Major Assignment Description / Criterion Checklist
NARRATIVE ESSAY: PERSON OR EVENT THAT SPEAKS TO WHERE YOU COME FROM / YOUR IDENTITY
For our first major assignment in ethnography, we will start with a sense of who and what you come from. For this assignment, consider our readings in week one and two, and how the author gives you a sense of who they are/or and where they come from.
DETAILS:
Write a 3-4 page essay about a person and/or event that speaks to the culture(s) that you come from, and gives us a sense of something that formed who you are now.
In your essay, you will describe a person and/or event. The goal is to make that person/event come to life for the reader. Show us. Let us taste what you taste, hear what you hear, feel what you felt.
Consider what qualities were instilled in you by this event or by this person, and/or how it prepared you for your future.
The purpose of this essay, like any essay, is to represent what you think and feel about a certain topic. A personal essay represents your ways of communicating those thoughts and feelings to others. You will SHOW your readers who you are through the use of your language, detail, imagery, and exchanges with others. We should be able to see the action on the page.
When you sit down to brainstorm or begin the writing process, ask yourself this: What person most defined what I called family? What event of my younger life continues to resonate with me now, in a way that shapes my choices today?
Also: How is my story different than someone else’s? What story do I need to share for someone to understand me? What event in my history is unique to my circumstances? What event or person gives the most potent sense of who and what I come from?
Checklist for Narrative Essay:
I have provided a “hook” for my introduction and established what event or person I am writing about in the first two paragraphs ___
I established a tone/style of writing in the first two paragraphs ___
I have in some way shown what I felt or fell about the person and/or event ___
Throughout my essay, there is vivid, descriptive, language ___
I have demonstrated or given a sense of conflict (struggle/friction) in either my feelings about the person and/or event, OR I have shown conflict through the actions and/or words of the person(s) in the event ___
I have written scenes that show the main person(s) of the essay in action, or shown action in the event that the essay is focused on ___
My scenes include specific detail, setting, action, dialogue ___
I have read over my essay and have removed any repetition ___
I have analyzed a formative person or event that gives the reader of the culture(s) I come from, and how I carry that with me now ___
I have written a conclusion that gives a sense of realization – of epiphany – and still ends my story ___
I have added transitions to allow my thoughts and experiences to transfer from one paragraph to the next paragraph ___
I have fixed my grammatical errors to the best of my ability ___
I have given my essay an original title ___
I have used correct MLA formatting ___