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Assignment
Prewriting
Choose an Experience
Consider Purpose and Audience
Gather Details
Reflect on Your Experience
Organize Your Details
Practice and Apply
Writing WorkshopWriting an Autobiographical Narrative
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Assignment: Write a narrative about a significant autobiographical experience.
Writing an Autobiographical Narrative
What experiences stand out as memorable and important in your life? Were they events beyond your control, adventures you chose to have, or achievements you worked hard for?
Writing about an experience is a good way to explore its meaning—to discover and share how it has shaped who you are. What story does your life want to tell?
[End of Section]
What are some of the defining moments of your life? Brainstorm a list of experiences you remember vividly.
moving from Bogota to Armenia when I
was ten
Paragliding in Panachi near San Gil
Visiting my cousins in Miami for the first
time.
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Choose an Experience
Choose the experience that stirs up the most vivid memories or feelings.
We took the bus from Bucharamanga to San Gil, and then another bus to Panachi.
People were hang gliding off the cliff—it looked scary but fun
Paragliding made me feel free as a bird
Note [End of Section]
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Choose an Experience
Purpose
• To describe a significant experience in your life.
• Consider what background information your readers will need.
Audience
• Introduce yourself as you were before the experience.
I wasn’t the adventurous type, and I’d always been a little scared of heights.
[End of Section]
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Consider Purpose and Audience
Focus on the sequence of events central to your narrative, and list them in a rough outline.
Events
1. In Panachi I saw people hang gliding off the cliffs. I decided to try it.
2. My mom and I met with the instructor, who said that tandem flights were great for beginners.
3. The instructor and I strapped onto a glider, and we jumped off the cliff.
4. We soared over the valley below.
5. Since then I’ve paraglided three times, once solo.
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Gather Details
Note details about people and specific places.
• factual details (names, dates, numbers)
• sensory details (touch, smell, hearing, sight, taste)
• appearances, gestures, actions, and dialogue
paragliding training center in Panachi, July 2011
wind whipping my hair, taste of blood where I bit my lip
Pedro the Instructor—my parents’ age, tan, reassuring grin—"Don’t worry, I haven’t lost a student yet!"
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Gather Details
As you list details, jot down
• figurative language (similes, metaphors, or personification) that describe your experience and create effective images
the gliders soared like bright prehistoric birds
• precise action verbs to note events and actions
soared, dipped, hovered, shrieked
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Gather Details
Make some notes about your thoughts and feelings at each point.
• Consider showing thoughts and feelings through interior monologue.
I was scared, but I couldn’t chicken out with my little brother watching me. I had to be brave.
Shifting perspective [End of Section]
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Gather Details
Think about the significance of the experience and how it changed you.
• What was I like before the experience?
• How did I change as a result of the experience?
• What did I learn about myself and about life in general?
At first I _______________________________________,
but afterward I _________________________________.
I realized ______________________________________.
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Reflect on Your Experience
At first I was timid and tended to watch life from the sidelines, but afterward I had new confidence in myself. I realized that I had missed some great experiences by staying in my comfort zone, but now I could overcome my fears more easily.
Write two or three sentences that express the controlling impression, or central idea, about your experience.
Don’t include these sentences in your narrative’s introduction. Just use them to focus your narrative.
[End of Section]
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Reflect on Your Experience
You can organize your details in one of two ways.
Background Main narrative Conclusion
• Chronological order—Start at the beginning and relate the events in sequence.
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Organize Your Details
You can organize your details in one of two ways.
Background Main narrative
Conclusion
• Flashback—Start at the end and then “flash back” to the earlier events that led up to that point.
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Organize Your Details
Consider the pace of your essay.
Events that occurred rapidly
short, quick sentences
Events that occurred slowly longer sentences
The instructor jumped. Suddenly, we were airborne. I clutched the harness and shrieked.
Before we strapped into the glider, the instructor explained exactly what would happen and answered my questions patiently.
[End of Section]
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Organize Your Details
Choose a significant experience from your life as the subject of your narrative. Then, plan the details of the narrative.
[End of Section]
Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Practice and Apply