Autobiographical Incident

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Autobiographical Incident (personal narrative)
Narrative Writing tells a story it reports
what happened.
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In real life, events often occur randomly
or chaotically, but in a narrative, they must
be told or shown . . .
In some orderly sequence The Plot
By a particular person The Narrator
From a particular perspective The Point of View
Within a definite time and place The Setting
For a particular reason The Purpose
3
Suppose we wanted to tell a story about a young
woman sitting alone eating a snack.
Little Miss Muffett sat on a tuffet, eating her
curds and whey.
BORING!
someone
doing something
at a particular time
in a particular place
Needed PLOT conflict or tension brought to a
high point (climax)
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Little Miss Muffett sat on a tuffet, eating her
curds and whey.
Beginning
Along came a spider and sat down beside her
Middle
End
And frightened Miss Muffet away.
Mere time sequence doesnt make a real plot The
events have to be RELATED in some meaningful way
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Effective Narratives dont just report. they
build to a particular purpose
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Frank Sinatras Gum By Kelly Simon

• Read the narrative and
• determine
• Plot
• Narrator
• Point of View
• Setting
• Purpose

7
Now, its your turn

• Go back to your journal writing about respect.
• Make sure your story has
• Plot
• A Narrator (voice)
• Point of View
• Setting
• Purpose