1. Personal Narratives
Notes

2. What is a personal narrative?
A personal narrative essay discusses ONE life event you, the author, has had. This event can be from when you were young to recent.
This event has made an impact on your life, positively or negatively, where you changed as a person or learned an important life lesson.

3. How do I organize my personal narrative?
Your essay should be done in chronological order. Therefore, you should use transition words to show the order of your events.

4. Intro. Paragraph
Your introduction should always start with a hook. This is to get your reader interested in what you will discuss in your paper. Your hook could be a question, it could be a clip of dialogue, or it could be a bit about the most exciting part of your narrative.
After your hook, you need to discuss some background information regarding your topic. This should be about how you were at the time, your friends, your relationships with people, whatever it is that makes sense with your topic.
Your last sentence is your thesis statement. Thesis statements in personal narratives are done differently than in any other essay. You simply state what your chosen event is and the lesson you learned from it.

5. Body Paragraph 1
Your body paragraphs should always start with a topic sentence. This is a sentence that states what your paragraph will discuss.
Then, you discuss the beginnings of the event (you discuss who’s involved, the setting, etc). In ALL of your paragraphs, you MUST use sensory details. This way, the audience can imagine that they are experiencing the event with you.

6. Body Paragraph 2
Your first sentence should be the topic sentence that explains what this paragraph will discuss.
This paragraph is to introduce the conflict/problem you face during this event and how it builds. This can be internal/external
Again, you want to use sensory details for the reader to imagine that they are experiencing this with you.

7. Body Paragraph 3
You should start with your topic sentence that states what this paragraph will discuss.
This paragraph should discuss the problem and your decision to change that problem or confront the problem.
Again, be sure to use lots of sensory details so the audience can imagine that they are experiencing this event.

8. Body Paragraph 4
You should have a topic sentence that discusses what this paragraph will be about.
This paragraph focuses on the aftermath of your decision to solve the problem from paragraph 3. This means, what changed (friends, yourself, relationships, etc)?
Again, be sure to use a lot of sensory details so the audience can imagine they are experiencing these events, too.

9. Conclusion Paragraph
Your first sentence should be a restatement of your original thesis (found as the last sentence in your intro).
Next, you will reflect on the event you wrote about and discuss how you grew/learned from the experience.
Finally, you will write a wrap-up statement that connects to the reader. This could be another question or simply a powerful statement that makes the audience think about what they might do under similar situations.

10. Additional Notes
Personal narratives should include dialogue, but sparingly. Only use dialogue if you think it will enhance what you are trying to say. This is also true for your sensory details—only go into depth of something (scenery, weather, “characters”) if it will help the reader connect/empathize.
Emotions tend to be key with your sensory details. Try to explain how that emotion feels as if your audience has never had that emotion before.
Personal narratives are informal; therefore, using personal pronouns--such as I, me, my, we, us, our--is acceptable.