Writing 20 - Cora
Agatucci
Basic Writing I
Paragraph #2
(Narration)
Short Cuts: Directions | Narrative
Writing Strategies | Evaluation & Grading
WR 20
Assignments - Fall 2001
for CRN #40561, Tues.-Thurs. 11:00 am - 12:15
pm, Jefferson 101 (Cora Agatucci)
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See Fall 2001 WR 20 Course Plan
for Deadlines
Directions
for Paragraph #2 (Narration)
[USE
THIS HEADING:]
Janet
Student (Your
Name)
WR
20, Dr. Agatucci
(Identify
Course & Instructor)
Paragraph
#2: Narration
(Identify
Assignment)
11 October 2001 (Date
Due for Revised version to be graded)
[CENTER YOUR
PARAGRAPH TITLE]
Directions for Paragraph #2:
Narration
(Worth: 10%
of course grade)
DUE
TUES., OCT. 9:
Preliminary Draft of Paragraph #2, with 3 readable copies
to be
workshopped in class
DUE
THURS., OCT. 11:
Revised Draft of Paragraph #2 (to be graded).
Please
submit Revised Draft in a manila folder, with preliminary drafts enclosed.
Revised Draft (to be graded)
must be typed or word-processed, and double spaced.
Use the recommended heading for WR 20 assignments (see above)
and give your paragraph a title relevant to the topic or point of your
paragraph.
Recommended length:
100 to 200 words (or about one typed, double-spaced standard
sized page, in 12 or 10 point font size).
Competency
8: Understand
the principles of the writing process in its basic form: generating ideas,
organizing ideas, drafting, revising and editing.
THE
WRITING PROCESS
1. Analyze & Understand
the Assignment. A key first step in the Writing Process for college students is to
analyze and understand the assignment:
Write a narrative
paragraph on a topic of your choice.
This
assignment requires that you write a stand-alone paragraph in the mode of
narration—tell a story to make a point.
Read
the handout “WRITING STRATEGIES FOR NARRATIVE PARAGRAPHS,” review Ch. 5
“Narration” & Ch. 3 “Composing: Creating a Draft”
to remind yourself what it means to write a “narrative paragraph.”
Within these
requirements, you are free to choose your topic—so make the most of your
freedom and choose a topic that interests you!
You will want to engage and interest your WR 20 readers in your
writing—but if you are interested in your topic and engaged in what you
are writing, we are very likely to catch your mood and become interested because
you are! Some topic ideas are
given in “Discovering Connections A,” p. 85; and example narrative
paragraphs in Ch. 5 might also give you topic ideas.
2.
Generate Ideas through Prewriting.
Review Ch. 2
“Generating Ideas through Prewriting” and the handout “WRITING
STRATEGIES FOR NARRATIVE PARAGRAPHS.“ Try
one or more of the prewriting strategies introduced to help you generate topic
ideas. The goals of prewriting are to generate topic ideas, explore what you
have to say, choose a topic that seems most productive, generate raw material
that you can shape it into a narrative paragraph. Do not worry about
grammar during the prewriting stage: turn off your “inner censor” and just
get some raw material down on paper.
3.
Composing
a Preliminary Draft: Organizing Ideas & Drafting.
Review the
handout “WRITING STRATEGIES FOR NARRATIVE PARAGRAPHS,” Ch. 5
“Narration” & Ch. 3 “Composing: Creating a Draft.”
As you prepare your preliminary draft of Paragraph #2, consider
your audience. Write to communicate with a specific audience, in this
case Cora and some of the students in WR 20.
Review “Focusing on the Reader” (Ch. 1., pp. 6-8).
Consider us a receptive but perhaps uninformed audience. Think about what
your readers will need to know to fully understand your writing and
appreciate its message. try to be a “reader-centered” writer
(review Ch. 3, pp. 47-51).
Competency
9: Be able to assist other writers with accurate analysis of focus,
coherence, and specific development, at the paragraph level.
