Your Name



Your Name

Instructor’s Name

Class Information (AP English Language and Composition)

Date

Title of Essay – First Draft

1. You are writing a narrative essay using one of the writing prompts on the back of this page. Your narrative essays needs to have an explicit or implicit thesis. You essay should be at least 3-4 pages long; it may be longer. Your first draft is due at the end of class.

2. You will print and email your essay. Ms. Lau’s email address is msellenlau@

a. Include heading above

b. double spaced

c. 12 point font

d. Times New Roman or Arial

e. Your last name and page number on the right hand side of your header

3. Your essay needs to have the following:

a. 5 vocabulary words used correctly

o abash, bate, abide, ablution, abstract, accountable, accrue, acme, addict, adherent

o adroit, asthetic, agog, ambivalence, ambulatory, ancillary, animated, animosity, annals, annex

o apex, appease, armament, ascribe, asinine, assail, atone, attrition, agument, baleful

b. 3 literary devices

i. imagery, alliteration, assonance, personification, onomatopoeia, similie, metaphor, allusion

4. When you turn in your final draft, your essay needs to be free of these grammar errors. Refer to your grammar notes for guidance.

a. Verb Tense! Make sure you take care of verb tenses on your first draft of your essay. If you don’t, it will bite you in the butt!

b. Basic comma rules: [comma in a series], [IC, FANBOYS, IC]

c. Introductory Commas

d. Interrupting Commas

e. Concluding Commas

f. Semicolon rules: [semicolons in a list], [IC; IC], [IC; Conjuctive adverb, IC]

Narrative Writing Prompts

Sandra Cisneros’s “Only Daughter”

o Write a narrative essay consisting of a series of related episodes that show how you gradually gained the approval and respect of one of your parents, of another relative, or of a friend.

o Are male and female children treated differently in your family? Have your parents had different expectations for their sons and daughters? Write a narrative essay recounting one or more incidents that illustrate these differences (or lack of differences). If you and your sibilings are all the same gender, or if you are an only child, write about another family you know well.

Maya Angelou’s “Finishing School”

o Think about a time in your life when someone in a position of authority treated you unjustly. How did you react? Write a narrative essay in which you recount the situation and your responses to it.

o Have you ever been the victim of name calling – or found yourself doing the name calling? Summarize your experiences, including dialogue and description that will help your readers understand your motivations and reactions. Include a thesis statement that conveys your present attitude toward the situation.

Bonnie Smith-Yackel’s “My Mother Never Worked”

o Write a narrative account of a typical day at the worst job you ever had. Include a thesis statement that expresses your negative feelings.

Martin Gansberg’s “Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police”

o If you have ever been involved in or witnessed a situation in which someone was in trouble, write a narrative essay about the incident. If people failed to help the person in trouble, explain why you think no one acted. If people did act, tell how. Be sure to account for your own actions.

Other

o Write an account of one of these “firsts”: your first date; your first serious argument with your parents; your first experience with physical violence or danger; your first extended stay away from home; your first encounter with someone whose culture was very different from your own; or your first experience with the serious illness or death of a close friend or relative. Make sure your essay includes a thesis statement your narrative can support.

o Trace the history of an object of great value to you. If you do not know the object’s history, you can research it’s history or create one based on what you do know. Throughout the essay, use the object’s history to reveal something about yourself. For example, a ring you inherited from your grandmother might illustrate your closeness to her; similarly, getting an autographed baseball might be the inspiration for your interest in coaching a professional baseball team.

o List the ten books you have read that most influenced you at important stages of your life. Then write your “literary autobiography,” tracing your personal development through these books.

o Using Alexi’s story as a model, write the story of your own education.

College Personal Statement Prompts

o “Creative people state that taking risks often promotes important discoveries in their lives of their work. Write a narrative about when you took a risk that led to a significant positive change in your personal or intellectual life. How has this experience helped you or will help you construct your own future?” -Simmons College

o “Write a narrative about the most challenging obstacle that you have overcome; discus its impact, tell what you have learned from the experience.” How has this obstacle affected your own construction of your own future? -Guildford College

o Have you had to overcome any unusual obstacle or hardship (for example, economic, familial, physical or tragedy) in your life? How are you overcoming them? How has this life experience affected you and your construction of your own future? Write a narrative explaining your obstacle and hardship.

o You may research one for a school you are interest in applying to. Only requirements are that it needs to be a narration and it needs to be pre-approved by Ms. Lau.

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