ENG 1101
Essay 2: Narration
Draft Due: 4.7
Revision Due: 5.19
Length: 2-3 pages / minimum 500 words
For your second essay, you will narrate the events of the best day (or, if you would rather
depress but perhaps ultimately impress or inspire your reader, your worst) you’ve yet
experienced. Give a clear sense of why the day sticks with you. The events need not be
life-changing (a wedding, graduation, funeral, et cetera), but even a day without a
“grand” event can be important and powerfully enjoyable (or miserable).
Describe the day’s events in detail—we are building on Essay 1 here—but be sure to
explain how the events built up into that feeling of the day being the best you’ve ever
experienced (or, conversely, the worst). There should be a clear thesis—use the claim
with reasons structure if at all possible to guide the reader into the essay—as well as clear
descriptions and examples.
Things to consider:
• Be as specific as possible—talk about what was needed to make the day so
special—was there equipment needed? How much time did it take? Were there
any other people involved?
• When did you feel like the day was going so well (or so poorly)? Did the day
simply work perfectly (or terribly), or did it go up and down before ultimately
settling on the final mood?
• Likewise, your conclusion should make it clear what you got out of the day: Is
your life more complete or less fulfilled?
• Were other people involved? Did you have a coach, supervisor, parent, partner,
etc who helped you work out the details?
• Speaking of details, be sure to be as accurate and complete with your descriptions
of the details of this day—that’s how the reader will get a sense of how you
proceeded through it.
• Narration is the skillful joining of details and plot to form a coherent whole—
don’t just list what you did, put it together into an interesting story—make your
reader get involved and care about your day, even if it was a terrible day.
Basic Guidelines:
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Double space your essay; include your name, the course number and section at the
top of the first page.
Avoid the use of the second person as it is conversational and too direct. Use the
first person to describe your own thoughts, but better to use the third person in
most of your analysis.
Do not focus on the writing process. Instead of telling your reader what you are
going to do, do it.
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Write in the present tense unless specifically describing past events.
How it will be graded:
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15% Introduction
The student introduces the subject being described, creating a sense of context
and import that builds up to the thesis statement.
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15% Purpose
The essay asserts the overall significance of the story it tells. It defines for the
reader, whether at the beginning or end of the essay, the meaning of import
illustrated by the story arc. This includes defining the time, place, and people
involved in the story.
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20% Narrative Structure
Over the course of the paper the student conveys a sense of action or sequence, a
beginning, middle, and end, that demonstrates the claims of the thesis statement.
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20% Descriptive language
The student demonstrates improvement from Essay 1 by attending to any vague
language issues marked by the instructor. In other words, if the student has a
tendency to use “this” as a noun (“This shows…”), he or she in this essay has
made an effort at more specific or sensory word choice (“This boondoggle,” “This
disaster of a date.…”).
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15% Tone
The essay conveys a sense of control over the emotional effect the story aims to
achieve. The tone may be comic, melancholy, exuberant, or romantic, but
regardless of specific emotion the student creates a mood that is appropriate to the
subject matter.
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5%
The student avoids straining to “wrap up” the essay by summarizing what
he/she has already said. Instead, the paper aims for either a sense of emotional
climax or denouement in its ending: it avoids saying “This incident changed me
forever” but instead dramatizes the effect on the story’s characters.
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10% Grammar and Punctuation Improvement
The essay demonstrates a commitment to correcting grammar issues identified in
Essay 1. The student has learned to avoid any proofreading mistakes to which
he/she is prone.
How it will be graded:
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A failing paper, either a “D” or an “F,” will either be completely off-topic, so
short as to be negligible, and/or be so marred by mechanical errors that meaning
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is lost. Further, the argument may not be grounded in a thesis or else lack
examples or explain why the examples given mean for the interpretation.
A “C” paper is one that manages to competently convey information to the
reader—each part has a logical organization with clear thesis statements, contains
coherent and complete sentences, appropriately answers the essay prompt, and
does not have so many mechanical flaws that legibility suffers.
A “B” paper has all the characteristics of a “C,” and in addition displays effective
insights into the essay prompt (possibly acknowledging multiple perspectives on
the issues, or making particularly good choices about what material to address),
has fewer mechanical flaws, and has an organizational scheme and general tone
appropriate to the material.
An “A” paper has all the characteristics of a “B,” and in addition displays few or
no mechanical flaws, pays attention to appropriateness of word choice and
shifting tonality through the essays, displays a command of pacing and sentence
variety appropriate to the varied content of the essays, and may display
particularly thoughtful insights, of contain stylistic devices which illuminate the
material.
After you turn the paper in through Canvas, I will grade and return it to you via email as a
Word or OpenOffice file. I will make comments throughout the paper to offer guidance
on how to improve the paper and your writing in general. If you choose, you may revise
the paper once for a new grade—I am a big believer in revision, so I urge you to take
advantage of this option. You may have until the end of the term to re-submit any or all
of your formal essays for a re-grade.
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