1. Assignment Prewriting Choose an Experience Consider Purpose and Audience Gather Details Reflect on Your Experience Organize Your Details Practice and Apply Writing Workshop Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Feature Menu

2. Assignment: Write a narrative about a significant autobiographical experience. Writing an Autobiographical Narrative What experiences stand out as memorable and important in your life? Were they events beyond your control, adventures you chose to have, or achievements you worked hard for? Writing about an experience is a good way to explore its meaning — to discover and share how it has shaped who you are. What story does your life want to tell? [End of Section]

3. What are some of the defining moments of your life? Brainstorm a list of experiences you remember vividly. moving from Bogota to Armenia when I was ten Paragliding in Panachi near San Gil Visiting my cousins in Miami for the first time. Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting: Choose an Experience

4. Choose the experience that stirs up the most vivid memories or feelings. We took the bus from Bucharamanga to San Gil, and then another bus to Panachi. People were hang gliding off the cliff—it looked scary but fun Paragliding made me feel free as a bird Note [End of Section] Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting: Choose an Experience

5. Purpose To describe a significant experience in your life. Consider what background information your readers will need. Audience Introduce yourself as you were before the experience. I wasn’t the adventurous type, and I’d always been a little scared of heights. [End of Section] Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting: Consider Purpose and Audience

6. Focus on the sequence of events central to your narrative, and list them in a rough outline. Events 1. In Panachi I saw people hang gliding off the cliffs. I decided to try it. 2. My mom and I met with the instructor, who said that tandem flights were great for beginners. 3. The instructor and I strapped onto a glider, and we jumped off the cliff. 4. We soared over the valley below. 5. Since then I’ve paraglided three times, once solo. Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting: Gather Details

7. Note details about people and specific places. factual details (names, dates, numbers) sensory details (touch, smell, hearing, sight, taste) appearances, gestures, actions, and dialogue paragliding training center in Panachi, July 2011 wind whipping my hair, taste of blood where I bit my lip Pedro the Instructor—my parents’ age, tan, reassuring grin—"Don’t worry, I haven’t lost a student yet!" Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting: Gather Details

8. As you list details, jot down figurative language (similes, metaphors, or personification) that describe your experience and create effective images the gliders soared like bright prehistoric birds precise action verbs to note events and actions soared, dipped, hovered, shrieked Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting: Gather Details

9. Make some notes about your thoughts and feelings at each point. Consider showing thoughts and feelings through interior monologue. I was scared, but I couldn’t chicken out with my little brother watching me. I had to be brave. Shifting perspective [End of Section] Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting: Gather Details

10. Think about the significance of the experience and how it changed you. What was I like before the experience? How did I change as a result of the experience? What did I learn about myself and about life in general? At first I _______________________________________, but afterward I _________________________________. I realized ______________________________________. Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting: Reflect on Your Experience

11. At first I was timid and tended to watch life from the sidelines, but afterward I had new confidence in myself. I realized that I had missed some great experiences by staying in my comfort zone, but now I could overcome my fears more easily. Write two or three sentences that express the controlling impression, or central idea, about your experience. Don’t include these sentences in your narrative’s introduction. Just use them to focus your narrative. [End of Section] Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting: Reflect on Your Experience

12. You can organize your details in one of two ways. BackgroundMain narrativeConclusion Chronological order—Start at the beginning and relate the events in sequence. Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting: Organize Your Details

13. You can organize your details in one of two ways. Background Main narrative Conclusion Flashback—Start at the end and then “flash back” to the earlier events that led up to that point. Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting: Organize Your Details

14. Consider the pace of your essay. Events that occurred rapidly short, quick sentences Events that occurred slowly longer sentences The instructor jumped. Suddenly, we were airborne. I clutched the harness and shrieked. Before we strapped into the glider, the instructor explained exactly what would happen and answered my questions patiently. [End of Section] Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting: Organize Your Details

15. Choose a significant experience from your life as the subject of your narrative. Then, plan the details of the narrative. [End of Section] Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting: Practice and Apply

16. The End

17. Note Be sure to choose an experience you feel comfortable sharing with an audience. Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting: Choose an Experience

18. Shifting Perspectives You may also want to shift perspectives by imagining the thoughts and feelings of other people in the narrative. The instructor seemed to know that I’d love gliding once I got up there. He’d learned in his many years of teaching that humor was the best way to ease people’s fears. Writing an Autobiographical Narrative Prewriting: Gather Details