Writers
Workshop: In-Class on Tues., Oct. 9
In
this Writers Workshop, you will exercise your skills at helping others achieve
their writing purposes in a narrative paragraph, using
“Narrative Paragraph
Checklist” (p. 91);
”Writing Strategies
for Narrative Paragraphs, and the following Evaluation Checklist:
____Required:
This is a Narrative Paragraph: it tells a story to make a point.
____1. Topic,
Focus, Audience: topic is well-focused and limited enough for
satisfactory development in a paragraph-length assignment; writer is engaged
by the topic s/he has chosen and is writing to communicate with the WR 20
audience.
____2. Topic
Sentence/s: the story is told to make a point, clearly presented in
the topic sentence(s); the topic sentence is well focused and well placed.
____3. Paragraph
unity is strong: everything in your paragraph contributes to the story
and its main pointsupports and develops the main idea; the paragraph is
focused and does not stray from the main idea.
____4. Paragraph
organization is arranged in time order, a sequence of events that is
logical, effective & easy to follow; the beginning introduces (or hints
at) the main idea and sets the stage for the story; the ending (re)states or
emphasizes the central meaning or point of the story.
____5. Paragraph
development: important scene(s) is/are developed in clear, vivid,
specific detail; well selected to support the main idea and “show” the
reader what you mean or what you experienced.
____6. Coherence:
logical transitions signal time order and connect the parts of the story so
the reader can move smoothly from part to part, and understand the main point
of the story; sentences and word choice express the writer’s meaning
clearly.
**Be sure to edit to eliminate FRAGMENTS (Ch. 18).
Writing
Strategies for Narrative Paragraphs
1.
Tell a (short) story that makes
a point, that illustrates a single main idea.
Use
your personal experience, observations, and Ch.
2 prewriting strategies
to explore topic ideas, generate raw material, choose and focus your topic
story, and develop the story and build support for the point of your story.
TIP:
If it is your story, you will probably want to use First
Person Point of View;
if it is someone else’s story that you have observed, you will probably want
to use Third Person Point of View
(see Ch. 5, pp. 88-89).
2.
Write the Topic Sentence(s) that that express/es the central point
or message of your story.
From reading Chs. 3 and 5, you have learned that one
key function of good topic sentences for paragraphs is to
present the writer’s attitude, reaction, and/or opinion about the topic—the
point of the story in narration paragraphs.
But, first, you
need to discover the point of your story before
you can express that central message to your readers.
Analyze your attitude, reaction, and/or opinion about the topic
experience to help you identify why you want to tell this story, what it means
to you, what central point you want to make about this experience.
Try thinking like your readers for a moment:
after reading your story, they will ask, “So what? What does the story
mean--to the author?” Your responsibility as author is provide your audience
with satisfying answer(s) to these questions.
3.
On Beginning and Ending Your
Narrative Paragraph:
Ch. 3 explains that another key function of clear, specific topic
sentences is to introduce the focused topic. The beginning of a narrative
paragraph (see Ch. 5) introduces the focused topic by setting the stage and
orienting (uninformed) readers to the context of your story (e.g., who, when,
where, what, why, etc.), as well as
providing a sense of the direction in which this story is headed:
that is, the point of your story—or at least a clear hint of the point.
However, full explanation of the point of a story often comes at the ending—after
the story has been told.
That is, you don’t necessarily have to spill all the beans at the
beginning.
The ending of a
narrative typically provides a satisfying sense of closure by (re)stating and
elaborating on the central meaning or point of the story.
4.
Organize your story—your prewriting on the focused topic--into a
sequence of events arranged as the
events happened in time (i.e.
in chronological order,
pp.
87-88)--with a beginning, middle, and ending.
(If you’re feeling adventurous, you may wish to experiment with
departing from this usual sequence with narrative techniques like
flashbacks--see p. 87.
Just be careful that you don’t hopelessly confuse your readers in the
process.)
5.
Strengthen coherence by using transitional words and
expressions that signal the time order of successive events narrated
in your story (see some examples of “Transitional Expressions…,” p. 88).
