WRITING A PERSONAL

NARRATIVETeam Voyager

PURPOSE AND AUDIENCE Personal narratives allow you to share

your life with others.

Your job as a writer is to put the reader in the midst of the action.

A good story creates a dramatic effect, makes us laugh, gives us pleasurable fright, and/or gets us on the edge of our seats.

STORY STRUCTURE

chronological approach

flashback sequence

WAY OF WRITING – SHOW! DON’T TELL

Don’t tell the reader what he or she is supposed to think or feel.

Let the reader see, hear, smell, feel, and taste the experience with sensory words (see, smell, taste, hear, and feel)

Showing is harder than telling. The rule of "show, don’t tell" means that

your job as a storyteller is not to tell us what you think; it’s to share revealing details.

Avoid using "to be" verbs.

LET’S LOOK AT AN EXAMPLE http://

www.lepnet.sparcc.org/hck/data/krobinson/files/Personal_Narratvie_Example_2.pdf

http://www.montroseareasd.k12.pa.us/pssa/pssa_samples/Gr5Writing06.pdf

Open up your Personal Narrative packet to the first page.