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Mar 1, 2021 · This collection curates a selection of recent examples by scholars reflecting on experiences connected to their professional identity, personal aspirations – their work and life – and who are deploying the flexibility of the essay as a form for both doing and thinking, about life writing and related disciplinary issues.
- Kylie Cardell
- 2021
A personal narrative essay uses the components of a story: introduction, plot, characters, setting, and conflict. It also uses the components of argument, thesis, and conclusion.
- 179KB
- 5
- Overview
- Personal Story As Frame
- Personal Story as Context
- Personal Story as Example
- Personal Story as Discovery
- Overview and Teaching Strategies
- Questions
- Essay Resources
“Warp and Weft” uses the metaphor of weaving to demonstrate one way of using personal and narrative writing within academic essays. Rather than debate whether narrative is appropriate for academic writing, it addresses the question of when is it appropriate and how it can be done effectively, focusing on helping writers decide when the use of perso...
Using a personal story as a frame for your essay can be an effective way to draw your reader into your ideas and then to help them reinterpret those ideas in the end. Perhaps, like me, you’re working in a retail job. Perhaps it’s in a big box store instead of my artsy boutique, and you’re wondering if you’d be happier somewhere else, or you’re thin...
Telling a personal story can help your reader understand why you are writ-ing about the topic you have chosen, and why you have come to care so deeply about it. Callie’s childhood experience of travelling from church to church where her parents worked as choir directors gave her an under-standing of many religions, and she uses those stories to sho...
Melynda chose to write about teen suicide, certainly an important topic, but one that far too often leads to a patchwork of statistics and distant narratives, more a report than an essay with heart. Sadly, Melynda had reason to care deeply about her topic: her cousin Jared killed himself with an overdose of prescription pain medication. Melynda sta...
Ethelin’s essay can be seen as an example of Donald M. Murray’ beliefs about writing: “We write to think – to be surprised by what appears on the page; to explore our world with language; to discover meaning that teaches us and may be worth sharing with others .... . . we write to know what we want to say.” (3). Although my students always write mu...
This essay is useful for faculty teaching the research-based essays that are frequently the concentration in a second semester composition course in a two-term first year writing sequence. Instructors who encourage a personal connection to the research topic will find this essay helpful in guiding stu-dents as to when and how they might use their p...
Marjorie Stewart claims that our minds are filing cabinets of sto-ries. Do her stories, or the stories of her students, remind you of stories of your own? How does this chain of stories help us make sense of our experiences? Has there ever been a time when you wanted to include personal experience in a writing project but were discouraged or forbid...
If you have a favorite example of a well-mixed narrative research essay, by all means, use it. If you are using a book with good examples, you might assign one as companion reading to “Warp and Weft.” I also recommend many essays published as creative nonfiction, especially those from The Creative Nonfiction Foundation, at creativenonfiction.org. O...
Jan 27, 2016 · Researchers seem to have two main ways to understand what meaning in life means: coherence and purpose, with a third way, significance, gaining increasing attention. Coherence means a sense of...
May 24, 2024 · I believe that life is a journey and the meaning of life comes from the choices we make and the relationships we form. Expressing creativity and helping others by making a positive impact on the world are just a few ways to find purpose in life (Novosel, 2020).
An essay is not just about showing what you know. A good essay, whether for an exam or during term-time, is one that applies what you have learned to the task of addressing the specific essay question. With this in mind, the general advice is: Answer the question; keep it relevant.
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The best way to become a better writer is to become a closer reader. As you read each essay carefully take note of the content and the structure as well as the thesis statement, topic sentences, and supporting evidence. These should shape your response to the essay and should also shape your writing.
