Narrative for English 101

DESCRIPTIVE NARRATIVE (ENG 101)

DESCRIPTION: A narrative is just a story. Although it can take many forms, its essential nature is pretty consistent: a narrator (disembodied and all-knowing or a character with a limited perspective) tells some kind of story about characters doing things. Good stories satisfy a reader’s desire for beginning, middle, and end: The reader is introduced to the characters and gets to know something about them, a conflict is introduced that the reader becomes interested and invested in, and that conflict is ultimately resolved one way or another. Description (a person’s appearance, a setting’s details) make the story come alive. For examples of narrative, watch a movie, read a book, or listen to your best friend tell a story about what happened to them on Saturday night. Narratives are everywhere.

ASSIGNMENT: Write any type of narrative you want (for ideas, see “Optional prompts” below). You can tell a story of something that happened to you, or you can make up something entirely fictional, but you must narrate a progression of events for your reader that leads to a finale. Do not simply describe an event. Description will be a key element of your paper, but your primary goal is to tell a story.

Optional prompts: Write a story in which a person changes into something else, like Selzer’s patient transformed into a bonsai. Or, write a story about a tradition people might find unusual or mysterious.

You are free to write from the first person (I, me, we) or third person (him, her, they) point of view. Your tone and language can be informal, but you must edit your paper for both proofreading and grammar errors. Your purpose (the point of the story) should be clear although you are not required to have a standard thesis statement.

REQUIREMENTS: Your paper should be 3-5 pages long. Please reference the MLA formatting sample on D2L to format your header, heading, and text correctly. You will be able to revise this paper for a maximum, NON-GUARANTEED increase of half a letter grade. Late papers will not be eligible for revision and will be docked a letter grade for every day they are late. This paper will be graded out of 100 possible points. Although I am looking primarily for content, repeated grammar and typo problems will seriously affect your grade.

EXTENSIONS: Please remember to ask for an extension ahead of time if you need one. (I always say yes as long as you ask BEFORE the due date.)