i need first draft in 8 hours and final draft in 2 days

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Narrative Assignment 1:

Baruch ENG 2150 FA 2017

First Draft due Mon 10/2 Note—bring 4 copies for peer review. You will lose 10 pts on your final paper scores if you are not in class with 4 printed drafts this day. Work on polishing the intro paragraph for this draft, and bring a full draft—okay if still rough. I will collect a copy.

Final Draft due Wed 10/11. Post to Turnitin today 2 PM. Late papers will lose points. See syllabus. On Mon 10/16 bring to class and turn in a printed copy with the peer review you wrote + the peer review emailed to you stapled below the final draft (Final draft should be on top of everything AND should be marked Final Draft).

Length: 4-5 pages. Standard format (see sample paper or look in your handbook for MLA format for college papers)—12 pt font, 1 inch margins, include a Title, put page numbers upper right hand corner. Paper must be stapled. (Staples sells inexpensive ($3.50 app) small staplers that you can throw in your backpack or purse!!)

Write a narrative describing a turning point, or moment of change—whether it is a lesson learned, a challenge faced, an obstacle overcome, a new understanding, or a reassessing of beliefs or values—one moment of change in your life. It should have a central focus. It’s not always necessary to express the focus in a thesis sentence right in the first paragraph of your paper. You may choose to get into the action and then include the thesis statement (your main idea) in the second paragraph. That’s fine. It should appear though, on page one and within the first two paragraphs for this assignment.

It can be a current NYC experience or something in the not too distant past. A narrative re-creates a personal experience for a purpose, and that purpose is usually to reveal an insight about the action or the people involved, to inspire, inform, or teach your readers about something you have learned or gained insight into and to give your reader something to think about. It may also serve to offer an argument in story form. (Think of the pieces we have read by Orwell, Kincaid, Mairs, and Staples among others). Remember to include details that will reveal something about the character as we saw with Faulkner, O’Conner and Flaubert in the descriptions we analyzed. Setting is also an important part of your narrative. You will want to include your experience of a specific place and bring that place to life in your narrative In this paper you must choose an experience, get your reader’s attention, engage them in your story, show rather than tell your readers what happened by creating memorable scene with specific detail, all with the intent to bring your readers into the moment with you. It is often not so much what happened, but how the story is told that engages the reader.

When grading, I will look to see if you have worked on the following points, and how well you’ve accomplished them:

1. Narrative has a good “hook” ie the first sentence or two grab the reader’s attention.

2. A satisfying conclusion that is felt in the gut as a solid ending to your essay.

3. A title that shows you have read the handout “Beginning, Ending, and Titling,” [‘and aspire to some creative effort in your title, as well as the art of a good beginning and good conclusion! (review handout to check how these three things are working in your essay).

4. Well chosen scenes for what is important to show the reader, selecting specific details that describe and inform. You have slowed down and “exploded” important moments—that is, you give the reader specific detail and vivid description to draw them into the moment, show them what you want them to see, and keep them reading.

5. Show don’t tell! Specific, original detail and description have been used—clichés avoided. Create visual images and scenes, but keep reviewing all five of your senses—which can you apply to a specific scene? As Vonnegut said, think of your reader! It’s more interesting to be shown a scene that you create for your readers to see, smell, feel, hear, touch, and so on, than to simply tell them about it.

6. Include examples of what you’re talking about whenever possible to help the reader understand and see what you mean.

7. Organize your ideas so that your paragraphs flow one into the other in some sort of logical order. This doesn’t have to be chronological order—maybe you’ll decide to start in the middle of the action (in media res) and then explain what’s going on, but you must make it easy for the reader to follow.

8. Cut clutter. Listen to your softer voice of instinct…and listen closely to the comments of your peer reviewers—take what is helpful to you from their comments.

9. Proofread several times. I can tell if a paper has gone through several revisions or not.

Read your paper aloud for the best proofreading possible.

NOTE: As part of Peer Review, you will exchange papers with another student and take ONE paper home to read over carefully, like an editor. Write a ½ page response to your peer’s paper being as specific as possible in noting what is working, what you liked, what is not clear, and any specific issues that need work still.

