Narrative Essay 

Our next assignment will be to write a narrative essay of your choice. This essay should be 700 to 1000 words, or about three pages. You may write about any event in your life, such as: an emergency that brought out the best or worst in you, an incident that made you believe or disbelieve in fate, an important learning experience, a narrow escape, a memorable childhood experience, an unpleasant confrontation, or whatever other topic you desire. You may also choose to write a fictional story in the third person.

Here is a rubric showing what is expected on this essay and how it will be graded. This essay will be worth 100 points towards your final grade. It is due by midnight on September the 15th.


Narrative essay assessment rubric/score sheet

Narrative essays must be typed, double spaced using 12 point font. Headings must be left justified and include name, teacher’s name, class number, and date. Titles must be centered. Page numbers are in the upper right hand corner.

Area 1
Ideas and Content:
_____ focuses on a specific experience or time in the writer’s life.
_____ presents an appealing picture of the action and the people
_____ uses dialogue and sensory details
_____ makes the reader want to know what happens next
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Area 2
Organization:
_____ has a beginning, a middle, and an end
_____ pulls reader into the text with beginnings techniques
_____ gives events in an order that is easy to follow
_____ uses transition words and phrases to connect ideas
5 4 3 2 1

Area 3
Voice:
_____ creates a tone and a mood that fits the topic
_____ shows the writer’s personality
5 4 3 2 1

Area 4
Word Choice:
_____ contains specific nouns, vivid verbs, and colorful modifiers
_____ uses sensory details and figurative comparisons
5 4 3 2 1

Area 5
Sentence Fluency:
_____ flows smoothly from one idea to the next
_____ uses a variety of sentence lengths and structures
5 4 3 2 1

Area 6
Conventions:
_____ applies basic rules of grammar, usage, and mechanics
_____ presents paper according to format listed in directions
5 4 3 2 1

Review for "Word Choice and Grammatical Sentence" Quiz

Word Choice and Grammatical Sentence Quiz Review 

There will be two sections on the quiz. One in which you are asked to label a sentence as formal, popular, or informal diction.

“You don't have to choose between style and usefulness.”-popular

“The research shows that you do not have to differentiate between aesthetics and function.” -formal

“It's all good, bro.”-informal


The next section will ask you to write examples of simple, compound, and complex sentences. For example:

The sky is blue. -simple

The sky is blue, but the sea is green. -compound

Because of the way that light refracts, the sky is blue. -complex

Storytelling Assignmnet

Due: September 5th
Length: 300-1,000 Words

This assignment will give you the chance to explore elements of storytelling in anticipation of the longer narrative essay that will be due on the 15th. For this assignment, I am asking you to re-frame a story that you have enjoyed in the past. You may use a myth or fairy tale, like Hansel and Gretel or the Three Little Pigs, or a modern story like Twilight or the Lion King.

Think about the setting, characters, point of view, and audience in the story and then consider how changing one of these aspects could change the story as a whole. The Lion King as told from Scar's perspective, for example, would be an entirely different story. One could also think about the Twilight series as told from the perspective of a human male being pursued by a female vampire and werewolf. Maybe The Three Little Pigs as a modern-day tale set in New York and acted out by gang members would interest you.

Whatever you choose, have fun with it and use it as an opportunity to practice your writing and storytelling skills. Summarize the story in your own words. You need not go into any great detail as the retelling should be about a page long, double spaced, but try to summarize the plot, characters, and setting the best that you can. If you feel like you need more room, feel free to use as many as 1,000 words. You may e-mail the assignment to me directly by midnight on the 5th, or you may post it to the blog for extra credit.

Review for "Writing Basics and Sentence Style" Quiz

For our first quiz, expect two parts: a mix and match section on the five terms presented in the Writing Basics power point, and two questions about the Sentence Style lecture.

Writing Basics:

Plot: what happens in a story
Character: the people in the story
Theme: the meaning of a story
Conflict, crisis, resolution: the arc of a story's plot
Point of view: third person or first person perspective


Sentence Style

Expect a question on passive voice in which you will be asked to change a sentence from passive voice to active voice.
For example, the passive voice "The White House was told about the problem," could be changed to "The press told the White House about the problem."

Also expect to break a run on sentence which expresses too many thoughts into a few smaller sentences.
For example, "I like to ride my motorcycle when it is nice and yesterday I went to the bank but I need some more chips also," could be changed to, "I like to ride my bike when it is nice. Yesterday I went to the bank but it was too cold to ride my bike. Today I need to get some more chips."

Critical Eye Assignment

Hello composition students! 

It is time for our first classroom assignment: the Critical Eye assignment due this Thursday, August the 29th. 

This assignment will have you flexing your critical thinking muscles by analyzing an image, video, or article for the argument being made, how it is presented, and what the implications of the argument are. Political articles and cartoons, as well as advertisements, are always good places to look for arguments.  Use the CLUES handout to: consider the source, lay out the argument, uncover the evidence, evaluate the conclusion, and sort out the implications.  

You may analyze anything you wish as long as you can show how it is being used to argue a point. You need not show your whole video or read your whole article in class, but an overview would be nice, as well a link for those who wish to read or view the material at a later date. 

You will be asked to present your findings in class, but you may also post here for extra points. I will post an example, which we will go over in class, so that you can see how this assignment works. The assignment should take you around five minutes to present and is worth 25 points towards your final grade. If you post something to this blog as part of the assignment you will receive an extra five points.