Writing Workshop Writing an Autobiographical Narrative

1. Writing WorkshopWriting an Autobiographical Narrative Feature Menu • Assignment • Prewriting • Search Your Memory • Choose an Experience • Define Your Purpose and Audience • Gather Details • Organize Details • Share the Significance of the Experience • Practice and Apply

2. Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Assignment: Write an autobiographical narrative that reveals an experience’s significance for you. Do you have a relative or a friend who tells the same stories over and over again? Many people like to share stories about events that have a special significance to them or that reveal something important about their lives, values, or beliefs. What story will you tell? [End of Section]

3. Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Search Your Memory Think about specific, meaningful experiences from your life. • a special place a neighborhood park, a vacation spot • the first time you did something rode a bike, volunteered • a special occasion a sports event, a family reunion [End of Section]

4. Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Choose an Experience Ask yourself • Is this experience important to me? • What specific details can I give about this experience? • Is the experience too private or embarrassing to share? Choose the experience that brings out the most detailed and positive response from you. [End of Section]

5. Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Define Your Purpose and Audience Purpose • To relate the sequence of events that make up a personal experience • To express to your audience the significance of those events

6. Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Define Your Purpose and Audience Audience • Teachers • Friends • Classmates • Parents • Others who will read your autobiographical narrative What background information will the audience need to understand the experience? [End of Section]

7. Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Gather Details List all the vivid details you can recall about events, people, places, thoughts, and feelings.

8. Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Gather Details List all the vivid details you can recall about events, people, places, thoughts, and feelings.

9. Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Gather Details List all the vivid details you can recall about events, people, places, thoughts, and feelings.

10. Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Gather Details List all the vivid details you can recall about events, people, places, thoughts, and feelings. [End of Section]

11. Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Organize Details Discuss the events in chronological order, or time order. First Next Last BackgroundDiscuss events that came before your experience to help your audience understand what led up to it. ConclusionDiscuss events that came after your experience to show how that experience related to other parts of your life. Main narrativeDiscuss events that were part of your meaningful life experience.

12. Changes in Time Changes in Place at first before to begin later then next afterwards last around nearby across from next to beside behind in front of under Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Organize Details Use transitional words and phrases to guide your readers through the events in your narrative. [End of Section]

13. Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Share the Significance of the Experience Ask yourself • Did the experience change me? If so, how? • What did I learn from the experience? • Has my perspective, my thoughts and feelings about the event, shifted over time? If so, how?

14. Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Share the Significance of the Experience Write a sentence identifying your controlling impression—the main idea or feeling you want to communicate about your experience. Rescuing the injured turtle and volunteering at the animal rescue shelter has given me a new respect for animals and a sense of accomplishment and purpose. You don’t have to include this sentence in your final draft, but every detail in the narrative should contribute to the controlling impression. [End of Section]

15. Writing an Autobiographical NarrativePrewriting: Practice and Apply Follow the guidelines in this section to choose an experience, analyze your audience, and gather and organize details for your autobiographical narrative. [End of Section]

16. The End