Personal Narratives

• Personal narratives are a form of writing in

which the writer relates one event,
incident, or experience from his/her life.
Personal narratives allow you, the writer, to
share your life with others, vicariously
experiencing the things you describe.
• Your job as a writer is to put the readers in
the midst of the action, letting them live
through an event, incident, or experience.
Personal narratives also incorporate vivid
descriptive details, as well as the thoughts,
feelings, and reactions of the writer.
• A good personal narrative, like a good story,
creates a dramatic effect, makes us laugh,
gives us pleasurable fright, and/or gets us
on the edge of our seats. Although personal
narratives capture true events, sometimes
writers embellish or use hyperbole to
illustrate a point or for dramatic effect.
• A personal narrative has done its job
effectively if the readers can say, “Yes, that
captures what living with my mother feels
like,” or “Yes, that’s what it felt like to lose
the championship game.”
• Note: A memoir is a specific type of
personal narrative, one that examines the
meaning of the writer’s life during a specific
moment in time.
• Students, use the job chart below to guide
you in your personal narrative writing.
•
 Write a Personal Narrative that

•Engages the reader by introducing the narrator and

situation
•Organizes events to unfold naturally; manipulates time and
pacing
•Develops details of events with description and action
•Develops characters with physical description and dialogue
• Uses vivid verbs, sensory details, similes,
metaphors, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and
personification to set tone and mood
•Uses transitions and varies sentence beginnings
•Closes with a reflection
•Has all no excuse words and conventions correct
•Has exemplary presentation (neat writing that is
pleasant to read)
• “Beep, beep! It’s almost time to go,” my mom told me.
It was six a.m., and I was extremely tired. My mom was
honking the car horn like an alarm clock nonstop until
my brother, my dad, and I were in the car.
• Then in a split second, we were off to Santa Cruz! The
ride was four hours, and I got bored really quickly. Then
I fell asleep. Next, I slowly woke up again to the shaking
movement of the car stopping. We were at the huge
hotel, The Marriott. Once we did a quick check-in, we
sped off to the Boardwalk.
I was so excited when I saw the awesome speed rides, but
I was scared when I saw the drop rides. Soon my brother
was dragging me onto a big water ride with an enormous
drop. I started to shiver. Sadly, I was in the fourth grade,
and I was tall enough for the ride. It was cold on the
ride. When we went down, I closed my eyes and
screamed. Finally, it was over, and then we went on the
beach because I was too frightened to go on any other
rides. So we went to the water by the Boardwalk.
It was steaming hot like a pot of soup over the fire, but
the ocean felt like an ice cold slushy. When I was in the
water, I noticed big waves, and when I say big, I mean
really, really big waves. So my brother made up a game.
It was about chasing a wave, and then letting it chase you
back to shore. We played this game for a long time, and
within five minutes, I was soaking wet.
• Then, as I was in the middle of the sea and shore, I bent down to scratch
my foot. All of a sudden, bam! I was tackled by a giant blue monster. I
couldn’t breathe at all, and I was lying on the sand in seconds. Then I
started to move backwards, as the wake began dragging me into its
treacherous dungeon.
• However, I was not going to be a prisoner so I started to fight back. I dug
my toes into the sand, I gripped a rock nearby, and I pulled myself up.
Then I wobbled and ran over to the place where my mom and dad were
sitting.
• “Smile,” my mom said, as she flashed a small silver camera out from her
hands. I gave a small one.
• “Land,” I gasped.
• Then I collapsed onto the blanket, still gurgling sea
water. It tasted like seaweed mixed with a pound of
salt. I quickly coughed it out. Finally, when my body as
ocean-free, I told my mom what had happened and
closed my eyes.
• My mom said she had not seen anything, perhaps
because it happened so quickly. Nevertheless, it had
felt like a whole half hour to me! When it was time to
leave, I was glad. We spent only one night at the hotel,
and left for home the next day.
At last, I was away from the wave. Now I am more
careful when I am playing in the sea, and every day, I see
that picture from when I almost drowned, and it reminds
me to be cautious. I am so glad that the wave didn’t take
me because I would have been in the water’s prison
forever. However, I guess it was a great trip after all
because of that one most memorable experience in the
ocean.
 Writing a Personal Narrative
• Pick something from your past and write about it. It may be an event that occurred
in a single day, or it may be something that occurred over a period of time.
• Dig deep inside and find that part of yourself that might make you cry, or may make
you smile because you realized how much certain people mean to you. This is an
opportunity for you to open up and explore—through words—something that you
might not have had the chance, or the notion, to write on before.
• Don’t be afraid of opening up here. I am the only one who will be reading your
personal narrative.
• Be brave with your personal narrative. As long as you follow the above needs of the
essay, you are free to write on whatever has made you cry, shudder, or sigh.
• Encode your work and submit it on Friday, September 27, 2019.
• Maximum: 3 pages