character, setting, conflict, epiphany, and
theme, which we have already discussed. Develop your story through the use of
contraries, creating tension that moves the story forward and gives it significance.
Use descriptive details and elaboration and develop the conflict that creates suspense
and contributes to the overall theme.
Smith 1
Bill Smith
(Heading:
English 1301.10 double-spaced-- (Header w/pg.#)
Put this on the
9-13-2001 first page ONLY)
Mr. Everett (Title-Centered)
The High School Awakening
My first day at Easton High School was not as idyllic as I had always
envisioned it to be…………………………………………………………….
………………….……………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………………………
Instructions on Formatting Essays Using Microsoft Word 2003 and Earlier
(1.) How to Set the Margins to One Inch:
In Microsoft Word, click on the word “File” in the upper right-hand corner of the
screen and then click on “Page Setup.” From there click the word “Margins.” Then
go in and adjust the top, left, right, and bottom margins all to one inch (1”). Note:
the left and right margins are spaced by default to 1.25” so you will have to lower
them to 1.” Also, after doing this click on the tab that says “Layout.” Then set the
header and footer boxes to both say zero point five inches (0.5”). That will make
the header centered exactly in the middle of the top one-inch margin.
Note: Do not ever manually grab the margins with the mouse and/or adjust
the margins with the mouse as this will mess them up sometimes beyond
repair!
(2.) How to Double-Space the Essay Properly:
In Microsoft Word, press the “Format” tab at the top of the screen and then
press the “Paragraph” tab. Then go down to the box that says “line spacing”
and change it from single to double.
Note: Also, you then need to click “Line and Page Breaks” at the top of the
“Paragraph” box and then uncheck the “Widow/Orphan Control” box. If this is
checked then it can sometimes make your margins at the bottom of pages look
longer than one inch.
***NOTE: Be sure and set the margins to one inch and the line spacing to
double first and before you do anything else within the document. Do not
type one single word or make one single mark within the document itself
until after you have done all of the above. Failure to do this will cause
major formatting problems throughout your entire experience writing the
paper.
(3.) How to Properly Insert a Header and the Page Number:
In Microsoft Word click “view,” and then click “header and footer.” Next, a dotted-
lined box will appear at the top of the page and a gray “header and footer bar” will
appear in the middle of the screen. Move the cursor to the far right hand corner of
the page (press the “Align Right” icon), change the font size from the standard ten
point to twelve point, manually type your last name, and then hit the space bar one
time. Then find and click the “insert page number” icon that is on the gray “header
and footer bar” which appeared earlier in the middle of the screen. This will put
your last name and the correct page number on every page. Note: Do Not
manually type the number “1” on this page or else it will put the number “1” at the
top of every single page. Do Not Put the “heading” in this header and footer dotted
box or else it will appear on every page too. The heading should only appear on
the first page of the essay. Also, the header should have one, and only one, space
between your last name and the page number.
4.) How to Format the Heading:
After setting the margins to one inch, setting the line spacing to double, and
inserting the header, then type your heading. Note: make sure you do not type
the heading in the same box where the header goes! Doing this will cause the
heading to appear on every single page. It should only appear on the first page.
So just go in and type the heading on the first regular line of the essay itself.
Type your first and last name first. Then type the name of the course, the course
number, and the section number. For example, you might type “English 1301.12.”
The “English” part is the course, the “1301” part is the course number, and the
“12” part is the section number. The section number for your class can be found
by looking it up in the CTC Schedule Bulletin you used to register for this class or
by looking on the syllabus. After typing the subject, then start a new line and type
the month, day, and year that the paper is due according to the syllabus. Finally,
start a new line and type my name: Mr. Everett.
Note: Make sure the heading is double-spaced and that it doesn’t include
anything other than what I have listed above. Also, if you are using Word 2007
and/or if your heading ends up looking like it is triple-spaced or has more than
one double-space between each part of it, try pressing “Shift+Enter” (instead of
just Enter) after you type each line of the heading. This will cause there to only
be one double-space between each part of the heading instead of it looking triple-
spaced.
(5.) Paragraph Indentations: The first line of the first and each new paragraph in
essays should be indented one time by pressing the “Tab” key once on the keyboard
(This should put a ten-space indentation on that line).
Please do not ever left-align all paragraphs and do not put less or more than ten
spaces into the indentation of paragraphs.
(6.) Word, Sentence, Paragraph, and Title Spacing:
There should be one, and only one, space between all words in the essay and
exactly two spaces between all sentences in the essay. Additionally, there should
only be one, and only one, double-space between the end of the heading and the
title and between the end of the title and the first paragraph. Finally, all paragraphs
should have one, and only one, double-space between them. Please do not ever
purposefully put big gaps of two or more double-spaces between the paragraphs in
order to try to make the essay look longer. Your teachers will know exactly what
you are trying to do and their impression of you will be lowered as a result.
Note: If you are using Word 2007 and/or if your paragraphs end up looking like
they are triple-spaced or have more than one double-space between them, try
pressing “Shift+Enter” (instead of just Enter) after you finish one paragraph and
want to start a new one. This will cause there to only be one double-space between
each paragraph instead of them looking triple-spaced or like they have more than
one double-space between them.
(7.) Choosing and Formatting a Creative and Appropriate Essay Title:
Be sure to always give your essay an appropriate and creative title. Never title
your essay “Essay #1” or “Narrative Essay” or something bland like that, but
rather give your essay a title that is interesting, creative, and related in some way
to the topic, purpose, or thesis of the essay. Also, if writing your essay on
someone else’s work, such as about someone else’s essay, short story, poem,
play, or novel, never call your own essay about that work by the same title as the
work itself. For example, if you are writing about a short story called “The Story of
an Hour,” do not call your essay “The Story of an Hour.” That title has already
been taken. Now, if you want to use a two part title and make the work’s title part
of the title but also add something of your own to the title then that is fine. For
example, you could call your essay “The Story of an Hour”: A Critical Reading or
something to that effect. Just make sure with two part titles that you divide the
two parts with a colon as shown in the above example. Also, never underline,
italicize, bold, or put in quotation marks your own essay title unless, and only
unless, your title contains the title of some other work. For instance, if your own
title contains the title of the short story “The Story of an Hour,” then you will put
“The Story of an Hour” in quotation marks because MLA says to do that, but the
rest of your title, the A Critical Reading part, you will not put in quotations marks.
So the finished product would look exactly like this: “The Story of an Hour”: A
Critical Reading
English 1301 Scoring Guide for Essay #1
Grammar: ------------------------------------------
L M H
Problems: comma usage ___ heading/header/font___ s-v agree ___
spelling ___ verb tense ___ word endings ___
fragments ___ apostrophes ___ proofreading ___
punctuation ___ comma splice___ careless mistakes___
pronoun case ___ semi-colon ___ run-on ___
Organization: ------------------------------------------
L M H
___ lacks clear paragraphing or has paragraph breaks in illogical places
___ lacks transitions
___ fails to delay the theme and build suspense
Clarity: ------------------------------------------
L M H
___some awkward or unclear phrasing
___ word choice problems
___ main theme is unclear
Focus: ------------------------------------------
L M H
___ doesn’t focus on some or all parts of assignment
___ loses focus in some areas on conflict, suspense and theme
Development: ------------------------------------------
L M H
___ introduction and/or conclusion lack(s) development
___under page limit (2 pg. min.)
___ some areas lack the support of details and elaboration
___ main theme is unclear or lacks development
Style & Tone: ------------------------------------------
L M H
___ need a greater variety of simple-complex sentences
___ needs more sophisticated vocabulary or tone
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