Narrative essays

Please be sure to complete by 8/28

Length: 750 word minimum

Format: MLA (12 pt. times new Roman font, double spacing, 1 in. margins)

The goal of this project is to develop skills in generating ideas by reflecting on personal preferences and experiences and how they enhance your knowledge or interest in the future. You will need to assess your audience and follow conventions of narrative essays to complete this project successfully. You will also use the steps of the writing process to compose a successful draft. Purpose: The goal of this assignment is to show your audience how a real life event inspired your interest in a social issue. You will have to choose a social issue that is important to you (this can be as simple as hair care or as complex as a key political issue). The story should be used to show your audience why this social issue is important to you. Beyond telling a story, you are explaining why that story is important to your interest and understanding of your issue. Content: This genre requires details and information that will help your audience visualize the events you are recounting. You are telling a story about a single event that influenced your interest in the social issue you are discussing. You get to choose the issue and decide how to approach it. This is creative non-fiction and you must focus around an actual event, but this can be interspersed with details that have the essence of the event even if they are not completely accurate. For example, if you cannot recall a conversation verbatim, you can still use that conversation in text by telling your audience the essence of what was said, even if it is not the exact language used. The conversation and topic must be based on real events. The overall goal of this essay is to relate an event to your interest in your chosen social issue. Do not focus solely on the narrative aspects of your experience and fail to explain what it led to and what it taught you about your issue.

Answer preview

As the saying goes, “experience is the best teacher,” I learned the hard way the extent of the rot and injustice within the law enforcement sector. One night during my freshman year in college, a couple of friends and I decided to head out to a restaurant to celebrate my birthday. As we drove towards the restaurant, we suddenly heard sirens from a police officer’s car. The law requires that you are supposed to pull over as a driver once you hear a siren. As the driver, I pulled over and waited for the police officers to approach me. Once they came across, one of them asked for my driver’s license, before giving it to him, I enquired why we got pulled over. The officer stated that I made an aggressive lane change. We immediately refuted such a claim and even posited to the officer that we are aware of our rights, which the police officer is deliberately ignoring.

[875 Words]

Narrative essays