Narrative essay/Life Changing Experience

For your first essay, you will write a narrative of 3-5 pages describing some event you’ve experienced firsthand. A narrative essay, by definition, tells a story for the purpose of expanding the reader’s awareness in some way. Therefore, it is important to avoid cliché topics and to find a unique perspective of the experience. This paper, although narrative, should include elements of persuasion. In other words, you should argue for a unique insight about life by using your personal experience as evidence.

Here are some possibilities for your topic:

An experience that formed your character or worldview in some way.

A time you made a mistake and learned an important lesson about life.

An “aha” moment when you observed something about life that you had not realized before.

The process of achieving a goal and what you learned in the process.

Your essay should include all the following elements:

Clear and vivid details.

Insightful observation of human behavior and emotion.

A definite sense of purpose and a clear focus statement.

Solid organization and focus.

A strong personal voice.

Appropriate use of tone and diction.

Clear, grammatically correct sentences

Essays should be submitted as MS Word documents and formatted according to MLA, APA, or Chicago style.

Feedback from professor about a life changing event:

You will need to pick a point of realization, that came as a result of ONE life-changing experience AND the lesson this realization taught you, Leonard, a lesson that others could benefit from. Discussing Pros and Cons would render this an Argumentative Essay, which is isn’t. Speculation about life’s changes would make this an expository essay of exemplification. Again, you want state the lesson you culled from personal experience.