Yeah! The Constitution test is done!Now let's focus on our own personal stories. On Wednesday after we return from Thanksgiving break, your first draft of your personal narrative will be due.
The following are some of the criteria we discussed in class:
Personal Narrative/ Memoir:
___1. The title invites and fits: It came last; it was chosen from among possibilities that the writer brainstormed.
___2. The lead brings readers right into the action of the story: In Medias Res
___3. Background information that the reader needs is woven in.
___4. Characters are richly drawn. Characters need to be complex, believable, and vivid; characters need to develop, to be someone the reader/ listener has real feelings for.
___5. The author has been deliberate in his/her choice of P.O.V. If first person, there’s lots of I.
___6. While the narrative needs to “move,” the pace can be slowed down. The author is taking her/ his time. A reader can see, hear, and feel the experience because the writer provides concrete, sensory details and descriptions of people in action.
___7. The small details show what matters to the people in the memoir.
___8. There is dialogue; the writer uses it to show what people are like and how they’re feeling.
___9. Word choice is rich and deliberate.
___10. Plot is coherent, makes sense.
___11. There’s a So What? There is a reason that the memoir is being shared. There is something meaningful in having read or heard the narrative.
___12. There’s a setting: a time and places.
___13. The action flashes back and forward in time and creates questions in the reader’s mind about what will happen next.
___14. There’s a conflict/ problem and resolution.
___15. The ending is purposeful: It leaves the reader thinking.
___16. The memoirist invents details that fit with the spirit, intention, and truth of the story.
___17. There is sentence variety.
___18. Language mechanics are strong. No P.O.G.s!
___19. The memoir works!
posted by Jan Yourist at 5:49 PM
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