Arts & Sciences

Carsten Schmidtke Engl 1113 Freshman Composition I Essay 3 (Narrative with Description)

Memories, experiences, and stories are important to learning and writing. Your purpose as a writer is to remember information and experiences so that you can understand yourself and our world.

You will write a 600-word story about an important event in your life. In this essay, you will demonstrate your ability to tell a story, to enable readers to follow events, to illustrate why the memory is so important to you, and to describe details surrounding the event by answering these three questions:

• What were your impressions of it?
• How did it make you feel?
• What can the audience learn from your experience?

Don't forget that every narrative has a purpose and that every detail should support that purpose. The essay must state a clear thesis, which will be developed with at least three paragraphs. However, remember to let the story do all the explaining. Do not write about something by providing explanations yourself.

Please use something other than what has already been the focus of your first two essays as the background for your memory. Do not write about death/dying, and do not confess to any crimes.

Please submit multiple copies of the rough draft: one for you, one for me, and one for each member of your group. Submit only one copy of the final draft to me.

When you submit your mandatory revision, please attach the graded essay (but nothing else). Make sure that all the changes you made are in bold or highlighted so that I may find them quickly.

All essays must be typed (double-spaced) on standard, letter-size paper.

Please follow the formatting example as shown on p. 776 in McWhorter.

Essays will be graded on the 1-2-3 scale. Please refer to the course syllabus for grading criteria.

Submitting a revised essay may raise your grade by one or two levels. Not submitting a revised essay will lower your grade by one level.

Late work will be handled according to the rules in the syllabus. Remember that you may hand in only one late essay (including revisions).

The following are unacceptable and will result in a rejection of your essay and a grade of zero (0):

1. Pages which are stained, folded, crumpled, torn, or otherwise damaged.

2. Paper sizes other than letter-size.

3. Handwritten assignments.

In addition, you will be required to hand in an outline of your essay to me. The outline must also be typed and contain the following information:

Broad subject:

Narrow subject:

Purpose statement:

Thesis statement:

Your Learning Experience:

Possible Topics

• your first date
• your first serious argument with your parents/your spouse/your significant other
• your first experience with danger
• your first extended stay away from home
• your first encounter with someone whose culture was different from yours
• your first experience with illness
• the consequences of your failure to act on one occasion
• the rewards because you did take action
• an experience when you were isolated, an outsider in a group of people different from you
• how getting an education has put you on the road to success
• when people communicate clearly, they can get along with each other
• sports don't always build character
• physical and mental handicaps can be overcome
• lack of money causes considerable stress and forces tough decisions•a humorous occurrence
• meeting a challenge at work
• your happiest moment
• your greatest embarrassment
• an event that turned an ordinary person you know into a hero
• an experience that was truly a turning point in your life

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