1. Personal Narrative
You may be given a writing test prompt that asks you to write a personal narrative. Imagine that you have been given the prompt below:
Write a narrative in which you describe a personal experience that had a strong impact on you. Use vivid, specific details to portray the experience and relate its meaning to you.

2. Studying the Prompt
Begin by reading the prompt carefully to determine exactly what you need to do. Look for key words and phrases that relay the nature of your task.
Key Words and Phrases
narrative
strong impact
describe an experience from your life
vivid, specific details
personal meaning
Spend no more than five minutes studying the prompt.

3. Planning Your Response
To begin planning your personal narrative, you must choose an experience to write about. The experience that you choose should:
be meaningful and interesting
NOT be too personal (You should feel comfortable relating the story.)
be full of details that you can readily remember and recount

4. Planning Your Response
Make a quick list of the series of events involved in the experience. Exclude any events that may confuse readers or that are unnecessary for your retelling.
Put the events in chronological order, the order in which they happened.
Experience: Cleaning out garage with my brother
Event 1: Argued over tasks
Event 2: Decided to work together to complete each task
Event 3: Found old photos and laughed as we looked through them
Event 4: Finished cleaning out garage and went in to play a video game together

5. Planning Your Response
Gather descriptive details about your experience. Once again, exclude unnecessary details. Provide specific information about:
People: describe words, actions, and appearance
Places: describe time and setting, detailing specific sights, sounds, and smells
Thoughts: tell specific thoughts that you had during the experience
Feelings: tell the way that you felt during and after the experience

6. Planning Your Response
Here are examples of descriptive details that could be included in a personal narrative:
People: My brother kicked an empty can across the garage and exclaimed, “This garage is nasty!”
Places: Heaps of dusty newspapers leaned against the garage walls.
Thoughts: “What a brat,” I thought, as I watched my brother throw his fit.
Feelings: As we looked through the old photos, my resentment lifted.

7. Planning Your Response
Think about the meaning of the experience. Ask yourself the following questions:
How did the experience change me?
What did I learn from the experience?
What can the experience teach readers about life or the world?
Spend about fifteen minutes planning your response.

8. Responding to the Prompt
Using your notes, begin your draft. In your introduction, grab the reader’s attention and set the scene. You may want to hint at the meaning of the experience, but avoid stating the meaning directly. See the example below:
My brother and I had been fighting for what seemed like years.
This sentence hints at a reconciliation between the brothers, but it does not directly state that the brothers reconcile.

9. Responding to the Prompt
When writing the body of your narrative, relate the events and descriptive details. You will usually want to use chronological order.
As you describe the events, be sure to keep the experience’s meaning in mind. As your narrative unfolds, readers should be able to recognize the meaning.

10. Responding to the Prompt
In your conclusion, directly state and explain the meaning of the experience. For example, you might state:
Rediscovering my friendship with my brother was well worth losing a Saturday afternoon in our wreck of a garage.
Spend about twenty minutes writing your draft.

11. Improving Your Response
Save at least five or ten minutes for improving your response. Begin by rereading the prompt to make sure that your narrative meets all of the requirements.
Revise your narrative to address any issues that you notice.

12. Improving Your Response
Read through your narrative to proofread it for mistakes in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. When making corrections, be sure that your handwriting is neat and legible.

13. Improving Your Response
Take the time to read through your narrative one more time before turning it in. A final check can reveal stubborn errors that managed to slip through your initial checks. Always remember that quality writing often requires numerous reviews and revisions.

14. The End