Use the list of things I will be grading for (see above) as a guide and check to see if the author is fulfilling the assignment so as to get the best possible grade. Be honest. Give your criticism and suggestions in a pleasant, direct, helpful manner. Address your response to the author (NOT me). Email it to the author by early Sat July 30 latest, and cc a copy of that email to me. Points are given for an honest attempt to help the writer notice things that can be improved or fixed, to see what is working and what is not, and to deliver your peer review in time for the author to make use of your suggestions during revision.

Attach a copy of your Peer reviewer’s comments (along with the comments you sent for peer review) to your final draft on the due date. This counts toward your grade—how much effort you put into the peer review and how timely you are in sending it to the author both count.

Bring a whole rough draft to class Mon 10/2 in order to profit the most from peer review. We’ll discuss any questions you have in class.

See page 3 below for additional things to consider when working on this assignment.

The How To: suggested ways to approach your first assignment.

Now to begin!! First, dive in and brainstorm freely. Free write your ideas on paper—and let them simmer a day or two. Consider your audience and decide which idea will be interesting for your readers, which is most engaging for you to write about, and which you feel most comfortable to share. You might share an experience your peers will find familiar, or introduce them to an experience or place they probably don’t know or would have little access to. Pick the idea you feel most inspired to work with, but also one that offers something to your readers—as noted on page one of this assignment. Write a rough draft, and print it out.

Read your first draft carefully and revise it looking for clutter to cut, verbs that can be made active, scenes where you can show rather than tell, places where specific sensory detail will make your scenes come alive, sentence fragments, clichés, sentences that don’t really say what you mean, paragraphs where needed, parallel construction . Decide where you want to explode the moment, and where you can add thought shots, snapshots. Now print a draft to bring to class for peer review. This is still just a draft, but the more refined the draft is that you bring to peer review, the more useful/helpful the feedback from this peer review session will be.

Write deeply, openly, and truthfully. Try to get your words to express exactly what you mean. Look again (re-vise) to see if they really accomplish what you intended them to. You may find yourself struggling to define in words what you mean. This is good! Writing involves wrestling with ideas and words, and allowing ourselves to explore and refine thoughts in order to discover what we really want to say and to understand things we didn’t earlier. Asking yourself such questions as: Is this really what I mean? Does this sentence truly express my thoughts, or is there more to it? Is this really what I thought? Is what I’m saying here true or accurate? This way, through this exploration, you may learn more about yourself, which is what makes writing so interesting. (Reread Duras’ quote on the syllabus. Writing, at best, is a voyage of discovery.

Setting as well as character will most likely be important parts of your narrative. You’ll include description with your experience of a specific place, specific people, and you’ll need to bring that place /person or people to life in your narrative. Ask yourself as you write if you are showing rather than telling the story. Revise the narrative to show in places where the scene is important to the point of your narrative. Choose your scenes and details with care—make them original, specific, and memorable. Make them work to create the dominant impression you want your description to convey, and pick details that support that impression. Including a “thought shot” and going inside your head, will enrich the scene for your readers. Think about thought shots, snapshots, and exploding the moment—slowing down to add detail and suspense for crucial moments (see “Exploding the Moment” handout in Resources) Your free-writes may hold seeds for stories you could develop for this assignment. Look over the narratives we’ve read so far in class again to get ideas and study their methods..

Facts, sensory details, and emotions. Include all three for important scenes. For example:

A fact in your narrative might be: I moved to an apartment on East 9th Street

Add sensory detail: the early morning smell of baking bread at the corner bread shop, Emotion: What does this means to you? Why are you writing about it? When I return from my early run and smell the bread baking at the corner shop, I remember my aunt Lena baking bread in our farmhouse kitchen, and the aching remoteness of our farm in northern Montana —hundreds of miles from any other farms or people. The breadshop signals that I’m back on East 9th Street, my new home where hundreds of people live…and I sometimes feel an ache for that solitude I so hated in childhood.