ENGL 117 Week 1
ENGL 117 Week 1 Assignment: Narrative Essay Planning
Please answer the following questions in complete sentence and paragraph format directly on this document. Although this is not a formal essay assignment, proper spelling, grammar, and sentence structure are required. Review the required resources for this assignment to assist you in understanding terminology employed in this template.
Part I: Defining Topic
What single meaningful moment in time in your life have you chosen to narrate? Be sure you are choosing one of the possible prompts noted in the assignment, and take care to cover the following very specifically: What, When, Where, Who, Why.
Part II: Analyzing the Rhetorical Situation
When writing in the Narrative Rhetorical Pattern, our reader craves sensory detail (colors, shapes, patterns, light/dark, sounds, smell, touch sensations), as well as action and impact (relevance to the reader’s own world, a sense of satisfaction and/or inspiration). Our purpose should be to bring our reader right into the moment with us in every way possible, to allow the reader to experience that moment with us. To ensure you meet the needs of your reader and your purpose for writing this essay, please answer each question below:
- List at least two specific colors (in other words, not just “red” but “tomato red,” not just blue, but “sky blue”) and the items in your moment associated with them.
- List at least two specific shapes (in other words, “perfectly rounded, like a globe” and “sharp as a blade of grass”) and the items in your moment associated with them.
- List at least two specific sounds (in other words, “the soft chirping of crickets” and “the roar of waves”) and the items in your moment associated with them.
- List at least two specific smells (in other words, “a smell like city garbage” and “a soft, pleasant scent, like line-dried bedsheets”) and the items in your moment associated with them.
- List at least two specific touch sensations (in other words, “silky” or “rough, like sandpaper”) and the items in your moment associated with them.
- Optional: If your moment involves taste, list at least two specific taste sensations (in other words, “gritty and sweet” or “slimy and bitter”) and the items in your moment associated with them.
- List at least two specific emotions you felt in the moment (in other words, “a sense of loss” and “a yearning for more”) and why you felt that way.
- List at least two specific emotions you feel now, looking back on the moment (in other words, “joy in moving on” and “a longing to go back”) and why you now feel that way.
ENGL 117 Week 1 Discussion: Process and Pattern: Narration
As discussed in this week’s lesson, rhetorical patterns provide us with a specific purpose and pattern of writing for effectively engaging our reader and for clearly communicating our message. This week, we are focusing on narrative writing and on the opening stages of the writing process. With that in mind, how do you decide what to tell, how to tell it, and what to leave out? If given the task of narrating a moment in time in your life, what specific actions, spoken words, thoughts, feelings, colors, shapes, sounds, and touch sensations would you share? What story would serve to provide the greatest impact on your reader? What memory would be the most telling in illustrating a facet of who you are?
Though we will work to answer these questions throughout the week, let’s do a concrete exercise for this discussion to get started. For the initial post, address the following:
- First, review the section in the Week 1 Lesson titled “Understanding Audience and Planning Your Narrative.” Pay close attention to the short period of time you should identify: a few minutes to a few hours at most. Then, review your options for topics for your narrative essay:
- Do you remember a recent and powerful one-on-one moment with your mother, father, sibling, child, significant other, or close friend that impacted you profoundly?
- Did you have any special, powerful moments during the COVID-19 pandemic?
- Are there any unique moments you have shared with an animal (your pet or another animal) recently?
- Then, list three moments in time in your life, each of which took place in just a few minutes to a few hours at most, that could be developed into a narrative essay. Choose moments that reveal who you are to your reader and that take place over a very, very short time span that can be examined richly (see the following examples). After each possible topic, provide some vivid, concrete, descriptive words and some feelings/meanings related to the moment in time. Your possible topics may all relate to one of the narrative essay topic options, or they may each relate to different topic options.
- Next, in one full paragraph of 5-7 sentences, discuss which one of the above topics you would likely choose right now and why, addressing the role of audience in your choice.
Click on the following link to view a sample post: Link: Sample Post
Note: Provide correct APA in-text citation and end referencing by emulating the examples in the lesson.
