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The Autobiographical Narrative

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Your primary purpose is to express and explore your thoughts and feelings. Consider what and how much background information ... She was a red doberman. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: The Autobiographical Narrative


1
The Autobiographical Narrative
  • What Matters to You?

2
Elements of a Good Autobiographical Narrative
  • Purpose and Audience
  • Action
  • Conflict
  • Narrative and Descriptive Details
  • Point of View
  • Dialogue
  • Focus

3
Purpose and Audience
  • Your primary purpose is to express and explore
    your thoughts and feelings.
  • Consider what and how much background information
    readers need to know to understand your
    experience.
  • Anticipate your audiences questions and find
    ways to communicate the significance of your
    experience.

4
Purpose So What?
  • So What?
  • Go beyond the simple event.
  • Why does your story matter?
  • Imagine someone hearing your topic and asking,
    So what? Why is that important?
  • The so what is important because it shapes your
    story.

5
Purpose So What?
  • Imagine someone asking, So what?
  • Your answer.
  • Might be unstated..
  • very clear, but never actually spelled out for
    the reader
  • .or might be stated very clearly
  • conclusion is a good place for this

6
Purpose Going Beyond
  • Go beyond the simple retelling of what happened
  • Show peoples motives
  • Show peoples thoughts and feelings

7
Action Show dont just tell
  • Show the reader whats happening, dont just tell
    us whats happening.
  • my mom told me that what I was doing was wrong.
    I disagreed. She talked at me for a few minutes.
    I was really mad. I went to my room.

8
Action Show dont just tell
she looked at me from across the kitchen, where
she was mincing some garlic. Looking up, she
spoke, You know, what youre doing is
wrong. The clock ticked. I stared at my
homework. Still looking down, I offered a
response, Mom, I just- No. Thats it. Im
going to call their house and explain the whole
thing. Youre both too young for this! No!
Mom! Just let me- Its too late for that.
She set the knife aside and walked toward the
phone....
9
Action
  • Show dont tell
  • Good action within the story will make your so
    what more clear
  • Revise by trying new verbs
  • Revise by experimenting with alternative leads

10
Narrative Details
  • Tell about specific events and actions.
  • Suggest or reveal thoughts and feelings.
  • Include dialogue or the exact words of a
    conversation.

11
Descriptive Details
  • Use sensory language.
  • What do you see? Smell? Hear? Taste? Touch?
  • Often sensory details require close physical
    observation or memory-mental observation.
  • If you cannot find the right word, try a
    comparison. What does your subject smell like?
    Feel like? Look like? Etc.

12
Descriptive Details
  • Focus on factual and spatial details of places,
    objects, and people.
  • If you need help recalling the details, use your
    memory to travel back in time. Try one of these
  • Close your eyes and visualize the scene,
    replaying the events in your mind.

13
Descriptive Details help contd
  • Talk about it ask others who shared your
    experience.
  • Return to it if possible return to the place
    where your experience occurred.
  • Dream about it sort through a scrapbook,
    pictures, newspaper clippings, yearbooks, songs,
    etc.

14
Conflict
  • Motivates the reader to keep reading
  • Resolution to the conflict is also crucial
  • Internal conflict Person vs. Self
  • External conflict Person vs. Person, Person vs.
    Nature, Person vs. Destiny

15
Point of View
  • Can anyone explain First Person?
  • I, Me, We, Our
  • Writer and reader are intimately connected
  • First person narrators may refer to other
    characters in the narrative by using nouns and
    third-person pronouns.

16
Point of ViewFirst Person
  • First Person Point of view example
  • It had really begun back in Charlestown Prison,
    when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his store
    knowledge. Bimbi had always taken charge of any
    conversation he was in, and I had tried to
    emulate him. But every book I picked up had few
    sentences which didnt contain anywhere from one
    to nearly all of the words that might as well
    have been Chinese. When I just skipped those
    words, of course, I really ended up with little
    idea of what the book said.
  • --from Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

17
Point of View
  • Can anyone explain Third Person?
  • He, She, They, Him, Her
  • Writer seems to be writing from more of a
    distance

18
Point of View - Third Person
  • Example
  • The bus screeched to a stop, and Pat stepped out
    of it and onto the sidewalk. Night enveloped the
    city, and a slight drizzle fell around her as she
    made her way to Als office. Turning the corner,
    she stepped into the dark entryway. The
    receptionist had gone home, so she proceeded
    directly to the office. She knocked on the door
    and entered. Al, standing behind his desk and
    looking out the window, turned toward her with a
    startled look on his face.

