Dr. A. Waller Hastings
Northern State University
hastingw@northern.edu
Paper # 1 – Narrative/Descriptive
For the first paper, you are to write a story
about a memorable experience in your life: for example, the birth of a
sibling, the discovery of a special talent, an adventure, something funny
that happened to you, etc.
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Your story should have a coherent structure (one
in which all of the ideas and experiences are clearly connected to one
another and the sequence is logical).
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It should include vivid descriptions of important
elements (significant characters, settings, or objects – not description
for its own sake but to help bring the story to life).
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It should include dialogue which advances the story
(i.e., don’t just have a series of people greeting each other to fill space)
and follows normal conventions for dialogue. (If you’re not sure
what these are, ask!)
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It has a minimum of grammatical and mechanical errors;
if you have a particular grammatical weakness, you should focus on that
area during part of the revision process.
DO NOT EXPECT TO WHIP THIS OUT THE
NIGHT BEFORE IT’S DUE! Good writers revise extensively,
adding (and sometimes subtracting) details and changing words and other
elements to make their stories come alive.
FORMAT: 3-5 pages, typed and double-spaced.
Give the story an evocative title and don’t forget to put your name
and my name and the class (English 101) on your papers.
DRAFTS: Wednesday Jan. 21 and Wednesday
Jan. 18
FINAL DRAFTS DUE: Friday, January 30.
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Last updated January 12, 2004.