6.
Develop your story with both summary and scene.
Some parts of your story can be summarized (passed over quickly in
a sentence or two), but the other parts/events should be developed more fully in
scene(s) of vivid, specific detail.
Use your topic sentence(s) expressing the central point/ meaning
of your story to help you decide which parts/events in your narrative
paragraph should be rendered in scene and which in summary.
·
Scenes:
Part(s)/event(s) that are important to the point of your story should be
developed in vivid, specific detail to recreate and “show” the reader what
happened, how it happened, and why it was meaningful.
Such development may include extended description (see Ch. 6), quoted
dialogue, and explanation of your “internal” reactions and feelings that
point to the meaning (or point) of the story for you, the writer.
Help your readers by providing transitions that signal how important
part(s)/event(s) relate to the main point of the story.
·
Summary:
To maintain the coherence of your narrative paragraph, you should
summarize when you need to account for the passage of time between key event(s)
in your story and/or prepare your readers for the important scene/s.
7.
Strengthen unity and coherence by making sure that everything in
your narrative paragraph (a) contributes to supporting the main point of the
story, (b) provides useful background, and/or (c) ensures that readers will be
able to follow the story clearly and easily.
Paragraph
#2 (Narration) Evaluation & Grading
The Writing Process &
Writer’s Workshops: WR 20
Competency #8 & #9
____a.
Understood the Assignment: This is a Narrative that tells a story to make a
point.
____b. Prepared Preliminary
Drafts & Participated in In-Class Writer’s Workshop (on Tues.,
10/9/01)
____c. Final/Revised Draft is
typed/wordprocessed and double spaced or it will not be accepted; student
makes a good faith effort to follow directions for Manuscript Form (MS)
Evaluation
Guide: ____=
Excellent; ____ = Very Good;
____ = Satisfactory; ____ = Weak
Paragraph Writing Skills:
WR 20 Competencies # 1, 2, & 3
____1.
Topic, Focus, Audience:
topic is well-focused and limited enough for satisfactory development in a
stand-alone paragraph of 100-200 words; writer is engaged by the topic s/he
has chosen and is writing to communicate with the WR 20 audience.
____2.
Topic Sentence/s:
the story is told to make a point, clearly presented in the topic sentence(s);
the topic sentence is well focused and well placed.
____3.
Paragraph unity
is strong: everything in your paragraph contributes to the story and its main
pointsupports and develops the main idea; the paragraph is focused and does
not stray from the main idea.
____4.
Paragraph organization
is arranged in time order, a sequence of events that is logical, effective
& easy to follow; the beginning introduces (or hints at) the main idea and
sets the stage for the story; the ending (re)states or emphasizes the central
meaning or point of the story.
____5.
Paragraph development:
important scene(s) is/are developed in clear, vivid, specific detail; well
selected to support the main idea and “show” the reader what you mean or
what you experienced.
____6.
Coherence:
logical transitions signal time order and connect the parts of the story so
the reader can move smoothly from part to part, and understand the main point
of the story; sentences and word choice express the writer’s meaning
clearly.
____7. Grammatical
Correctness: FRAGMENTS (a Major Sentence Error; Ch. 18) are avoided.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Sentence Editing &
Correction Skills: WR 20
Competencies # 4, 5, 6, & 7
___E.
Style & Grammatical Correctness.
Words are
chosen effectively; Sentences use subordination, coordination, variety effectively.
Paragraph has been edited effectively to avoid most grammatical errors,
especially major Sentence
Errors are Comma Splices (cs – Ch. 20) & Run-on
Sentences (rs – Ch. 20).
Cora's
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Paragraph #2 (Narration) ~ Fall 2001
URL of this webpage: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/wr20/p2narration.htm
Last updated: 12 August 2002
This webpage is maintained by Cora
Agatucci, Professor of English,
Humanities Department, Central
Oregon Community College
I welcome comments: cagatucci@cocc.edu
© Cora Agatucci, 1997-2001
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