19
What would this passage sound like if you changed
it to 1st person?
  • The bus screeched to a stop, and Pat stepped out
    of it and onto the sidewalk. Night enveloped the
    city, and a slight drizzle fell around her as she
    made her way to Als office. Turning the corner,
    she stepped into the dark entryway. The
    receptionist had gone home, so she proceeded
    directly to the office. She knocked on the door
    and entered. Al, standing behind his desk and
    looking out the window, turned toward her with a
    startled look on his face.

20
Something like this?
  • The bus screeched to a stop, and I stepped out of
    it and onto the sidewalk. Night enveloped the
    city, and a slight drizzle fell around me as I
    made my way to Als office. Turning the corner,
    I stepped into the dark entryway. The
    receptionist had gone home, so I proceeded
    directly to the office. I knocked on the door
    and entered. Al, standing behind his desk and
    looking out the window, turned toward me with a
    startled look on his face.

21
Dialogue
  • Animates many narratives, livening the action
  • Helps draw reader into the story
  • Good dialogue resembles real dialogue without
    copying omitting overuse of um, well, you
    know, etc.
  • Avoid over-repetition of he said, she
    replied.
  • May use sentence fragments, slang expression,
    pauses to make it sound more realistic.

22
Dialogue
  • Bad ExampleTelling instead of showing
  • My mom was waiting for me to get home so she
    could try to talk me into playing baseball again.
    She tried to con me into it by telling me what a
    great ball player I am and by bringing my friends
    into it. I told her I would, but that I was only
    doing it for her.

23
Dialogue
  • Good Example
  • Mom was waiting for me when I entered the house.
  • Your friends. Theyve been talking to you
    again. Trying to persuade you to change your
    mind about going out for baseball. Honey, I wish
    youd listen to them. Just look at all the
    trophies and awards youve She paused.
    Joes mother called me this morning and asked if
    you were playing in the game on Saturday. Dave,
    I wish you would. Please, I want you to. For
    me. It would be so good for you to go andand do
    what youve always
  • Okay, Mom. Ill play. But remember, just for
    you.

24
Dialogue
  • You must have dialogue in your Autobiographical
    Narrative
  • You must have at least 3 passages of dialogue in
    this project

25
Focus
  • Provide lots of supporting details for your main
    idea in a clear, logical order.
  • The following piece of writing was turned in as a
    complete project.
  • The author claimed that what you are about to
    read was everything that happened. There was
    nothing more to say.
  • Whats wrong with it?

26
Focus - can you detect any problems here?
  • I remember the day my mom got a dog. It was
    named Maggy. We got her in Racine. She was a
    red doberman. Then we moved back to Milwaukee
    and she was so hyper she went to the bathroom all
    over the house. I remember when I was on the
    lawn and there was a rope that was attached to
    two trees and Maggys leash was on that. She
    would chase her own leash. Maggy was too hyper
    for us. We couldnt find a home for her and we
    were more patient than I think anyone else would
    have been. We had to get her put to sleep a
    couple of days ago. I loved that dog. I miss
    her.

27
Look over your own project so far...
  • Could it be more focused?
  • Are there topics hiding within your topic?
  • Are there any passages that could be revised for
    dialogue?
  • Could you go deeper into just one of those topics
    and block out everything else?

28
Organization
  • Logical progression move forward in
    chronological order, from the first event to the
    last.
  • Order of Importance
  • Flashbacks, flash-forwards, and passages of
    reflection interrupt straight chronological
    sequence.

29
REFLECTION
  • What have I learned about myself from this
    experience? About others?
  • How did the experience cause me to change or to
    think differently about things?
  • How have my goals changed because of this
    experience?
  • What feelings does this experience raise in me?

30
BEGINNING YOUR FIRST DRAFT
  • INTRODUCTION should do the following
  • Grab your readers attention.
  • Provide background information
  • Include possible hint at the meaning of your
    experience.

31
FIRST DRAFT
  • BODY
  • Write about your first event including narrative
    and descriptive details.
  • Continue with event two, and so on. You may vary
    your sequence where you feel necessary.
  • Gradually reveal more and more of the
    experiences significance.

32
FIRST DRAFT
  • CONCLUSION
  • Reveal the final outcome of your experience.
  • State the meaning of your experience.
  • Draw your paper to a close with a quote or
    statement about human experience in general.

33
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE
  • GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!
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