Instructions Personal Narrative Assignment Sheet Purpose: The purpose of this a

Instructions
Personal Narrative Assignment Sheet
Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to practice using your skills of summary, description,
and reflection/analysis to develop a thoughtful, coherent narrative that uses your personal
experience to point toward a more universal truth or idea. You will also practice organization, as
well as critical thinking, as you reflect on your personal experience and how it connects
outwardly.
Directions: Consider a word or words that have been important to you at any point in your life.
This might be a word you use to describe yourself (whether in terms of identity or personality), it
might be a word you have feelings or thoughts about, or a word you find yourself wanting to
understand better. It might be a phrase or a saying, something made up or a piece of slang. In this
narrative, you will explore the significance of this word(s) to your life, its impact on your
personhood, and more broadly, what implications a word might have on our lives and
understanding of the world. What argument can you make for this word’s importance to your life
or to the greater world? Using detail, description, summary, and reflection, you will draft a
narrative that uses your personal experience to make a larger argument or statement about the
world.
To begin, brainstorm about words that feel important to you.
Once you know what you want to
use as your focus, think about and develop the following:
What is the definition of your word(s) or phrase? If it’s a phrase, do individual words hold
weight? What’s your personal definition for the word(s)?
What connotations can you brainstorm from these words. What do they make you think about?
Other words, ideas, feelings, or meanings? Beyond your personal connotations, how does society
at large view this word? Or how is the word viewed in culture? Which cultures?
What scenes come to mind for you? Does the word remind you a particular moment? What are
the key details of that moment? The sounds/smells/sights/feelings/taste? How will you situate us
in the place/time/memory? Now analyze the memory, what questions does it raise? What ideas
or ‘problems/complications’ come up? (Think about the Power of Hello or the Mariachi as
examples).
Now, reflect on this word’s meaning(s) in relation to your memories. What greater takeaway or
conclusion do we reach by analyzing this word and its greater significance or interpretation? For
you? For your community? For you in the memory versus you in the present writing about it?
Has your perspective changed over time?
A tip: often we learn something just by writing about it. You might not know what the word
means until you start trying to explore it through language. The idea might be grand or small,
there are no wrong answers here.
Your narrative should include:
• Scene(s) that include detail and descriptive summary (this will likely be a memory that
you describe for the reader, but might also include description of the moments the word
was important to you.)
• A stated question/problem/idea/complication that arises from the scene/memory or the
definition (what does the word/memory make you think about? What does the word mean
to you? Why is this memory important?)
• Reflection on the above stated question/idea/complication (what is significant about this
idea? How might it connect to the greater world or community or a more universal
experience?)
Conclusion. Where does this thinking lead you? There doesn’t need to be a formalconclusion or statement. It might end up with more questions or nothing being settled, butthere should be some sense of movement from the beginning of your narrative to the endDetails: Your personal narratives should be 500-750 words in length. They should be typed,double-spaced, with an MLA header plus a word count. You should include a title. Use 12-pointfont, Times New Roman or the equivalent. You will bring in a printed copy for peer review, andyou will turn in the final draft to me as a Microsoft Word document (or PDF) throughBlackboard
Remember, your narrative will include both scene and reflection. Consider the memory (or memories) that are most connected to your word/phrase. How does this memory help you express the greater meaning or significance of this word to your life? To the greater world?
If you’re struggling to get started, I’d recommend one of two entry points:
Place us in scene. Establish your age and where you are geographically. Now take us through the memory. Add moments of reflection as you go.
Start by introducing the word and what it means to you (or its dictionary definition). Move into connotations you have for the word, then find a way into scene/memory.
Remember, there are no wrong answers, but aim to dig deep in your reflections. Why is this story important? What does language mean to us?
Mousche ma shell
Pane ca shell
Pane ricott
Tooflabut tooflabut tooflabut.
This translates to
Nice Kittycat
Bread and cheese
Bread and ricotta
Patticake, Patticake, Patticake.
I associate this word with her, and the first time she gave me a cannoli, I remember I was in her house that she built in the 1940’s with her big backyard that my parents got married in, in Long Island, New York, and I’m in her kitchen, sitting in a chair, eating a rainbow sprinkle-covered cannoli. I always enjoyed when I got to visit her in Long Island, but I didn’t get to see her much because she was so far away. This was my earliest memory of her, and it was my first cannoli. I am not a full italain but my mom is a quarter italian and recently we are applying for our italian american citizenship, I alway s tell people im italian, but i dont even know the langue except for how to sing happy birthday in italain.