KEY STORY BEATS FOR MY ESSAY
·
Full scholarship to medical school after aging
out of foster care
·
Quit because I did not believe that I would make
it due to past people telling me negative things
·
Abusive relationships because of thinking I am
unworthy of anything better
·
The loss of my own children to the system
·
Starting over and enrolling in school after 3
failed attempts
SPECIFIC
COMPONENTS TO SUPPORT MY THESIS:
·
Mother was an addict who lost custody of me to
the state
·
In the system I bounced from foster home to
foster home
·
Suffered abuse in some of the foster homes
·
Was told that I would never make it life
·
Aged out of the system with a full scholarship
to medical school
·
Dropped out due to negative thoughts of myself
·
Multiple abusive relationships and some legal
troubles and financial hardships
·
Picked myself up after 3 failed attempts at
college
·
Now in school and doing well
Growing up in foster care until I was
18 was not an easy childhood. People judged me
based on my mother being an addict and
never going to college. I was in multiple foster
and group homes where I suffered
several types of abuse from many different people. I
was not able to graduate high school on
time and was forced to get my GED. Learned
many valuable lessons from past
mistakes and life experiences that shaped me into the
woman I am today. I never gave up and
go to college now even though I am older. It is
never too late to change or grow.
This essay explores the Narrative Mode, which is perhaps the most natural style of writing for most people.
One of the goals of the narrative form is to allow readers to feel as if they are not simply reading someone else’s story, but that they are somehow part of it. Unlike simply telling a story though, a narrative essay has a specific piece of information to share, a lesson for the reader. There should be a clear reason for your telling the story. This is where the “essay” in the narrative essay becomes apparent.
Your assignment this week is to write such an essay. Refer back to your outline of a significant event that you wrote for W2. Keep in mind that you are writing a story and it is important to freely tell your story. But, this is still an academic essay. The goal of your story is to support a clearly stated thesis/lesson for the reader. As such, your tale should be wrapped in a clear introduction and conclusion.
Criteria
Your essay should contain the following basic features:
An introduction with an attention grabbing opening (hook), a well-defined message or argument (thesis), and any background information the reader needs to fully understand your story;
Body paragraphs which a tell the story of your clear and specific, singular event that illustrates the essay thesis;
Vivid language that works to recreate the event, including descriptions of where the event took place, the people who were involved, and the things these people said and did. Vivid language that works to recreate the event, including descriptions of where the event took place, the people who were involved, and the things these people said and did. The Narrative and Descriptive Writing Lecture provides information and examples about descriptive and narrative writing.
A conclusion that briefly implicitly or explicitly reviews your story, reiterates the lessons you learned and that you hope the reader to learn, and provides a closing thought such as
why this event is still personally significant,
the state of your life since the event and how you feel about it,
future plans related to the event,
rhetorical questions for the reader, etc.
